Albert Lord
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Albert Bates Lord (15 September 1912 – 29 July 1991) was a professor of Slavic and comparative literature at Harvard University who carried on Milman Parry's research on epic poetry after Parry's death.
Albert Lord | |
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Born | September 15, 1912 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Died | July 29, 1991 78) Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. | (aged
Education | Boston Latin School |
Alma mater | Harvard University (PhD, 1949) |
Known for | research on epic poetry The Singer of Tales |
Spouse | Mary Louise Carlson |
Children | 2 sons |
Scientific career | |
Academic advisors | Milman Parry |
Lord was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Boston Latin School in 1930 and attended Harvard College, where he received an A.B. in classics in 1934 and a Ph.D. in comparative literature in 1949.[1]
Lord became a professor of Slavic and comparative literature at Harvard in 1950. He was later promoted as a full professor there in Classics. He also founded Harvard's Committee on Degrees in Folklore and Mythology, and chaired the college's Department of Folklore and Mythology until his retirement in 1983.[1]
Lord authored the book The Singer of Tales, first published in 1960.[1] It was reissued in a 40th anniversary edition, with an audio compact disc to aid in the understanding of the recorded renditions discussed in the text.[2] His wife Mary Louise Lord completed and edited his manuscript of a posthumous sequel The Singer Resumes the Tale (published 1995) which further supports and extends Lord's initial conclusions.[3]
Lord demonstrated the ways in which various great ancient epics from Europe and Asia were heirs to a tradition not only of oral performance, but of oral composition.[1] He argued strongly for a complete divide between the non-literate authors of the Homeric epics and the scribes who later wrote them down.[4] Lord studied and made field recordings of South-Slavic heroic epics sung to the gusle, most notable of poets he worked with was Avdo Međedović.[5][6] He studied not only Homeric epics, but also Beowulf, Gilgamesh, and others.[5] Across these many story traditions he found strong commonalities concerning the oral composition of traditional storytelling.
His wife, Mary Louise Lord née Carlson, taught classics at Connecticut College; they had two children. Lord died in July 1991 at Cambridge, Massachusetts.[1]
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