Walter W. Arndt
Slavic languages and literatures scholar, writer, translator
Born May 4, 1916, Constantinople, Turkey; came to U.S., 1949; son of Fryderyk and Julia (Heimann); married Miriam S. (Bach); children: Robert Michael, Joachim David, Prudence Joy, Corinne Constance.
Education: diploma (in economy and political sciences), Oriel College, Oxford University (U.K.), 1936; postgraduate (in management), School of Business Administration, J. Pilsudski University, Warsaw (Poland), 1939; B.S. (in mechanical engineering) (summa cum laude), Robert College, Istanbul (Turkey), 1943; Ph.D. (in linguistics and classics), University of North Carolina, 1956; MA. (honorary), Dartmouth College, 1967.
Career: assistant director, Turkey Office of International Rescue and Relief Committee, 1942-49, Intergovernmental Committee for Refugees, 1945-47, United Nations International Refugee Organization, 1947-49; instructor, Robert College, Istanbul, 1945-48; correspondent, The Economist, 1946-48; instructor to assistant professor (classical and modern languages), Guilford College, Greensboro (NC), 1950-56; assistant professor to associate professor, (Slavic languages and linguistics), 1957-66, chairman, Department of Linguistics, Slavic and Oriental Languages, 1965-66, University of North Carolina; professor (Russian), Sherman Fairchild professor emeritus, 1966, chairman, Department of Russian Language and Literature, 1967-70, Dartmouth College, Hanover (NH); Fulbright professor, University of Munster (Germany), 1961-62; guest professor (Polish), University of Colorado, 1965.
Author: Pushkin Threefold, 1972; The Genius of Wilhelm Bush: Comedy of Frustration, 1982; Uwe Johnson, Anniversaries IV, 1986; The Best of Rilke, 1989; translator, Alexander Pushkin,Eugene Onegin, 1963, 1981, Alexander Pushkin, Ruslan and Ludmila, 1974, J.W. von Goethe, Faust: A Tragedy, 1976, Anna Akhmatova, Selected Poems, 1976, Alexander Pushkin, Collected Narrative and Lyrical Poetry, 1984, Bruno Schultz,Letters and Drawings, 1988, Pasternak, Tsvetaeva, and Rilke, Letters, Summer 1926, 1988; co-author (with L. Levine), Grundzuge moderner Sprachbeschreibung, 1969, (with Mark Harman), Robert Walser Rediscovered, 1985.
Member of: American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies; South Atlantic Modern Language Association (chairman, Slavic section, 1959-60, secretary, 1962-63, chairman, 1963-64); vice president, American Association of Teachers of Slavic and Eastern European Languages; South Conference of Slavic Studies (vice president, 1964-65, president, 1965-66).
Honors: Phi Beta Kappa; Ford fellowship, University of Michigan, 1952; fellowship, Harvard University, 1956-57; co-recipient, Bollingen prize for translation poetry, 1963; grants, American Philosophical Society, 1967, Rockefeller Foundation, 1975, Guggenheim Foundation, 1977-78, National Endowment for Humanities, 1978-79; Kennan fellowship, Wilson Center of Smithsonian Institution, 1981-82; fellowship, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, 1983.
Served with: WW II, Office of Strategic Services, Istanbul, 1942-45.
Languages: Polish, English, Russian, German, French, Turkish, Italian.
Home: 38 Maple St, Hanover NH 03755
From: "Who's Who in Polish America" 1st Edition 1996-1997, Boleslaw Wierzbianski editor; Bicentennial Publishing Corporation,
New York, NY, 1996