Faculty Contacts Ellmann About 1974 Harvard Post

The English Department has privately approached Richard Ellmann, the National Book Award winning biographer of James Joyce, about joining the Harvard Faculty in the Fall of 1974.

Franklin L. Ford, acting dean of the Faculty, said yesterday, "Everyone around here knows the English Department is very interested in him." The Faculty, however, has not yet made a proposal to Ellmann, Ford said.

Ellman, reached yesterday in England, said that he has discussed teaching at Harvard with the Department, but that his appointment is "far from certain." Ellmann spent five years at Harvard as an instructor and assistant professor of English before leaving in 1951.

Walter J. Bate '39, professor of English, yesterday termed the interest in Ellmann "premature" but acknowledged that discussions about an appointment had taken place. He said that he expected further details "in a few months."

Ellmann has taught English and Irish literature since 1970 at Oxford as the first American to hold the Goldsmith professorship at New College.

Ellman said that he would not leave Oxford until after next year, but that he had been contacted by several colleges, including Yale, about a 1974 position.

Martin Price, chairman of the English Department at Yale, said yesterday that he understood that Harvard is also interested in Ellmann and that this is "not unusual" for a man of Ellmann's literary stature. Price added that the universities were "negotiating independently."

Ellmann is most well known for his painstakingly detailed biography of James Joyce, which won the 1960 National Book Award. He spent seven years interviewing relatives and friends of Joyce to prepare the book.

He has also published criticisms of the works of W.B. Yeats and Oscar Wilde, notably Yeats: the Man and Masks and, more recently, Oscar Wilde (Twentieth Century Views).

Robert J. Kiely '60, professor of English, said yesterday he thought "very highly" of Ellmann as a teacher and a scholar.

Ellmann said he left Harvard in 1951 because he "had no clear assurance that I would be kept on, so I decided to try another college." He has since published or edited 13 books.

Ellmann served as a professor of English at Northwestern University from 1951 to 1964. He plans to return to Northwestern this Spring while on a short leave of absence from Oxford.

He returned to Yale in 1967, where he had earlier received his bachelor of arts, master of arts, and doctorate. He has also held Guddenheim, Rockefeller, and Kenyon fellowhips.

Price said that Ellmann was offered the post at Oxford very soon after assuming a professorship at Yale and that the move to England was not a surprise.

Ellmann yesterday described his journey from Yale to Oxford as "quixotic" and added, "I love it here." He said he is working on a book of biographical speculations from George Eliot to T.S. Eliot to be published next fall.

Ellmann's wife, a well-known author, strongly favors a return to the United States, Ellmann said. Mary Ellmann, who has been writing book reviews in England, authored Thinking About Women.