William Alfred
{{short description|American playwright}}
William Alfred (August 16, 1922 – May 20, 1999) was an American playwright, poet, and professor of English literature at Harvard University.{{Cite web|url=https://academicworks.cuny.edu/bc_arch_alfred/|title=William Alfred {{!}} Manuscript Collections {{!}} City University of New York (CUNY)|website=academicworks.cuny.edu|access-date=2019-12-05}}
Biography
Alfred was born into an Irish family in Brooklyn, New York.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HkKsfnScXo0C&q=%22william+alfred%22+%22harvard%22&pg=PA130|title=Souvenirs of a Blown World: Sketches for the Sixties, Writings about America, 1966-1973|last=Mcdonald|first=Gregory|date=2011-01-04|publisher=Seven Stories Press|isbn=978-1-58322-993-4|language=en}} His father was a bricklayer and his mother was a telephone operator.{{cite web|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/05.27/alfred.obit.html|title='The Professor' William Alfred Dies at Age 76|date=6 July 2008|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080706160043/https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/05.27/alfred.obit.html|archivedate=6 July 2008|accessdate=4 June 2018}} He graduated from St. Francis Preparatory School in 1940.
Alfred was drafted in 1943, two years into his undergraduate studies at Brooklyn College. He served in the Army tank corps and quartermaster's corps in World War II for four years.{{Cite web|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2003/04/william-alfred/|title=William Alfred|date=2003-04-03|website=Harvard Gazette|language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-05}} While in the army, he was taught Bulgarian at a language school and then stationed in the South Pacific, where he wrote poems for American Poet. Alfred completed his B.A. from Brooklyn College in 1948 with the help of the G.I. Bill.
He went on to Harvard, where he studied the literature of Medieval England, receiving his A.M. and Ph.D. in English in 1949 and 1954 respectively.“Past Recipients of the Harvard Medal” Harvard Alumni Association, 2019. Retrieved from https://alumni.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/page/files/Harvard%20Medal_Past%20Recipient%20List.pdf While at Harvard, Alfred took a creative writing course under Archibald MacLeish. There he wrote his play, Agamemnon.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IlYEAAAAMBAJ&q=%22william+alfred%22+%22harvard%22&pg=PA89|title=LIFE|date=1966-04-22|publisher=Time Inc|language=en}}
He began teaching at Harvard the same year he received his doctorate and was appointed full professor in 1963. In 1980, he was named Abbott Lawrence Lowell Professor of the Humanities.
Personal life
Alfred was a lifelong Catholic and attended mass at Saint Paul's Church in Cambridge.
His great-grandmother, Anna Maria Egan, immigrated to the United States.
Alfred's play Hogan's Goat, a verse drama, helped launch Faye Dunaway's career in the 60's.{{Cite web|url=https://www.samuelfrench.com/a/1051/william-alfred|title=William Alfred {{!}} Samuel French|website=www.samuelfrench.com|language=en|access-date=2019-12-05}} They maintained a close relationship and remained lifelong friends.
Alfred was close friends with fellow poets Elizabeth Bishop{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/elizabethbishop00bret|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/elizabethbishop00bret/page/432 432]|quote=william alfred harvard.|title=Elizabeth Bishop: Life and the Memory of It|last=Millier|first=Brett C.|date=1992-03-15|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-91719-4|language=en}} and Robert Lowell.
Plays
- Agamemnon (New York, Knopf 1954)
- Hogan's Goat, a Drama in Verse (New York, Farrar, Straus & Giroux 1966)
- Cry for Us All (musical adaptation of Hogan's Goat)
- The Curse of an Aching Heart (New York, Samuel French, New York, 1983)
Other works
- The Annunciation Rosary (poetry)
- Author of a translation of Beowulf
Awards and recognition
- 1993 Harvard Medal
- 1988 Signet Society Medal for Lifetime Achievement
- 1957 Phi Beta Kappa Poet of Harvard University
- 1954 Amy Lowell Traveling Poetry Scholar{{Cite web|url=http://www.amylowell.org/past_recipients.htm|title=Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship- List of Past Recipients|website=www.amylowell.org|access-date=2019-12-05}}
References
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20130325224028/https://library.brooklyn.cuny.edu/pages/archives/alfred/ The William Alfred Collection at Brooklyn College Special Collections]
- [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.Hough:hou00859 Guide to William Alfred papers concerning adaptations of Agamemnon and The Scarlet Letter] at [http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/ Houghton Library], Harvard University
- {https://sites.google.com/view/the-friends-of-william-alfred/home The New Friends of William Alfred, A collection of photos, videos, memoirs, and external links devoted to the life and works of William Alfred.
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Category:20th-century American male writers
Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers
Category:20th-century Roman Catholics
Category:American academics of English literature
Category:American male non-fiction writers
Category:American Roman Catholic writers
Category:Brooklyn College alumni
Category:Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni