__NOTOC__ Edward Mendelson (born March 15, 1946) is a professor of English and Comparative Literature and the Lionel Trilling Professor in the Humanities at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. He is the

literary executor The literary estate of a deceased author consists mainly of the copyright and other intellectual property rights of published works, including film rights, film, translation rights, original manuscripts of published work, unpublished or partially ...

of the Estate of

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry is noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in tone, ...

and the author or editor of several books about Auden's work, including ''Early Auden'' (1981) and ''Later Auden'' (1999). He is also the author of ''The Things That Matter: What Seven Classic Novels Have to Say About the Stages of Life'' (2006), about nineteenth- and twentieth-century novels, and ''Moral Agents: Eight Twentieth-Century American Writers'' (2015). He has edited standard editions of works by W. H. Auden, including ''Collected Poems'' (1976; 2nd edn. 1990; 3rd edn., 2007), ''The English Auden'' (1977), ''Selected Poems'' (1979, 2nd edn., 2007), ''As I Walked Out One Evening'' (selected light verse, 1995), and the continuing ''Complete Works of W. H. Auden'' (1986– ). His work on

Thomas Pynchon Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, Literary genre, genres and Theme (narrative), th ...

includes ''Pynchon: A Collection of Critical Essays'' (1978) and numerous essays, including "The Sacred, the Profane, and ''

The Crying of Lot 49 ''The Crying of Lot 49'' is a novel by the American author Thomas Pynchon. It was published by J. B. Lippincott & Co. on April27, 1966. The shortest of Pynchon's novels, the plot follows Oedipa Maas, a young Californian woman who begins to embr ...

''" (1975; reprinted in the 1978 collection) and "Gravity's Encyclopedia" (in ''Mindful Pleasures: Essays on Thomas Pynchon)''. The latter essay introduced the critical category of " encyclopedic narrative," further elaborated in a later essay, "Encyclopedic Narrative from Dante to Pynchon". He is the editor of annotated editions of novels by

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...

George Meredith George Meredith (12 February 1828 – 18 May 1909) was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. At first, his focus was poetry, influenced by John Keats among others, but Meredith gradually established a reputation as a novelist. '' ...

Arnold Bennett Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist, who wrote prolifically. Between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaborati ...

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...

, and

Anthony Trollope Anthony Trollope ( ; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among the best-known of his 47 novels are two series of six novels each collectively known as the ''Chronicles of Barsetshire ...

. With Michael Seidel he co-edited ''Homer to Brecht; The European Epic and Dramatic Traditions'' (1977). He was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) 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, and other ...

in 2015. He was elected a Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 2017. He is a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

, and was the first Isabel Dalhousie Fellow at the

Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH, University of Edinburgh) was founded in 1969 at the University of Edinburgh, for visiting fellows to engage in study and research in the arts, humanities and social sciences. The curr ...

at the University of Edinburgh. Before teaching at Columbia, he was an associate professor of English at

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 ...

and a visiting associate professor of English at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. He received a B.A. from the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...

(1966) and a Ph.D. from 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 ...

(1969). Since 1986 he has written about computing, software, and typography and is a contributing editor of ''

PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and continues . Overview ''PC Mag ...

.'' He is married to the writer Cheryl Mendelson.

Bibliography

Books

* ** Other editions: Random House, 1976. Revised edition: Vintage Books, 1991 ; Faber & Faber, 1991. Further revised edition: Modern Library, 2007; Faber & Faber 2007. * (as co-editor) ''Homer to Brecht: The European Epic and Dramatic Traditions''. Yale University Press, 1977. In collaboration with Michael Seidel. * (as editor) '' Pynchon: A Collection of Critical Essays''. Prentice-Hall, 1978. * (as editor) W. H. Auden. ''The English Auden: Poems, Essays and Dramatic Writings'', 1927–1939. Faber & Faber, 1977; Random House, 1978. * (as editor) W. H. Auden. ''Selected Poems: New Edition''. Vintage Books, 1978; Faber & Faber, 1978; expanded edition: Vintage Books, 2007. * ''Early Auden''. Viking, 1981; Faber & Faber, 1981; revised paperback edition: Harvard University Press, 1983; Faber & Faber, 1999; Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000. * (as editor) ''The Complete Works of W. H. Auden'' (eight vols). Princeton University Press, 1986– ; Faber & Faber, 1986– . * ''Later Auden''. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999; Faber & Faber, 1999; revised paperback edition: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000. * ''The Things That Matter: What Seven Classic Novels Have To Say About the Stages of Life''. Pantheon, 2006; with new afterword, Anchor Books, 2007. * ''Moral Agents: Eight Twentieth-Century American Writers''. New York Review Books, 2015. * ''Early Auden, Later Auden: A Critical Biography''. Princeton University Press, 2018; revised from two earlier books on Auden.

Essays and reporting

* "The Sacred, the Profane, and ''The Crying of Lot 49''". ''Individual and Community: Variations on a Theme in American Literature'', ed. Kenneth H. Baldwin and David K. Kirby. Duke University Press, 1975; revised version in ''Pynchon: A Collection of Critical Essays'' (see above), * "Gravity's Encyclopedia". ''Mindful Pleasures: Essays on Thomas Pynchon'', ed. George Levine and David Leverenz. Little, Brown, 1976. * "Encyclopedic Narrative, from Dante to Pynchon". ''MLN'', 91 (December 1976). * "The Word & the Web". ''New York Times Book Review'', 2 June 1996. * * * * * *

Bibliography

Books

Essays and reporting

Book reviews

References

Further reading