IN MEMORIAM

IN MEMORIAM

Professor Emeritus Known for Literary Scholarship Dies

RICE NEWS
November 11, 1999

Wilfred Dowden, Rice professor emeritus of English, who was known for his discovery and editing of the journals of the Irish poet Thomas Moore, died on Oct. 31. He was 82.

Moore was a companion to the poet Lord George Gordon Byron and was involved in the leading Whig circles in the early 19th century. Dowden discovered Moore’s memoirs at a publisher’s office in England.

The office of the publisher was bombed by the Germans during World War II, and the memoirs were thought to have been destroyed, said Alan Grob, professor of English at Rice.

Grob, who was chairman of the English department during some of Dowden’s tenure, said “the publication of “The Journals of Thomas Moore” was one of the major editorial undertakings” in recent American literary scholarship. Dowden received international recognition upon publication of the journals, including a full page article in the “Times Literary Supplement.”

Dowden was born in Sebree, Kentucky, on April 5, 1917. He earned both his undergraduate degree in English and his master’s degree in German at Vanderbilt University. He earned his doctorate in English from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

He began teaching at Rice in 1948 as an instructor and later became a professor and served as the chairman of the English department. In 1987 he became a professor emeritus. Dowden held a Fulbright Lectureship at the University of Vienna from 1952 to 1953 and received an American Philosophical Society grant in 1958 for research in England. He also received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to work on his edition of Moore’s journal.

Dowden wrote and edited numerous books and papers. He wrote “Joseph Conrad: the Imaged Style” (Vanderbilt University Press, 1970). He edited “The Heritage of Freedom: Essays on the Rights of Free Men” (Harper and Brothers, 1962), “The Letters of Thomas Moore” (two volumes, The Clarendon Press, 1964) and “The Journal of Thomas Moore” (University of Delaware Press and Associated University Presses, 1983-1986).

He is survived by his wife Sumarie Larsen Dowden; a daughter Lorel Dowden Hoffman; two stepdaughters, Rebecca Sutton and Adrian Crowley; two stepsons, Mark Sutton and Randall Sutton; a niece and numerous grandchildren.

Memorials may be made to the St. Francis Episcopal Church Endowment Fund, Friends of Fondren Library or the John S. Meyers Research Fund at Baylor College of Medicine.