Artine Artinian (December 8, 1907 – November 19, 2005) was a distinguished French literature scholar of Armenian descent, notable for his valuable collection of French literary manuscripts and artwork. He was immortalized as a fictional character by his Bard colleague Mary McCarthy in the novel '' The Groves of Academe'' (1952) and by his friend

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal ( ; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his acerbic epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the Social norm, social and sexual ...

in the play '' The Best Man'' (1960).

Background

Artine Artinian was born in Pazardzhik, Bulgaria to Armenian parents. In 1920, his family came to the United States, settling in Attleboro, Massachusetts. There, Artine worked as a shoeshine boy, learning English from listening to conversations as he worked. He was able to attend

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. It was chartered in 1794. The main Bowdoin campus is located near Casco Bay and the Androscoggin River. In a ...

(1931) with support from his customers, and in later years, he returned the favor by establishing a scholarship fund for needy students there. He received a diploma from the Université de Paris in 1932, an A.M. from

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

the following year, and a Ph.D. from Columbia in 1941. His dissertation, ''Maupassant Criticism in France, 1880-1940, with an Inquiry into His Present Fame and a Bibliography'', was published the same year. By this time, Professor Artinian, who joined the Bard faculty in 1935, had already embarked on his multifaceted career. In 1949, he had the misfortune to brush up against one of academia's least savory characters, the eminent Belgian deconstructionist Paul de Man. Following his friend Mary McCarthy's recommendation, Artinian helped the newly immigrated de Man by offering him a substitute position as professor of French at Bard College, while Artinian spent the academic year of 1949–50 in France as a Fulbright fellow. In 1955, he edited and published "The Complete Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant" (Hanover House), which expurgated sixty-five inauthentic works from the Maupassant canon, and remains authoritative, even after half a century. In 1964, Artinian retired from his post as Chairman of the Division of Languages and Literature at Bard. His collecting did not stop with retirement, however, as he continued to amass manuscripts and artwork, especially portraits, including artist self-portraits. He donated a large amount of his collection of manuscripts and art to

and gave artwork to several universities and museums. His portrait collection, including works by André Gill, Henri Demare, Manuel Luque, Émile Cohl, Camille Pissarro, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Anthony Coffey and Paul Signac, is currently housed at the Harry Ransom Center of the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

.Biographical Sketch. The Harry Ransom Center, Univ. of Texas at Austin. Artinian died at his home in Lantana, Florida at age 97. Before his death, Professor Artinian was retired professor of French at Bard College, in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, where he taught for nearly 30 years. An authority on Guy de Maupassant, he had translated and edited what is known to be the definitive English-language edition of Maupassant's short stories.

Literature

*''Maupassant as Seen by American and English Writers of Today'', 1943 *''Guy de Maupassant and Louis Le Poittevin'', 1948 *''New Light on the Maupassant Family'', 1948 *''First Publication of Maupassant's Papa de Simon'', 1948 *''Guy de Maupassant and His Brother Herve'', 1948 *''Maupassant's Paris Addresses'', Johns Hopkins Press 1949 *''Maupassant and 'La terre de Virgile'', American Association of Teachers of French 1949 *''Maupassant and Gisèle d'Estoc: A Warning'', MLN 1952 *''Maupassant Criticism in France, 1880-1940'', Russell & Russell 1969

References

External links

Artine Artinian Collection
at the Harry Ransom Center at the

.
The Artine & Teddy Artinian Self-Portrait Collection
at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts on the campus of Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.
Encyclopædia Britannica
{{DEFAULTSORT:Artinian, Artine 1907 births 2005 deaths Bulgarian people of Armenian descent Bowdoin College alumni People from Pazardzhik People from Lantana, Florida Bard College faculty American art collectors French–English translators Harvard University alumni 20th-century French translators People from Attleboro, Massachusetts Columbia University alumni