Ronald Howard Paulson (May 27, 1930 – August 7, 2024) was an American writer and professor of English who was a specialist in English 18th-century art and culture, and the world's leading expert on English artist

William Hogarth William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraving, engraver, pictorial social satire, satirist, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from Realism (visual arts), realistic p ...

Education

Paulson earned a

Bachelor of Arts degree A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1952, where he was an editorial associate of campus humor magazine ''

The Yale Record ''The Yale Record'' is the campus humor magazine of Yale University. Founded in 1872, it is the oldest humor magazine in the United States."History", The Yale Record, March 10, 2010. http://www.yalerecord.com/about/history/ ''The Record'' is c ...

''. He earned his

doctorate degree A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

from Yale in 1958.

Academic career

Paulson taught and held various administrative positions at several universities in the United States, including the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

from 1959 to 1963 and

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

from 1963 to 1967. He was the Chairman of the

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

English Department from 1967 to 1975. From 1975 to 1984 he was a professor at Yale University and served as the Director of Graduate Studies in the English Department from 1976 to 1983 and the Director of the British Studies Program from 1976 to 1984. Paulson returned to Johns Hopkins University in 1984, serving as the Department Chairman from 1985 to 1991. He was a member of the editorial board of the

academic journal An academic journal (or scholarly journal or scientific journal) is a periodical publication in which Scholarly method, scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. They serve as permanent and transparent forums for the ...

'' ELH: English Literary History'' and was senior editor from 1985 to 2004; he served on the editorial boards of the journals '' Studies in English Literature''; PMLA; ''

Eighteenth-Century Studies ''Eighteenth-Century Studies'' is an academic journal established in 1966 and the official publication of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. It focuses on all aspects of 18th century history. It is related to the annual ''Studies ...

''; and the Johns Hopkins University Press. On Paulson’s 3 vol. Hogarth,: “it must be the most detailed and the most deeply pondered monograph on a British artist ever written” (Michael Kitson, Painting in Britain, 1530-1790). Of Hogarth, “in our own time, the American scholar Ronald Paulson has devoted to him the best three-volume biography written about any eighteenth-century Englishman” (Paul Johnson, Humorists).

Death

Hogarth died in Baltimore on August 7, 2024, at the age of 94.

Honors and recognitions

Paulson was the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University from 1973 to 1975 and was the Mayer Professor of Humanities since 1985. He was a member of the Academic and Advisory Committees and Governing Board of the

Yale Center for British Art The Yale Center for British Art at Yale University in central New Haven, Connecticut, houses the largest and most comprehensive collection of British art outside the United Kingdom. The collection of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, rare ...

and the Paul Mellon Centre for British Art in London from 1975 to 1984. He also was a

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated d ...

(1965–66, 1986–87), an NEH Senior Fellow (1977–78), and a fellow of the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...

(1978, 1987). In 1988, Paulson traveled with several

humorist A humorist is an intellectual who uses humor, or wit, in writing or public speaking. A raconteur is one who tells anecdotes in a skillful and amusing way. Henri Bergson writes that a humorist's work grows from viewing the morals of society ...

s from the United States to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

as part of a cultural exchange.

Books

* ''Theme and Structure in Swift's 'Tale of a Tub'' (1960) * ''Hogarth's Graphic Works'' (1965) * ''The Fictions of Satire'' (1967) * ''Satire and the Novel in Eighteenth-Century England'' (1967) * ''Hogarth: His Life, Art, and Times'' (1971) * ''Rowlandson: A New Interpretation'' (1972) * ''Emblem and Expression: Meaning in English Art of the Eighteenth Century'' (1975) * ''The Art of Hogarth'' (1975) * ''Popular and Polite Art in the Age of Hogarth and Fielding'' (1979) * ''Literary Landscape: Turner and Constable'' (1982) * ''Representations of Revolution (1789–1820)'' (1983) * ''Book and Painting: Shakespeare, Milton, and the Bible'' (1983) * ''Breaking and Remaking: Aesthetic Practice in England, 1700–1820'' (1989) * ''Hogarth's Graphic Works'' (rewritten and reset) (1989) * ''Figure & Abstraction in Contemporary Painting'' (1990) * ''Hogarth'', Vols. 1–3 (1991–93) * ''The Beautiful, Novel, and Strange: Aesthetics and Heterodoxy'' (1997) * ''The Analysis of Beauty'' (editor) (1997) * ''Don Quixote in England: The Aesthetics of Laughter'' (1998) * ''The Life of Henry Fielding'' (2000) * ''Hogarth's Harlot: Sacred Parody in Enlightenment England'' (2003) * ''Sin and Evil: Moral Values in Literature'' (2006) * ''The Art of Riot in England and America'' (2010)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paulson, Ronald 1930 births 2024 deaths People from Bottineau County, North Dakota American academics of English literature Yale University alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty Rice University faculty Johns Hopkins University faculty Yale University faculty Scholars of modern philosophy