Albert Spaulding Cook (born October 28, 1925,

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal c ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

; died July 7, 1998;

Providence Providence often refers to: * Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion * Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity * Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but i ...

) was a noted American literary critic, poet, classical scholar, teacher and translator. He taught Classics, English and Comparative Literature at the

University of California (Berkeley) The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

Western Reserve The Connecticut Western Reserve was a portion of land claimed by the Colony of Connecticut and later by the state of Connecticut in what is now mostly the northeastern region of Ohio. The Reserve had been granted to the Colony under the terms o ...

, the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1 ...

and Brown University, as well as at various universities abroad.

Early life

He spent much of his early childhood in Ohio and in Massachusetts. In the late 1930s, his family moved to Albany and in 1940 settled in

Utica, New York Utica () is a city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 U.S. Census. Located on the Mohawk River at the foot ...

. His parents separated when he was fourteen, his mother at first remaining in Utica and later moving to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, and his father moving to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

. A brother, two years his junior, pursued a career in radio.

Education

While in high school, Albert Cook ran the school's literary magazine, won an ''Atlantic Monthly'' student essay prize, and edited an anthology of Utica area poets. Some of his schoolmates, among them Aaron Rosen and Edwin Dolin, remained lifelong friends and collaborators; another, Carol Rubin, eventually became his wife. A gifted linguist from his earliest years, he learned Latin and taught himself Greek in high school; by the time he reached college, he was proficient also in French and German; he later added Hebrew and Russian. At the peak of his career, he spoke four languages and could read ten. In 1943 he enrolled in

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher ...

, where John Hawkes and

Robert Creeley Robert White Creeley (May 21, 1926 – March 30, 2005) was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school. He was close with Ch ...

were among his classmates. His formal studies were chiefly in classics, with

Arthur Darby Nock Arthur Darby Nock (21 February 1902 – 11 January 1963) was an English classicist and theologian, regarded as a leading scholar in the history of religion. He was a professor at Harvard University from 1930 until his death. Early life Nock ...

Werner Jaeger Werner Wilhelm Jaeger (30 July 1888 – 19 October 1961) was a German-American classicist. Life Werner Wilhelm Jaeger was born in Lobberich, Rhenish Prussia in the German Empire. He attended school in Lobberich and at the Gymnasium Thomaeum ...

and (above all) John Finley among his teachers. (Finley eventually recommended him for admission to the

Harvard Society of Fellows The Society of Fellows is a group of scholars selected at the beginnings of their careers by Harvard University for their potential to advance academic wisdom, upon whom are bestowed distinctive opportunities to foster their individual and intell ...

.) He interrupted his undergraduate career in 1943-1944 with a brief stint in the armed services, but was discharged for health reasons after six months. In his senior year, he was awarded the Garrison Prize (Harvard's highest award for a poem by an undergraduate), as well as the

Bowdoin Prize The Bowdoin Prizes are prestigious awards given annually to Harvard University undergraduate and graduate students. From the income of the bequest of Governor James Bowdoin, AB 1745, prizes are offered to students at the University in graduate and ...

in Classical Greek and Latin and the John Osborne Sargent Prize for Latin Translation. He also published various poems under the pen-name of "Charles Hamilton Sorley". At his Harvard graduation in 1946, he delivered the Latin commencement oration. Rather than proceeding immediately to graduate school, he lived for some months in poverty in the village of Sainte-Rose near

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

, where he perfected his French and began drafting a series of works, including his first book, ''The Dark Voyage and the Golden Mean'', which was to launch his career. He at this time also experienced a religious awakening which led to his conversion from liberal

agnosticism Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficie ...

to Anglican Christianity. He returned to Harvard to complete his master's degree, chiefly under the mentorship of the renowned classicist

Eric Havelock Eric Alfred Havelock (; 3 June 1903 – 4 April 1988) was a British classicist who spent most of his life in Canada and the United States. He was a professor at the University of Toronto and was active in the Canadian socialist movement du ...

, and continued as a Harvard Junior Fellow, envisioning an eventual career outside academe as a lone wolf writer of poetry, drama and fiction. A prominent member of a group of young Harvard writers that included L.E. Sissman,

Norman Wexler Norman Wexler (August 16, 1926 – August 23, 1999) was an American screenwriter whose work included films such as ''Saturday Night Fever'', ''Serpico'' and ''Joe''. A New Bedford, Massachusetts native and 1944 Central High School graduat ...

and

Richard Wilbur Richard Purdy Wilbur (March 1, 1921 – October 14, 2017) was an American poet and literary translator. One of the foremost poets of his generation, Wilbur's work, composed primarily in traditional forms, was marked by its wit, charm, and gentle ...

, he founded the little magazine ''Halcyon'' (1947-1948), publishing work by himself and his friends alongside contributions from

Wallace Stevens Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance comp ...

James Merrill James Ingram Merrill (March 3, 1926 – February 6, 1995) was an American poet. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1977 for '' Divine Comedies.'' His poetry falls into two distinct bodies of work: the polished and formalist ly ...

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Genera ...

and

e.e. cummings Edward Estlin Cummings, who was also known as E. E. Cummings, e. e. cummings and e e cummings (October 14, 1894 - September 3, 1962), was an American poet, painter, essayist, author and playwright. He wrote approximately 2,900 poems, two autobi ...

. He also began working with Boston's Tributary Theater, which staged his translation of

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or c ...

' ''

Oedipus Rex ''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' ( grc, Οἰδίπους Τύραννος, ), or ''Oedipus the King'', is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed around 429 BC. Originally, to the ancient Gr ...

''. In a revised form, this version of the play was several times republished in later years. Elected to the

, Cook continued to work on a variety of projects, and began publishing work in ''The Partisan Review''. He married Carol S. Rubin on June 19, 1948 and in the following spring took up residence on a Junior Fellow Study Grant in the Saint-Germain neighborhood of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

. While in France, Cook attended lectures by

Merleau-Ponty Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau-Ponty. (; 14 March 1908 – 3 May 1961) was a French phenomenological philosopher, strongly influenced by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. The constitution of meaning in human experience was his main interest and ...

Claude Lévi-Strauss Claude Lévi-Strauss (, ; 28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009) was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social Anthro ...

and Jacques Lacan. His three sons were born in the years following his return and in 1951 the family moved to

. Still determined to become an independent writer and reluctant to commit to an academic career, Cook supported himself and his family by various odd jobs, from encyclopedia salesman to museum accountant, until fiscal rescue arrived once more in the form of a

Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

grant to France.

Career

Financial necessity finally persuaded him to accept the offer of a teaching position in the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

. Told early on that his contract would not be renewed, he spent the remaining time of his teaching stint in learning

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

, before securing another

Fulbright Fellowship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

, this time to

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

. When the Fulbright grant ended a year later, he accepted the offer of an appointment at

Western Reserve University Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US * Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia * Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that ...

in Cleveland, Ohio. By this time, his works of criticism had gained a substantial reputation; also, his first volume of verse was published by the

University of Arizona Press The University of Arizona Press, a publishing house founded in 1959 as a department of the University of Arizona, is a nonprofit publisher of scholarly and regional books. As a delegate of the University of Arizona to the larger world, the Press p ...

, and several of his plays were performed by experimental theaters in Cleveland and elsewhere. Two years later he was appointed Senior Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Science at

Stanford 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 consider ...

. Meanwhile, in 1963, he assumed the chairmanship of the English Department in the

, a formerly private university which had just then become a flagship research institution of the

State University of New York The State University of New York (SUNY, , ) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is one of the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. Led by ...

. His mandate was to substantially expand the Buffalo English department (it increased from fifty to almost eighty members in the first five years of his tenure) and to turn it into a cutting-edge, world-class literary institution. He was given free hand to hire and fire, and to bend or break conventional academic rules at his discretion. He used this freedom not only to hire a hugely distinguished faculty ( Lionel Abel, C.L. Barber,

John Barth John Simmons Barth (; born May 27, 1930) is an American writer who is best known for his postmodern and metafictional fiction. His most highly regarded and influential works were published in the 1960s, and include ''The Sot-Weed Factor'', a sa ...

Carl Dennis Carl Dennis (born September 17, 1939) is an American poet and educator. His book ''Practical Gods'' won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Life and work Born in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 17, 1939, Dennis attended Oberlin College and the ...

, Irving Feldman,

Leslie Fiedler Leslie Aaron Fiedler (March 8, 1917 – January 29, 2003) was an American literary critic, known for his interest in mythography and his championing of genre fiction. His work incorporates the application of psychological theories to American lit ...

René Girard René Noël Théophile Girard (; ; 25 December 1923 – 4 November 2015) was a French polymath, historian, literary critic, and philosopher of social science whose work belongs to the tradition of philosophical anthropology. Girard was the a ...

, Mac Hammond,

Norman Holland Norman N. Holland (September 19, 1927, New York City - September 28, 2017) was an American literary critic and Marston-Milbauer Eminent Scholar Emeritus at the University of Florida. Holland's scholarship focused largely on psychoanalytic criti ...

Stanley Edgar Hyman Stanley Edgar Hyman (June 11, 1919 – July 29, 1970) was an American literary critic who wrote primarily about critical methods: the distinct strategies critics use in approaching literary texts. He was the husband of writer Shirley Jackson. L ...

, Bruce Jackson, John Logan, Ann London Scott,

Charles Olson Charles Olson (27 December 1910 – 10 January 1970) was a second generation modern American poet who was a link between earlier figures such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and the New American poets, which includes the New Yor ...

, Bill Sylvester and Dorothy Van Ghent all joined the faculty during his watch), but also to democratize the department by encouraging the breach of conventional barriers among period specialties, or between creative and scholarly, young and old, tenured and untenured, and even teachers and students. His presence was especially strong during the two sensational Buffalo Festivals of the Arts in 1965 and 1967, transpiring during a politically and ideologically explosive decade. He also instituted a vigorous program of illustrious visitorships, usually during the summer sessions, which in the fifteen years of his tenure featured

John Berryman John Allyn McAlpin Berryman (born John Allyn Smith, Jr.; October 25, 1914 – January 7, 1972) was an American poet and scholar. He was a major figure in American poetry in the second half of the 20th century and is considered a key figure in th ...

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...

Basil Bunting Basil Cheesman Bunting (1 March 1900 – 17 April 1985) was a British modernist poet whose reputation was established with the publication of '' Briggflatts'' in 1966, generally regarded as one of the major achievements of the modernist traditi ...

Anthony Burgess John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993), who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his dystopian satire '' A Clockwork ...

Kenneth Burke Kenneth Duva Burke (May 5, 1897 – November 19, 1993) was an American literary theorist, as well as poet, essayist, and novelist, who wrote on 20th-century philosophy, aesthetics, criticism, and rhetorical theory. As a literary theorist, Bur ...

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted in ...

, Robert Duncan,

Richard Ellman Richard David Ellmann, FBA (March 15, 1918 – May 13, 1987) was an American literary critic and biographer of the Irish writers James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and William Butler Yeats. He won the U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction for ''James ...

William Empson Sir William Empson (27 September 1906 – 15 April 1984) was an English literary critic and poet, widely influential for his practice of closely reading literary works, a practice fundamental to New Criticism. His best-known work is his firs ...

Henri Foucault Henri Foucault (? – c. 1719 or 1720) was a French merchant, sheet music publisher (around 1690) and stationer. His shop was located rue Saint-Honoré, under the sign ''À la règle d’or''. He was condemned for publishing and selling ''"Airs d ...

, Robert Graves, John Hawkes,

Roman Jakobson Roman Osipovich Jakobson (russian: Рома́н О́сипович Якобсо́н; October 11, 1896Kucera, Henry. 1983. "Roman Jakobson." ''Language: Journal of the Linguistic Society of America'' 59(4): 871–883. – July 18,Randall Jarrell Randall Jarrell (May 6, 1914 – October 14, 1965) was an American poet, literary critic, children's author, essayist, and novelist. He was the 11th Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress—a position that now bears the title Poe ...

Hugh Kenner William Hugh Kenner (January 7, 1923 – November 24, 2003) was a Canadian literary scholar, critic and professor. He published widely on Modernist literature with particular emphasis on James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and Samuel Beckett. His major ...

Frank Kermode Sir John Frank Kermode, FBA (29 November 1919 – 17 August 2010) was a British literary critic best known for his 1967 work '' The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction'' and for his extensive book-reviewing and editing. He was ...

, Doris Lessing,

Dwight Macdonald Dwight Macdonald (March 24, 1906 – December 19, 1982) was an American writer, editor, film critic, social critic, literary critic, philosopher, and activist. Macdonald was a member of the New York Intellectuals and editor of their leftist mag ...

Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...

Howard Nemerov Howard Nemerov (March 1, 1920 – July 5, 1991) was an American poet. He was twice Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, from 1963 to 1964 and again from 1988 to 1990. For ''The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov'' (1977) ...

Frank O’Hara Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American writer, poet, and art critic. A curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara became prominent in New York City's art world. O'Hara is regarded as a leading figure i ...

John Crowe Ransom John Crowe Ransom (April 30, 1888 – July 3, 1974) was an American educator, scholar, literary critic, poet, essayist and editor. He is considered to be a founder of the New Criticism school of literary criticism. As a faculty member at Kenyon ...

Adrienne Rich Adrienne Cecile Rich ( ; May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012) was an American poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century", and was credited with bringing "the ...

Louis Simpson Louis Aston Marantz Simpson (March 27, 1923 – September 14, 2012) was an American poet born in Jamaica. He won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his work ''At the End of the Open Road''. Life and career Simpson was born in Jamaica, the so ...

Tzvetan Todorov Tzvetan Todorov (; ; bg, Цветан Тодоров; 1 March 1939 – 7 February 2017) was a Bulgarian-French historian, philosopher, structuralist literary critic, sociologist and essayist. He was the author of many books and essays, whi ...

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth ...

, Evgeny Yevtushenko and many others. When a more conservative University administration took over (and the budget began to be squeezed) he continued to give generous support to academically adventurous initiatives that benefited a younger generation of faculty and graduate students destined for distinguished later careers (

Robert Hass Robert L. Hass (born March 1, 1941) is an American poet. He served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997. He won the 2007 National Book Award and shared the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for the collection ''Time and Materials: Poems 199 ...

John Coetzee John Maxwell Coetzee OMG (born 9 February 1940) is a South African–Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in t ...

, Charles Baxter, Marc Schell, Carol Jacobs, Gerald O'Grady). His reformation of the Buffalo English Department was viewed by many as the single greatest achievement of his career. However, by the late 1970s, increasingly sidelined by an unsympathetic new University administration and hampered by tightening fiscal restraints, he accepted the offer of a distinguished professorship at Brown University, where he taught until his retirement in 1988. As an Emeritus, he kept energetically publishing and guest-lecturing until his sudden death of a heart attack a decade later. Th
Albert Spaulding Cook Prize
at Brown University was established in his honor.

Academic positions

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 ...

: B.A. 1946, M.A. 1948 *

: 1948-1951 *

Fulbright Fellow The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

: 1952-1953 (

University of Paris The University of Paris (french: link=no, Université de Paris), Metonymy, metonymically known as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, active from 1150 to 1970, with the exception between 1793 and 1806 under the French Revo ...

France), 1956-1957 (

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: link=no, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of ...

); 1960-1961 (

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich h ...

) *

, CA: Assistant Professor of English, 1953-1956 *

Cleveland, OH Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...

: Professor of Comparative Literature, 1957-1963 *Senior Fellow,

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) is an interdisciplinary research lab at Stanford University that offers a residential postdoctoral fellowship program for scientists and scholars studying "the five core social an ...

( Stanford University), 19661966 *Department of English,

State University of New York at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

, NY: Chair and Professor of English, 1963-1966; Distinguished Professor, 1966-1978 *Summer Fellow, American Council of Learned Societies, 1968
Fondation Hardt
Research Scholar (Geneva): 1968, 1976, 1987 *

Solomon Guggenheim Foundation The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 1937 by philanthropist Solomon R. Guggenheim and his long-time art advisor, artist Hilla von Rebay. The foundation is a leading institution for the collection, preserva ...

Fellow: 1969-1970(

) * International Research and Exchange Fellow: 1972 (

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

) * Camargo Foundation Residency: 1977 * Brown University,

Providence, RI Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

: Professor of Comparative Literature, English and Classics, 1978-1986;

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the dea ...

Professor of Comparative *Literature 1986-1988 *

Clare Hall, Cambridge University Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refou ...

, Visiting Fellow: 1982 * Rockefeller Foundation Fellow: 1989 (

Bellagio, Italy Bellagio (; lmo, label=Comasco, Belàs ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Como in the Italian region of Lombardy. It is located on Lake Como, also known by its Latin-derived name ''Lario'', whose arms form an inverted Y. The t ...

) *

American Academy in Rome The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo (Janiculum Hill) in Rome. The academy is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. History In 1893, a group of American architects ...

, Visiting Fellow: 1991 *

University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continuo ...

, Visiting Professor, 1997

Published works

Criticism and literary theory

*''The Dark Voyage and the Golden Mean: A Philosophy of

Comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term ori ...

'' (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1949; reprinted by W.W. Norton, 1966), Library of Congress cat. no. PN1922.C6 *''The Meaning of Fiction'' (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1960), Library of Congress cat. no. PN3451.C6 *''The Classic Line: A Study in Epic Poetry'' (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1966) *''Prisms: Studies in Modern Literature'' (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1967), Library of Congress cat. no. PN771.C6 *''The Root of the Thing: A Study of ''

Job Work or labor (or labour in British English) is intentional activity people perform to support the needs and wants of themselves, others, or a wider community. In the context of economics, work can be viewed as the human activity that contr ...

'' and the '' Song of Songs'' (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1968) *''Enactment:

Greek Tragedy Greek tragedy is a form of theatre from Ancient Greece and Greek inhabited Anatolia. It reached its most significant form in Athens in the 5th century BC, the works of which are sometimes called Attic tragedy. Greek tragedy is widely believed ...

'' (Chicago, IL: Swallow Press, 1971) *''

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's Enactment: The Dynamics of Renaissance Theater'' (Chicago, IL: Swallow Press, 1976) *''Myth and Language'' (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1980) *''French Tragedy: The Power of Enactment'' (Chicago, IL: Swallow Press, 1981) *''Changing the Signs: The Fifteenth Century Breakthrough'' (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1985) *''Figural Choice in Poetry and Art'' (Hanover, NH: Brown University Press, 1985) *''Thresholds, a Study of Some Aspects of

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

'' (Reading, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985) *''History/writing'' (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1988) *''Dimensions of the Sign in Art'' (Hanover, NH: Brown University Press, 1989) *''Soundings: On

, Modern Poetry,

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institutio ...

and Other Subjects'' (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1991) *''Canons and Wisdoms'' (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993) *''The Reach of Poetry'' (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press) *''The Burden of Prophecy: Poetic Utterance and the Prophets of the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

'' (Carbondale, IL: University of Southern Illinois Press, 1996) *''The Stance of Plato'' (Lanham, MD: Littlefield Adams, 1996) *''Temporalizing Space: The Triumphant Strategies of Piero della Francesca'' (New York, NY: Peter Lang, 1992)

Poetry

*''Progressions'' (Phoenix, AZ: The University of Arizona Press, 1963), Library of Congress cat. no.63-11976 *''The Charges'' (Chicago, IL: The Swallow Press, 1970, reprinted 1972), OCoLC 569280307 *''Adapt the Living'' (Chicago, IL: The Swallow Press, 1981) *''Modulars: Poems on a New Metrical Principle'' (

Lewiston, New York Lewiston is a town in Niagara County, New York, United States. The population was 15,944 at the 2020 census. The town and its contained village are named after Morgan Lewis, a governor of New York. The Town of Lewiston is on the western borde ...

: Mellen Poetry Press, 1992), *''Delayed Answers'' (Lewiston, NY: Mellen Poetry Press, 1992), *''Modes'' (

: Mellen Poetry Press, 1993), *''Affability Blues'' (

: Mellen Poetry Press, 1994), *''Reasons for Waking'' (

: Mellen Poetry Press, 1996, 2nd ed. 1998), *''The Future Invests'' (

: Mellen Poetry Press, 1997), *''Haiku Poems'' (

: Mellen Poetry Press, 1997), *''A Sometime Master'' (

: Mellen Poetry Press, 1998), *''Flashpoints'' (

: Mellen Poetry Press, 2000), *''Albert S. Cook reading from his work'' (sound recording, April 22, 1960), Library of Congress cat. no. LWO 3091 *''Albert Cook reading'' (sound recording, April 26, 1978)
Poetry Collection, University at Buffalo Libraries

Drama

' ''

'' translated into English verse," staged at Tributary Theatre, Boston, MA, and

Cleveland Playhouse Cleveland Play House (CPH) is a professional regional theater company located in Cleveland, Ohio. It was founded in 1915 and built its own noted theater complex in 1927. Currently the company performs at the Allen Theatre in Playhouse Square whe ...

, Cleveland, OH. (See also "Translations" below.) *''Double Exposure'' (full-length play): Edlred Theatre,

1958 *''Night Guard'' (one act play) broadcast by WBAI, New York and KPFA

San Francisco, CA San Francisco (; Spanish for "Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

1962 *''Big Blow'' (full-length play): Chamber Theatre,

Buffalo, NY Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Southe ...

1964 *''Check'' (full-length play): Chamber Theatre,

1966 *''Pan Is Dead'' (full-length play): staged reading, Playwright's Platform

Boston, MA Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most ...

March 1985 *''The Death of

Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian M ...

'' published in: ''Theatre and Drama'' 9:1, Fall 1970 *''Recall'' announced for: Richard Kostelanetz (ed.), ''American Radio Plays'' http://richardkostelanetz.com/prop/radioplays.html; produced at Brown University, 1987

Translations

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the '' Iliad'' and the '' Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of ...

, ''Homer's odyssey, Odyssey: A Verse Translation'' (New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1967); republished as ''The Odyssey: A Norton Critical Edition'' (New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1972) *

, ''

'' in: ''Ten Greek Plays'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1957); republished in ''Reading for Pleasure'' (Prentice-Hall, 1960); also in ''Oedipus Rex: A Mirror for Greek Drama'' (San Francisco 1963); as ''Oedipus Rex'' (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1982); and in ''Greek Tragedy: An Anthology'' (Wayne State University Press, revised ed., 1993) *(with Pamela Perkins) ''The Burden of Sufferance: Russian Women Poets'' (New York, NY: Garland, 1993

Compilations

*(with Edwin Dolin) ''Anthology of

'' (Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill Library of Literature, 1972) *Peter Baker, Sarah Webster Goodwin, and Gary Handwerk (eds.), ''The Scope of Words'' (New York: Peter Lang, 1991)—a miscellany of essays and tributes, with a poem dedicated to Cook by

*Peter Baker (ed.), ''Forces in Modern and Post-Modern Poetry'' (New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2008)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, Albert Spaulding People from Exeter, New Hampshire 1925 births 1998 deaths American literary critics American poets American classical scholars University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty University at Buffalo faculty Brown University faculty Harvard College alumni University of Bologna faculty