Talk by Ben Franklin expert set June 2

J.A. Leo Lemay, H.F. du Pont Winterthur Professor of English Literature

4:53 p.m., May 12, 2005--J. A. Leo Lemay, Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Professor of English, will give the Annual Faculty Lecture, sponsored by the University of Delaware Library Associates, at 4:30 p.m., Thursday, June 2, in the Morris Library Reserve Room. His topic is “Benjamin Franklin: An Overview with Remarks on His Salient Characteristics.”

A reception will follow with books by Lemay available for purchase and signing.

A noted authority on early American literature, Lemay is working on a seven-volume, 7,000-page biography of Franklin, which will be published by the University of Pennsylvania Press, with the first two volumes planned for 2005.

Joining the UD faculty in 1977, Lemay received UD’s highest faculty honor, the Francis Alison Award in 2003. He was named Honored Scholar of Early American Literature by the Modern Language Association’s Division of American Literature to 1800. Among his honors are a Guggenheim Fellowship, a senior fellowship at the National Endowment for the Humanities twice, an Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship at UD twice, a Huntington Library fellowship and grants from the American Philosophical Society and Colonial Williamsburg. His students and friends compiled a ‘festschrift’ for him in 2001, Finding Colonial Americas: Essays Honoring J.A. Leo Lemay. He has served on the editorial board of American Literature and the William and Mary Quarterly.

Lemay received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Maryland and his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. He and his wife, Ann, have been members of the UD Library Associates since 1978.

The event is open to the public. Those wishing to attend may call (302)-831-2231 or send e-mail to [UDLA@udel.edu] by Tuesday, May 31.

Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson

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