Paul Fussell

Paul Fussell, Ph.D.
Lt. Paul Fussell in Paris, France, May 1945
Born	(1924-03-22)22 March 1924 Pasadena, California, U.S.
Died	23 May 2012(2012-05-23) (aged 88) Medford, Oregon, U.S.
Occupation	Educator; Historian; Social critic; Author
Language	English
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Pomona College (B.A.), Harvard University (MA), (Ph.D.)
Genre	Non-fiction
Notable awards	Purple Heart; Bronze Star; National Book Award; National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, and Ralph Waldo Emerson Award
Years active	1951 – 2003
Spouse	Betty Fussell (1949-1981; divorced), Harriette Behringer (?-2012; his death)
Children	Rosalind Fussell, Samuel Wilson Fussell

Paul Fussell (March 22, 1924 – May 23, 2012) was an American cultural and literary historian, author, writer, and university professor.

Early life

Fussell was born in Pasadena, California on March 22, 1924. He was the second of three children. His father, Paul Fussell (1895–1973), son of a widowed schoolteacher, became a corporate lawyer in Los Angeles with the firm of O’Melveny & Myers. His mother, Wilhma Wilson Sill (1893–1971), was the daughter of a carriage trimmer in Illinois.

His brother, Edwin Sill Fussell, was an author, poet, and professor of American Studies at the University of California, San Diego. His sister Florence Fussell Lind lives in Berkeley, California.

Education and World War II

Fussell studied at Pomona College and at Harvard University. After he graduated, he served in World War II from 1943 until a year after the war ended in 1946. He was awarded a Bronze Star Medal and a Purple Heart. After the war, he taught at Connecticut College (1951–55) before moving to Rutgers University in 1955 and finally the University of Pennsylvania in 1983. He also taught at the University of Heidelberg (1957–58) and at King’s College London (1990–92).

Personal life and death

He was married to Betty Fussell in 1949. The couple had two children, and divorced in 1981. He later was married to Harriette Behringer until his death in 2012. On May 23, 2012, Fussell died in Portland, Oregon of Parkinson's disease at age 88.

Awards and honors

Fussell's 1975 book The Great War and Modern Memory won the National Book Award in category Arts and Letters, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, and the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award of Phi Beta Kappa. It was ranked number 75 in the Modern Library Board's List of the 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the Twentieth Century.

In 1977, Fussell was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He won the 2005 Hessell-Tiltman Prize for The Boys' Crusade. Fussell was one of the veterans interviewed in the 2007 Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary The War, and in the 1999 ABC-produced documentary The Century: America's Time.

Other websites

• Brief biography Archived 2004-06-20 at the Wayback Machine
• Obituary from the New York Times
• Paul Fussell on IMDb