Mary Ann Nevins Radzinowicz (April 18, 1925 – March 15, 2023) was an American academic and scholar of English literature. She was a leading authority on

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant. His 1667 epic poem ''Paradise Lost'' was written in blank verse and included 12 books, written in a time of immense religious flux and politic ...

and 17th century English literature. She was Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of English Literature Emerita at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

Career

Radzinowicz read English at

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that was founded in 1879. In 1999, it was fully incorporated into Harvard Colle ...

and took her

M.A. A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

and

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degrees 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 ...

. She was awarded two

Fulbright Scholarships 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 ...

to attend the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, where she took a further M. A. degree. She was a Fellow of

Girton College, Cambridge Girton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college at Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status by the un ...

and lecturer in English at the University of Cambridge for 20 years. From 1980, she was Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of English Literature at Cornell University where she specialised in literary criticism in a historical context.

Personal life and death

While working in Cambridge she married in 1958

Sir Leon Radzinowicz Sir Leon Radzinowicz, (15 August 1906 – 29 December 1999) was a criminologist and academic. He was the founding director of the Institute of Criminology at the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge. Early life Radzinowicz was born on ...

Wolfson Professor of Criminology The Wolfson Professor of Criminology is a senior professorship at the University of Cambridge. The position was established in 1960 by a benefaction by the Wolfson Foundation and is the first of its kind in Britain Britain most often refers to: * ...

at Cambridge and founder of the

Cambridge Institute of Criminology The Institute of Criminology is the criminological research institute within the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge. The Institute is one of the oldest criminological research institutes in Europe, and has exerted a strong influence ...

. They divorced in 1979. As her husband was knighted in 1970, she was formally Lady Radzinowicz. Their two children live and work in London. Radzinowicz retired in 1990 and moved with her partner, Irish writer

Sarah Poyntz Sarah Poyntz (18 March 1926 – 14 September 2020) was an Irish journalist and author. She is known for her contributions over 24 years to ''The Guardian's'' '' Country Diary'' column, describing The Burren. Some of her columns were subsequentl ...

, to

Ballyvaughan Ballyvaughan or Ballyvaghan () is a small harbour village in County Clare, Ireland. It is located on the N67 road on the south shores of Galway Bay, in the northwest corner of The Burren. This position on the coast road and the close proximity ...

County Clare County Clare () is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster in the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern part of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. Poyntz died in 2020, and she died there on March 15, 2023, at the age of 97.

Works

Her best known-book is the magisterial ''Toward Samson Agonistes: The Growth of Milton's Mind'' (1978); it was followed by ''Milton's Epics and the Book of Psalms'' (1989), both published by

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

. She has also written scholarly articles including the influential "Milton and the Tragic Women of Genesis" in 1995. She has also edited a number of books including ''American Colonial Prose: John Smith to Thomas Jefferson'' (1984,

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

). She is most associated with her work on Milton and 17th century English literature.

Awards and honours

Radzinowicz was awarded the

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in 1982 for her research on Milton's epics and the Book of Psalms: the fellowship is awarded to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts". In 1987 the Milton Society of American named her an Honored Scholar. In 2012, she was honoured with a Festschrift, ''Milton's Rival Hermeneutics: 'Reason Is But Choosing (edited by Richard J. DuRocher and Margaret Olofson Thickstun, Duquesne University Press, 2012).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Radzinowicz, Mary Ann Nevins 1925 births 2023 deaths Cornell University faculty Fellows of Girton College, Cambridge Columbia University alumni Radcliffe College alumni People from Ballyvaughan American expatriates in the United Kingdom