Paul Fussell Jr. (22 March 1924 – 23 May 2012) was an American cultural and literary historian, author and university professor. His writings cover a variety of topics, from scholarly works on eighteenth-century English literature to commentary on America's class system. Fussell served in the 103rd Infantry Division during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and was wounded in fighting in France. Returning to the US, Fussell wrote extensively and held several faculty positions, most prominently 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 ...

(1955–1983) and at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

(1983–1994). He is best known for his writings about World War I and II, which explore what he felt was the gap between the romantic myth and reality of war; he made a "career out of refusing to disguise it or elevate it".

Biography

Born and raised in Pasadena, California, Fussell was the second of three children. His father, Paul Fussell (1895–1973), son of a widowed schoolteacher, became a corporate lawyer in Los Angeles with the firm of O'Melveny & Myers. His mother, Wilhma Wilson Sill (1893–1971), was the daughter of a carriage trimmer in Illinois.Fussell, Paul, (1996). ''Doing Battle: The Making of a Skeptic''. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., p.13 His brother, Edwin Sill Fussell, was an author, poet, and professor of American Studies at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

; his sister Florence Fussell Lind lives in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

. His daughter, Rosalind, is an artist-teacher in Arizona and the author of a graphic novel, ''Mammoir: A Pictorial Odyssey of the Adventures of a Fourth Grade Teacher with Breast Cancer''. His son, Samuel Wilson Fussell, a writer and hunter in Montana, is the author of ''Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder''. Fussell attended

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became t ...

from 1941 until he was commissioned as an officer in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

in 1943. He landed in France in 1944 as a 20-year-old second lieutenant with the 103rd Infantry Division, was wounded while fighting in

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

, and was awarded the

Bronze Star The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone. Wh ...

and

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...

. Following the end of the war in Europe, Fussell returned to the United States where he was assigned to the 45th Infantry Division, which was preparing for the invasion of Japan. Fussell's recollection of hearing the news of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole Nanban trade, port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hi ...

, while waiting stateside to deploy, would later form the basis of his essay "Thank God for the Atom Bomb". He was honorably discharged from the Army in 1946, returned to Pomona to finish his B.A. degree in 1946–1947, married fellow Pomona graduate Betty Harper in 1949, and completed his MA (1949) and PhD (1952) at

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 high ...

.Fussell, P. ''Doing Battle: The Making of a Skeptic'', Little Brown & Co., New York, NY, 1996 He began his teaching career at

Connecticut College Connecticut College (Conn College or Conn) is a private liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut. It is a residential, four-year undergraduate institution with nearly all of its approximately 1,815 students living on campus. The college w ...

(1951–55) before moving to

in 1955 and finally the

in 1983. He also taught at the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

(1957–58) and King's College London (1990–92). As a professor, he travelled widely with his family throughout Europe from the 1950s to '70s, taking Fulbright and sabbatical years in Germany, England and France.Rustin, S. (2004, Saturday 31 July 2004)
"Hello to all that".
''The Guardian'' Betty Fussell has described their marriage and its breakup in 1981 in her memoir, ''My Kitchen Wars''. After Fussell moved from his home in Princeton, New Jersey, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he divorced Betty and married Harriette Behringer. He retired from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994 and lived with his wife in Oregon.

Writing and teaching career

When he first entered college, Fussell intended a career in journalism. His plans changed when his sergeant was killed beside him in combat, about which he wrote in his memoir ''Doing Battle'' (1996).Fussell, P. (1996). ''Doing battle: The making of a skeptic''. Boston: Little, Brown and Co. In his writings he opposed war, promoting instead a vision of rational enlightenment. He pointed to what he saw as the hypocrisy of governmental speech and the corruption of popular culture. His published thesis, ''Theory of Prosody in Eighteenth-Century England'', was developed into '' Poetic Meter and Poetic Form'' (1965), a popular textbook for understanding poetry. ''Samuel Johnson and The Life of Writing'' (1971) offered an analysis of the work of the English lexicographer, Samuel Johnson. ''The Anti-Egotist, Kingsley Amis: Man of Letters'' was a study of the life and work of friend and colleague,

Kingsley Amis Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social a ...

. The award-winning '' The Great War and Modern Memory'' (1975) was a cultural and literary analysis of the impact of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

on the development of modern literature and modern literary conventions.

John Keegan Sir John Desmond Patrick Keegan (15 May 1934 – 2 August 2012) was an English military historian, lecturer, author and journalist. He wrote many published works on the nature of combat between prehistory and the 21st century, covering land, ...

said its effect was "revolutionary", in that it showed how literature could be a vehicle for expressing the experience of large groups. "What Paul did was go to the literary treatments of the war by 20 or 30 participants and turn them into an encapsulation of a collective European experience". (

)"Hello to all that"
Susanna Rustin, ''The Guardian'', 31 July 2004

Joseph Heller Joseph Heller (May 1, 1923 – December 12, 1999) was an American author of novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays. His best-known work is the 1961 novel ''Catch-22'', a satire on war and bureaucracy, whose title has become a synonym for ...

called it "the best book I know of about world war one". ''Abroad: British Literary Travelling Between the Wars'' (1980) was a pioneering academic examination of

travel literature The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern pe ...

which examined the travel books of

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

, D. H. Lawrence and

Robert Byron Robert Byron (26 February 1905 – 24 February 1941) was a British travel writer, best known for his travelogue ''The Road to Oxiana''. He was also a noted writer, art critic and historian. Biography He was the son of Eric Byron, a civil engi ...

. Fussell stated that he relished the inevitable controversy of '' Class: A Guide Through the American Status System'' (1983) and indulged his increasing public status as a loved or hated "curmudgeon" in the rant called ''BAD: or, The Dumbing of America'' (1991). In between, ''Thank God for the Atom Bomb and Other Essays'' (1988) confirmed his war against governmental and military doublespeak and prepared the way for ''Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War'' (1989). The epiphany of his earlier essay, "My War", found full expression in his memoir ''Doing Battle: The Making of a Skeptic'' (1996), "My Adolescent illusions, largely intact to that moment, fell away all at once, and I suddenly knew I was not and never would be in a world that was reasonable or just". The last book by Fussell published while he was alive, ''The Boys' Crusade: The American Infantry in Northwestern Europe, 1944–45'' (2003) was once again concerned with the experience of combat in World War II.

Awards and honors

Fussell's 1975 literary study ''The Great War and Modern Memory'' won the

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 ...

in category Arts and Letters,
"Arts and Letters" was an award category from 1964 to 1976 the

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Ralph Waldo Emerson Award of

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

. It was ranked number 75 in the Modern Library's Board's List of the 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the Twentieth Century. He was elected in 1977 a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He won the 2005 Hessell-Tiltman Prize for ''The Boys' Crusade''. Fussell was one of several veterans interviewed in the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary '' The War'' in 2007, and in the 1999 ABC-produced documentary '' The Century: America's Time''.

Death

Fussell died of natural causes on 23 May 2012 at a long-term care facility in

Medford, Oregon Medford is a city in and the county seat of Jackson County, Oregon, in the United States. As of the 2020 United States Census on April 1, 2020, the city had a total population of 85,824 and a metropolitan area population of 223,259, making the M ...

. He had previously lived in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

for two years. He was 88.

Works

* * * * * editor with Geoffrey Tillotson and Marshall Waingrow * * * * editor * * * editor, from ''The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston'' * * – this is the UK edition of ''Class'' * editor * * * * * editor * * autobiography * *

References

External links

Brief biography
* from ''Thank God for the Atom Bomb and Other Essays.''

* ttps://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/24/books/paul-fussell-literary-scholar-and-critic-is-dead-at-88.html Obituaryfrom ''The New York Times'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fussell, Paul 1924 births 2012 deaths Academics of King's College London American literary critics American military historians American male non-fiction writers United States Army personnel of World War II Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Harvard University alumni National Book Award winners Pomona College alumni Rutgers University faculty United States Army officers University of Pennsylvania faculty American expatriates in England American expatriates in Germany Historians from California