Albert Spaulding Cook

Albert Spaulding Cook (October 28, 1925 – July 7, 1998) was a noted American literary critic, poet, classical scholar, teacher and translator. He taught Classics, English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley, Western Reserve University, the University at Buffalo and Brown University, as well as at various universities abroad.

Cook died in Providence, Rhode Island, at the age of 72.

Academic positions Harvard University: B.A. 1946, M.A. 1948 Harvard Society of Fellows: 1948–1951 Fulbright Fellow: 1952–1953 (University of Paris, France), 1956–1957 (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München); 1960–1961 (University of Vienna) University of California, Berkeley, California: Assistant Professor of English, 1953–1956 Western Reserve University, Cleveland: Professor of Comparative Literature, 1957–1963 Senior Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (Stanford University), 19661966 Department of English, State University of New York at Buffalo, New York: Chair and Professor of English, 1963–1966; Distinguished Professor, 1966–1978 Summer Fellow, American Council of Learned Societies, 1968 Fondation Hardt Research Scholar (Geneva): 1968, 1976, 1987 Solomon Guggenheim Foundation Fellow: 1969–1970 (Paris) International Research and Exchange Fellow: 1972 (Russia) Camargo Foundation Residency: 1977 Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island: Professor of Comparative Literature, English and Classics, 1978–1986; Ford Foundation Professor of Comparative *Literature 1986–1988 Clare Hall, Cambridge University, Visiting Fellow: 1982 Rockefeller Foundation Fellow: 1989 (Bellagio, Italy) American Academy in Rome, Visiting Fellow: 1991 University of Bologna, Visiting Professor, 1997

Published works

Criticism and literary theory The Dark Voyage and the Golden Mean: A Philosophy of Comedy (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1949; reprinted by W. W. Norton, 1966), Library of Congress cat. no. PN1922.C6 The Meaning of Fiction (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1960), Library of Congress cat. no. PN3451.C6 The Classic Line: A Study in Epic Poetry (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1966) Prisms: Studies in Modern Literature (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1967), Library of Congress cat. no. PN771.C6 The Root of the Thing: A Study of Job and the Song of Songs (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1968) Enactment: Greek Tragedy (Chicago: Swallow Press, 1971) Shakespeare's Enactment: The Dynamics of Renaissance Theater (Chicago: Swallow Press, 1976) Myth and Language (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1980) French Tragedy: The Power of Enactment (Chicago: Swallow Press, 1981) Changing the Signs: The Fifteenth Century Breakthrough (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1985) Figural Choice in Poetry and Art (Hanover, New Hampshire: Brown University Press, 1985) Thresholds, a Study of Some Aspects of Romanticism (Reading, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985) History/writing (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988) Dimensions of the Sign in Art (Hanover, New Hampshire: Brown University Press, 1989) Soundings: On Shakespeare, Modern Poetry, Plato and Other Subjects (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1991) Canons and Wisdoms (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993) The Reach of Poetry (West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press) The Burden of Prophecy: Poetic Utterance and the Prophets of the Old Testament (Carbondale, Illinois: University of Southern Illinois Press, 1996) The Stance of Plato (Lanham, Maryland: Littlefield Adams, 1996) Temporalizing Space: The Triumphant Strategies of Piero della Francesca (New York: Peter Lang, 1992)

Poetry Progressions (Phoenix, Arizona: The University of Arizona Press, 1963), Library of Congress cat. no.63-11976 The Charges (Chicago: The Swallow Press, 1970, reprinted 1972), OCoLC 569280307 Adapt the Living (Chicago: The Swallow Press, 1981) Modulars: Poems on a New Metrical Principle (Lewiston, New York: Mellen Poetry Press, 1992), Delayed Answers (Lewiston, New York: Mellen Poetry Press, 1992), Modes (Lewiston, New York: Mellen Poetry Press, 1993), Affability Blues (Lewiston, New York: Mellen Poetry Press, 1994), Reasons for Waking (Lewiston, New York: Mellen Poetry Press, 1996, 2nd ed. 1998), The Future Invests (Lewiston, New York: Mellen Poetry Press, 1997), Haiku Poems (Lewiston, New York: Mellen Poetry Press, 1997), A Sometime Master (Lewiston, New York: Mellen Poetry Press, 1998), Flashpoints (Lewiston, New York: Mellen Poetry Press, 2000), Albert S. Cook reading from his work (sound recording, April 22, 1960), Library of Congress cat. no. LWO 3091 Albert Cook reading (sound recording, April 26, 1978), Poetry Collection, University at Buffalo Libraries

Drama "Sophocles' Oedipus Rex translated into English verse," staged at Tributary Theatre, Boston, and Cleveland Playhouse, Cleveland. (See also "Translations" below.) Double Exposure (full-length play): Edlred Theatre, Cleveland, Ohio 1958 Night Guard (one act play) broadcast by WBAI, New York and KPFA San Francisco 1962 Big Blow (full-length play): Chamber Theatre, Buffalo, New York 1964 Check (full-length play): Chamber Theatre, Buffalo, New York1966 Pan Is Dead (full-length play): staged reading, Playwright's Platform, Boston March 1985 The Death of Trotsky published in: Theatre and Drama 9:1, Fall 1970 Recall] announced for: Richard Kostelanetz (ed.), American Radio Plays; produced at Brown University, 1987

Translations Homer, Odyssey: A Verse Translation (New York: W. W. Norton, 1967); republished as The Odyssey: A Norton Critical Edition (New York: W. W. Norton, 1972) Sophocles, Oedipus Rex in: Ten Greek Plays (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1957); republished in Reading for Pleasure (Prentice-Hall, 1960); also in Oedipus Rex: A Mirror for Greek Drama (San Francisco 1963); as Oedipus Rex (Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press, 1982); and in Greek Tragedy: An Anthology (Wayne State University Press, revised ed., 1993) (with Pamela Perkins) The Burden of Sufferance: Russian Women Poets (New York: Garland, 1993

Compilations (with Edwin Dolin) Anthology of Greek Tragedy (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Library of Literature, 1972) Peter Baker, Sarah Webster Goodwin, and Gary Handwerk (eds.), The Scope of Words (New York: Peter Lang, 1991) – a miscellany of essays and tributes, with a poem dedicated to Cook by Robert Creeley Peter Baker (ed.), Forces in Modern and Post-Modern Poetry (New York: Peter Lang, 2008)