Harry Stone

Harry Stone (February 1, 1926 – December 17, 2021) was an American literary scholar, educator, and collector best known for his expertise on the life and works of Charles Dickens. A professor of English at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), he taught Victorian literature for over three decades and amassed one of the world’s most significant private collections of Dickensiana, which he later donated to CSUN.

Early life and education

Stone was born on February 1, 1926, in Mount Vernon, New York, to Bernard and Annie (Rappaport) Stone, both of whom were born in England to Jewish families that fled persecution in Eastern Europe. His family moved to Los Angeles in 1938. Stone attended John Burroughs Junior High School and Fairfax High School before enrolling at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1946 in physics, naval science, and political science. During World War II he served in the United States Navy. He later completed a master’s degree in English literature in 1950 from UCLA as well as a doctoral degree in 1955 with a two-volume dissertation on Dickens’s reading.

Academic career

Stone began his teaching career at Northwestern University in 1955 before joining the faculty of California State University, Northridge (then San Fernando Valley State College) in 1960. Over a 32-year career at CSUN, he taught courses on Victorian literature with a particular focus on Charles Dickens. He retired from teaching in 1992. During his academic career, Stone was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship, and other grants, which enabled him to conduct research abroad. In addition, in 1981 Stone was awarded the American Council of Learned Societies national award, and he was also president of the Dickens Society in 1971 and 1998. He published nine books and contributed to several others, in addition to numerous scholarly articles and essays on Dickens. In 2003, Stone announced his intention to donate the collection to CSUN’s University Library, where it is now preserved for research and educational use. His scholarship emphasized deeper understandings of Dickens’s works, often challenging oversimplified or sentimental portrayals of the author, and sometimes making discoveries that had been overlooked by other scholars.

Personal life and death

Stone married Esther Brucker in 1951, and together they had two children. Esther died in 1970. Harry Stone died on December 17, 2021, at the age of 95.

Legacy

As a college professor, Stone influenced generations of students. He was recognized as one of the leading authorities on Dickens in the United States,