Louise Delpit
{{short description|French academic }}
{{Infobox person
| name = Louise Delpit
| image = LouiseDelpit1929.png
| alt = A white woman with wavy hair dressed close to her head
| caption = Louise Delpit, from the 1929 yearbook of Smith College
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1870s
| birth_place = Beaumont-du-Perigord, France
| death_date = March 27, 1954
| death_place = France
| other_names =
| occupation = Professor of French language and literature
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives = Albert Delpit (uncle)
| website =
}}
Louise Delpit (1870s – March 27, 1954) was a French educator. She was a professor of French language and literature at Smith College from 1908 to 1940, and did relief work in France during World War I.
Early life and education
Delpit was born in Beaumont-du-Perigord, France, one of the six children of {{Interlanguage link|Édouard Delpit|lt=Édouard Delpit|fr|Édouard Delpit}} and Joséphine Charrier Delpit. Her father and his brother Albert Delpit were both writers born in New Orleans. She graduated from the College Sévigné in Paris.{{Cite book |last=Leonard |first=John W. |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Woman_s_Who_s_who_of_America/UOsLAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Delpit%20%22Bryn%20Mawr%22&pg=PA239&printsec=frontcover |title=Woman's Who's who of America |date=1914 |page=239|publisher=American Commonwealth Company |language=en}}
Career
Delpit taught at the Brearley School in New York City from 1900 to 1904, and at the Baldwin School near Philadelphia from 1904 to 1906. She became a professor of French at Smith College in 1908. She was a scholar of French theatre,{{Cite news |date=1931-04-07 |title=L'Alliance Francaise Elects New Officers |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-springfield-daily-republican-lallia/174319151/ |access-date=2025-06-11 |work=The Springfield Daily Republican |pages=7 |via=Newspapers.com}} and acted in campus productions of French plays.{{Cite news |date=1922-01-21 |title=Smith Girls Honor Memory of Moliere |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-springfield-daily-republican-smith-g/174316393/ |access-date=2025-06-11 |work=The Springfield Daily Republican |pages=4 |via=Newspapers.com}} She supervised Smith students on study trips in Paris.{{Cite news |date=1927-01-13 |title=Holyoke Girl Among Students Received by Governor of Paris |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/transcript-telegram-holyoke-girl-among-s/174319345/ |access-date=2025-06-11 |work=Transcript-Telegram |pages=2 |via=Newspapers.com}} She was a member of the American Association of University Professors.{{Cite journal |date=1920 |title=Membership |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40216995 |journal=Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors (1915-1955) |volume=6 |issue=6 |pages=19–35 |issn=0883-1610}} She retired in 1940.{{Cite news |date=1954-03-30 |title=Prof. Louise Delpit |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-morning-union-prof-louise-delpit/174316156/ |access-date=2025-06-11 |work=The Morning Union |pages=5 |via=Newspapers.com}}
"Hers was the dignity and refinement of a bygone age," recalled Marjorie Hope Nicolson at the time of Delpit's retirement. "In her bearing, in her speech, and in her attitude she has exemplified the decorum, the restraint, and the self-control of the great classical period, yet she possessed also the quick wit, the mind, and the fundamental charm of the great period whose literature she loved."{{Cite news |date=1940-06-14 |title=Tribute to Miss Delpit |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-republican-tribute-to-miss-delpit/174318303/ |access-date=2025-06-11 |work=The Republican |pages=2 |via=Newspapers.com}}
In 1914, Delpit received the palmes academiques from the French government, for distinguished work in the field of education.{{Cite news |date=1914-06-18 |title=Degree Conferred on Prof Delpit |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-springfield-daily-republican-degree/174318867/ |access-date=2025-06-11 |work=The Springfield Daily Republican |pages=19 |via=Newspapers.com}} During World War I, Delpit raised funding for relief work,{{Cite news |date=1917-10-24 |title=Northampton: Red Cross Campaign |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-springfield-daily-republican-northam/174315934/ |access-date=2025-06-11 |work=The Springfield Daily Republican |pages=11 |via=Newspapers.com}} returned to France, and with her mother and siblings{{Cite news |date=1917-10-03 |title=A Poilus's Experience, told to Smith Professor |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-springfield-daily-republican-a-poilu/174316863/ |access-date=2025-06-11 |work=The Springfield Daily Republican |pages=13 |via=Newspapers.com}} organized a village hospital in her hometown.{{Cite news |date=1915-10-17 |title=War Relief Work by Member of Smith College Faculty |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-war-relief-work-by-memb/174315583/ |access-date=2025-06-11 |work=The Boston Globe |pages=48 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1918-01-14 |title=Just Gossip About People |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-public-ledger-just-gossip-about/174316621/ |access-date=2025-06-11 |work=Evening Public Ledger |pages=9 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Publications
- L'Age d'Or de la Litterature Francaise (1909){{Cite web |title=L'âge d'or de la littérature française, by Louise Delpit ... |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.hn3ifb?urlappend=%3Bseq=7 |access-date=2025-06-11 |website=HathiTrust |language=en}}
- Paris-théâtre contemporain: Rôle Prépondérant des Scènes d'Avant - Garde depuis Trente Ans (1925){{Cite book |last=Delpit |first=Louise |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Paris_th%C3%A9%C3%A2tre_contemporain/DRcOAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 |title=Paris--théâtre contemporain: Rôle Prépondérant des Scènes d'Avant - Garde depuis Trente Ans |date=1925 |publisher=Mass., Smith college |language=fr}}
- Representative contemporary French lyrics, 1885-1925 (1927){{Cite book |last=Delpit |first=Louise |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001014601 |title=Representative contemporary French lyrics, 1885-1925 |date=1927 |publisher=Ginn and Company |series=International modern language series |location=Boston, New York etc.}}
- Paris-théâtre contemporain: deuxième partie (1938){{Cite book |last=Delpit |first=Louise |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Paris_th%C3%A9%C3%A2tre_contemporain/I6_7zQEACAAJ?hl=en |title=Paris-théâtre contemporain: deuxième partie |date=1938 |publisher=Smith College |language=fr}}