Donald Pizer

{{Short description|American academic and literary critic (1929–2023)}}

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| name = Donald Pizer

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| birth_date = {{birth date|1929|4|5|mf=y}}

| birth_place = New York City, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2023|11|07|1929|4|5|mf=y}}

| death_place = New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.

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| alma mater = University of California, Los Angeles

| employer = Tulane University

| occupation = Academic

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| children = 3

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Donald Pizer (April 5, 1929 – November 7, 2023) was an American academic and literary critic who was regarded as one of the principal authorities on the American naturalism literary movement. He was the Pierce Butler Professor of English Emeritus at Tulane University,{{cite web|title=Donald Pizer|url=http://www2.tulane.edu/liberal-arts/english/faculty/donald-pizer.cfm|website=Tulane University|accessdate=October 23, 2017}} and the author of numerous books on naturalism.{{cite journal|last1=Brennan|first1=Stephen C.|title=Donald Pizer and the Study of American Literary Naturalism|journal=Studies in American Naturalism|date=Summer 2006|volume=1|issue=1/2|pages=3–14|jstor=23431271}} He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1962.{{cite web|title=Donald Pizer|url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/donald-pizer/|website=Guggenheim Foundation|accessdate=October 23, 2017}}

For University of Georgia professor James Nagel, Pizer "has made enormous contributions to the study of naturalism in the period from 1890 through World War II, with a score or more of books on Jack London, Hamlin Garland, Theodore Dreiser, Frank Norris, John Dos Passos, the 1890s, and twentieth-century fiction."{{cite journal|last1=Nagel|first1=James|title=Donald Pizer, American Naturalism, and Stephen Crane|journal=Studies in American Naturalism|date=Summer 2006|volume=1|issue=1/2|pages=30–35}}

In 1971 he presented the paper, "Dreiser 's Fiction: The Editorial Problem" for the A.S.W. Rosenbach Lectures in Bibliography to mark the Theodore Dreiser Centenary.Pizer, Donald, and Robert Henry Elias. 1971. Theodore Dreiser Centenary: A.S.W. Rosenbach Fellowship Lectures in Bibliography. Philadelphia: Library Chronicle, University of Pennsylvania.

After retiring from teaching in 2001, Pizer carried on with his research and writing up until a few years before his death on November 7, 2023, at the age of 94.{{cite web |title=Donald Pizer |url=https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/metairie-la/donald-pizer-11534634 |website=Dignity Memorial |access-date=28 January 2024}}