Robert L. Belknap

Robert Lamont Belknap (December 23, 1929 – March 17, 2014) was an American scholar of Russian literature. He was a professor at Columbia University, where he served as interim dean of Columbia College, and director of the Harriman Institute. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1994.

Biography Belknap was born in New York City on December 23, 1929 to attorney Chauncey Belknap IV, a name partner of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, and his wife Dorothy Lamont, daughter of United States Secretary of Commerce Robert P. Lamont. He was educated at the Buckley School, Philips Exeter Academy, and graduated from Princeton University in 1951. At Princeton, he was a member of the Quadrangle Club. He received his M.A. from the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University and Ph.D. from Columbia University following army service. He also studied at the University of Paris and the University of Leningrad. His work is considered as one of the best studies on Dostoevsky produced by the present generation of scholars.

Belknap served as chairman of the board of the Brearley School.

Belknap was married to Josephine Hornor Belknap 1955-1994, and subsequently in 1997 to historian and academicCynthia Whittaker. He was a longtime resident of Wilton, Connecticut, and Cliff Island, Maine. and Louise Belknap Carter.

Belknap died on March 17, 2014, in New York City.