Milton R. Stern

Milton R. Stern (Aug. 22, 1928 – July 26, 2011) was an American professor of English and American literature, who specialized in studies of the works of Herman Melville and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Milton R. Stern was born on August 22, 1928, in Roxbury, Massachusetts.His parents David and Elizabeth Stern came from Eastern Europe.In 1949, he graduated with a BA from Northeastern University. In 1951, he received an MA from the University of Connecticut (UConn) and in 1955 a doctorate from Michigan State University, both in American liteture.

In 1955, Stern began teaching at the University of Illinois.In 1958, he joined the English Department at UConn in 1958.He served as founding chairman of the Connecticut Humanities Council, dedicated to spreading literacy and culture to the state. He also championed adult education.Stern taught until retirement in 1991.

Stern was guest professor at the University of Wyoming, Smith College, and Harvard University.

In 1949, Stern married Harriet Marks; they had two children.

Stern died age 82 on July 26, 2011, in Needham, Massachusetts.

• Michael Meyer, Professor Emeritus of English, University of Connecticut

• 1960:American Council of Learned Societies
• 1964-1965: Fulbright professor atUniversity of Warsaw
• 1969: Outstanding Teacher Award at University of Connecticut
• 1971: Guggenheim Fellowship
• 1976: First Alumni Association Distinguished Professor award at University of Connecticut
• 1977:Fellow at the National Humanities Institute at Yale University
• 1979:Fellow at the Modern Media Institute Center in St. Petersburg, Florida
• 1981:Outstanding Alumnus in Arts and the Humanities from Northeastern University
• 1983:First Wilbur Cross Award winner conferred by the Connecticut Humanities Council
• 1985:Celebrated Teacher by the Associated Departments of English Program of the Modern Language Association
• 1996: Honorary Life Member of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society

Stern was an expert on Herman Melville, American transcendentalists, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. He wrote books of literary criticism, numerous articles, reviews, and co-edited an anthology of American literature.

The following list comes from the catalog of the Library of Congress:

• Fine hammered steel of Herman Melville; with a checklist of Melville studies (1957)
• Discussions of Moby-Dick (1960)
• American literature survey, edited with Seymour L. Gross (1962, 1968, 1975, 1977)
• House of the seven gables, edited with introduction (1965, 1981)
• First years in college; preparing students for a successful college career, edited with * * Golden moment: the novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald (1970)
• Billy Budd, sailor; an inside narrative, edited (1975)
• Critical essays on Herman Melville's Typee, edited (1982)
• Power and conflict in continuing professional education, edited (1983)
• Critical essays on F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the night, edited (1986)
• Contexts for Hawthorne: The marble faun and the politics of openness and closure in American literature (1991)
• Tender is the night: the broken universe (1994)
• F. Scott Fitzgerald in the twenty-first century, edited with Jackson R. Bryer and Ruth Prigozy (2003)
• [Unpublished, 600-page memoir]