Arnold Rampersad (born 13 November 1941) is a biographer, literary critic, and academic, who was born in

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

and moved to the US in 1965. The first volume (1986) of his ''Life of Langston Hughes'' was a finalist for the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...

and his ''Ralph Ellison: A Biography'' was a finalist for the 2007

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

. Rampersad is currently Professor of English and the Sara Hart Kimball Professor in the Humanities at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

. He was Senior Associate

Dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

for the

Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at t ...

from January 2004 to August 2006.

Background and career

Born in

, Rampersad moved to the US in 1965. He graduated from

Bowling Green State University Bowling Green State University (BGSU) is a public research university in Bowling Green, Ohio. The main academic and residential campus is south of Toledo, Ohio. The university has nationally recognized programs and research facilities in the ...

with a bachelor's degree and master's degree in English (1967 and 1968)."Stanford Professor a Visiting Scholar at BGSU"
BGSU, 9 September 2005. In 1973 he earned a Ph.D from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

, his dissertation being subsequently published as the intellectual biography ''The Art and Imagination of W. E. B. Du Bois''. He was a member of the

English Department from 1974 to 1983, before accepting a position at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

. Since then he taught there and at

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...

and

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...

, before returning to Stanford in 1998. Rampersad's teaching covers such areas as 19th- and 20th-century

American literature American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also inc ...

; the literature of the

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

; American and

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

autobiography; race and American literature; and the

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the t ...

. His published books include biographical works on

W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up i ...

Langston Hughes James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, H ...

Arthur Ashe Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was an American professional tennis player who won three Grand Slam singles titles. He started to play tennis at six years old. He was the first black player selected to the Un ...

Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line ...

Ralph Ellison Ralph Waldo Ellison (March 1, 1913 – April 16, 1994) was an American writer, literary critic, and scholar best known for his novel ''Invisible Man'', which won the National Book Award in 1953. He also wrote '' Shadow and Act'' (1964), a collec ...

, as well as edited volumes of writings by

Richard Wright Richard Wright may refer to: Arts * Richard Wright (author) (1908–1960), African-American novelist * Richard B. Wright (1937–2017), Canadian novelist * Richard Wright (painter) (1735–1775), marine painter * Richard Wright (artist) (born 19 ...

Honours

From 1991 to 1996, Rampersad held a MacArthur "Genius Grant" fellowship. He is an elected member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

and of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. In 2007, his biography of

(1914–1994), on which he had worked for eight years, was a nonfiction finalist for the

. In 2010, Rampersad was awarded the

National Humanities Medal The National Humanities Medal is an American award that annually recognizes several individuals, groups, or institutions for work that has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the huma ...

, and in 2012 was the recipient of the BIO Award from

Biographers International Organization Biographers International Organization (BIO) is an international, non-profit, 501 (c)(3) organization founded to promote the art and craft of biography, and to further the professional interests of its practitioners. The organization was founded in ...

. Also in 2012, he won a Lifetime Achievement Prize from the

Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award is an American literary award dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture. Established in 1935 by Cl ...

Personal life

Rampersad is the half-brother of

Roger Toussaint Roger Toussaint led the December 20th, 2005 New York City transit strike which lasted three days and shut down bus and subway service in the city. Toussaint was the president of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 in New York City (NYC) fro ...

, the president of Transport Workers Union Local 100.Sewell Chan
"TRANSIT NEGOTIATIONS: THE LEADER; Public Face of Union's Clash With Transit Management"
''The New York Times'', 17 December 2005.

Books

* ''The Art and Imagination of W. E. B. Du Bois'' (Harvard, 1976; reprint, with new introduction, Schocken, 1990) * ''The Life of Langston Hughes'' (Oxford, 2 volumes, 1986, 1988) * '' Days of Grace: A Memoir'' (Knopf, 1993), co-authored with

* ''Jackie Robinson: A Biography'' (Knopf, 1997) * ''Ralph Ellison: A Biography'' (Knopf, 2007) In addition, Rampersad has edited several volumes, including the following: * ''Collected Poems of Langston Hughes'', * The

Library of America The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors ran ...

edition (2 vols) of works by

, including revised individual editions of '' Native Son'' and ''

Black Boy ''Black Boy'' (1945) is a memoir by American author Richard Wright, detailing his upbringing. Wright describes his youth in the South: Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee, and his eventual move to Chicago, where he establishes his writing care ...

'' * '' Slavery and the Literary Imagination'' (as co-author) * '' Race and American Culture'' (co-editor with

Shelley Fisher Fishkin Shelley Fisher Fishkin (born May 9, 1950) is the Joseph S. Atha Professor of the Humanities and Professor of English at Stanford University. Fishkin received her B.A. and M.Phil. in English, and her Ph.D. in American Studies, all from Yale Univer ...

) – in the book series published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

* ''Poetry for Young People:

'' (co-editor with David Roessel) (Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 2006)

References

External links

Contacting Arnold Rampersad by email+
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rampersad, Arnold 1941 births American biographers American people of Indian descent American people of Trinidad and Tobago descent Bowling Green State University alumni Columbia University faculty Harvard University alumni Literary critics of English Living people MacArthur Fellows Members of the American Philosophical Society National Humanities Medal recipients Princeton University faculty Rutgers University faculty Stanford University Department of English faculty