Albert Lord

Early Life and Education

Albert Lord was born on September 15, 1912. He studied at Harvard University.

Career

Lord worked as a professor at Harvard University. He studied epic poetry, which are long poems about brave heroes. He worked with his friend Milman Parry and continued Parry's work after he died.

Contributions

Lord helped people understand old stories from many cultures. His work is still used by students and teachers today.

Early life

Albert Lord was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He went to Boston Latin School and later studied at Harvard College. He got a degree in classics in 1934 and finished his Ph.D. in comparative literature in 1949.

Career

Albert Lord became a professor of Slavic and comparative literature at Harvard University in 1950. He was later promoted to a full professor in Classics and helped start Harvard's Committee on Degrees in Folklore and Mythology. He led this department until he retired in 1983.

Lord wrote a book called The Singer of Tales, first published in 1960. His wife finished his work after he passed away, publishing a follow-up book in 1995. Lord showed how many famous old stories from Europe and Asia began as spoken words, not written ones. He believed the people who first told these stories were different from those who later wrote them down. He traveled to record South-Slavic heroic songs, working closely with a poet named Avdo Međedović. Lord studied many famous stories, including the Homeric epics, Beowulf, and Gilgamesh, finding similar ways these stories were told and remembered.

Personal life

Albert Lord was married to Mary Louise Lord. She taught classics at Connecticut College. They had two children. Lord passed away in July 1991 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Awards and distinctions

Albert Lord received many honors for his work. In 1940, he became a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1949 and became a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1956. In 1959, he was Honorary Curator of the Milman Parry Collection at the Widener Library of Harvard College. In 1972, he became the Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Slavic and Comparative Literature at Harvard University. In 1988, he was given the Yugoslav Star by the Yugoslav Consulate. In 1990, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Novi Sad.