Stephen J. Herben Jr.

Stephen Joseph Herben Jr. (14 March 1897 – 22 December 1967) was an American professor of philology at Bryn Mawr College. He specialized in English and German philology, and among other places did work at the American-Scandinavian Foundation in Copenhagen and Oxford University, as well as at Rutgers, Princeton,[1][2] and Stanford University.[3] His work included assistance with the etymological work of the second edition of Webster's New International Dictionary,[3] and two articles on medieval literary descriptions of weapons and armor.[4][5] The second of these articles, "Arms and Armour in Chaucer", is still considered a standard on the subject.[6]

Stephen J. Herben Jr.
Born
Stephen Joseph Herben Jr.

(1897-03-14)March 14, 1897
DiedDecember 22, 1967(1967-12-22) (aged 70)
NationalityAmerican
Years active1927–1967
TitleProfessor
Spouse(s)Mary Bishop Shattuck (1921–1929)
Caroline Robbins (1932–1967)
Parent(s)Stephen J. Herben
Grace Foster Herben
RelativesGeorge Foster Herben (brother)
Academic background
Alma materRutgers University
Princeton University
ThesisThe Hrolfs Saga Kraka and Related Materials for the Study of Beowulf (1924)
Academic work
DisciplineEnglish and Germanic Philology
InstitutionsBryn Mawr College
Notable works"Arms and Armor in Chaucer" (1937)

Herben was the son of Grace Foster Herben and Rev. Stephen Joseph Herben Sr.,[7] a Methodist missionary and minister, respectively.[8] He married twice, to Mary Shattuck, another academic then beginning her career in psychology, from 1921 to 1929,[9] and to Caroline Robbins, a professor of history at Bryn Mawr and the sister of Lionel Robbins,[10] from 1932 until his death.[11][12][13] He died at the age of 70,[14] and has an endowed fund in his name at Bryn Mawr.[15]

Early life and education

Stephen Joseph Herben Jr. was born on 14 March 1897 to Grace Foster Herben and Stephen Joseph Herben Sr.[7] He was the younger brother of George Foster Herben, who was born on 17 March 1893.[7]

Like both his father and brother, Herben Jr. attended Evanston Academy in Illinois.[16][17] In September 1914 he matriculated at Rutgers University.[18][19] Two months later, earlier employment in the forestry commission came in useful when an estate on which he was hunting caught fire and he was put in charge of the volunteer firefighters.[20] His graduation was delayed by the American intervention in World War I, for by May 1917 Herben Jr. had been made responsible for organizing an ambulance corps of twenty-five Rutgers students to be trained by the surgeon Fred H. Albee and serve in the war.[21][22] On 5 August he sailed for Savenay, France,[23] part of the Base Hospital Unit No. 8 Post Graduate Hospital, New York.[24] A spell of scarlet fever in February landed him in the hospital as a patient, stricken enough that a letter home had to be dictated to a fellow Rutgers student,[25] but in July he was sent back stateside via Ellis Island and granted a brief furlough to visit home.[26] By October he was back in France; so too was his father, who had volunteered to serve as a chaplain with the American Red Cross.[27][28][29] Herben Jr. was promoted to sergeant in November 1918, and discharged as disabled on 31 March 1919.[23] He finally graduated from Rutgers in June 1920, with a Bachelor of Letters.[30]

Herben Jr. graduated from Princeton University on 20 July 1922, with the award of a $1,000 fellowship by The American-Scandinavian Foundation.[31][32] The following year he left for his fellowship at the University of Copenhagen with his newlywed wife, who helped with his research into the Scandinavian backdrop of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf;[9] two years later, following a second year abroad as a special coach in Old English at Oxford,[9] his return occasioned headlines proclaiming that he had discovered the site of Heorot, the fabled mead hall and seat of King Hrothgar, where the hero Beowulf travels in search of the monster Grendel.[33][34][35][36][37][38] A decade later, in 1935, a paper by Herben Jr. titled simply "Heorot" placed the hall northeast of Roskilde, on the basis of the place names Stor Hiort and Lille Hiorte on an 18th-century map;[39] the suggestion went against the conventional belief that Heorot was based on a settlement at Lejre, and has been called "practically groundless".[40][41]

Career

Colour photograph of the Valsgärde 8 helmet
Herben Jr. linked the neck protection on the Valsgärde 8 helmet to descriptions of helmets in Beowulf.

From approximately 1925 until 1928, Herben Jr. taught English as an instructor, and then associate professor, at Princeton. A student later reminisced about his "happy melange of beer and literary discussion".[2] The bulk of Herben Jr.'s career, however, was spent at Bryn Mawr College, where he taught for 34 years, until his retirement in 1962.[14] At Bryn Mawr he was a professor of philology,[11] specializing in English and German.[3] He was put in charge of abstracting articles from philological journals for the 1934 release of Webster's New International Dictionary, in addition to his etymological work;[42] the chief etymologist for the edition was Princeton professor Harold H. Bender,[42] with whom Herben Jr., then still an instructor at Princeton, had written a 1927 article on the etymology of several English words rooted in German.[43]

In 1937, Herben Jr., who himself had a collection of arms and armor from the Shakespearean era,[44] published two articles on the literary descriptions of weapons and armor by the Beowulf poet and by Chaucer respectively.[4][5] In "A Note on the Helm in Beowulf", Herben Jr. linked the neck protection on the recently excavated Valsgärde 6 and 8 helmets with the description of in the poem as "encircled with lordly chains".[45][46] His other article, "Arms and Armor in Chaucer", aimed to "confirm impressions of [Chaucer's] realism and establish more firmly his existing claims as a dependable source for manners and customs in the fourteenth century".[47] The article was one of Herben Jr.'s better-known publications,[14] and was still regarded 75 years later, in 2012, as "a groundbreaking and most useful piece of research" and "perhaps ... the most familiar [analysis of contemporary arms and armor] within Chaucerian scholarship".[6]

Herben Jr.'s teaching, which including a visiting stint at Stanford University,[3] was interrupted in 1949 by injuries sustained in a car accident.[2] Driving from Williamsburg to Washington in February, he received, according to a former student who wrote to the Princeton Alumni Weekly, "a severe concussion and a bad shaking-up".[2] Herben Jr. underwent surgery upon arrival at a hospital and remained unconscious for nearly a week; he eventually recovered enough to be moved to a hospital in Roxborough, Philadelphia, where he remained six weeks later.[2] The former student wrote at the time that Herben Jr. was "still rather dazed", and that "[i]t is doubtful if he will be able to teach for a long time".[2]

During his career, Herben Jr. also lectured at the University of Bonn and the Sorbonne.[14] He retired in 1962 and became a professor emeritus. Upon this occasion, then-president of the college Katharine Elizabeth McBride remarked that he "was never willing to turn away a student who entered to learn".[14]

Personal life

Black and white newspaper photograph and caption
Wedding announcement in The Boston Post for Herben Jr. and Mary Bishop Shattuck

Herben Jr. married Mary Bishop Shattuck on 27 May 1921.[48] She was herself the daughter of a minister, Rev. Willard Ide Shattuck,[9] who together with Herben Jr.'s father performed the ceremony.[48] The Boston Post dubbed it "entirely a family affair", for the best man was Herben Jr.'s brother, and the maid of honor Mary Shattuck's sister, Frances.[48] Shattuck, who as Mary Fisher Langmuir would become recognized in the field of child psychology, went on to obtain her master's degree and doctorate from Columbia University, after which she lectured at New York University and served as the director of research at the Family Consultation Bureau of Columbia's Child Development Institute.[9] The couple had two children, Mary Joan and Lysbeth, before Shattuck filed for divorce in 1929.[9] The divorce was filed in Reno, Nevada, on 23 September; a notice in the Reno Evening Gazette the next day reported on the proceeding.[49][note 1] Shattuck was granted custody of both daughters,[49] who upon her subsequent marriage to Willis Fisher took up the new surname.[9]

On 21 September 1932, Herben Jr. married again, and his father again officiated.[52] His new bride was Caroline Robbins, an associate professor of history at Bryn Mawr,[52] and the brother of the economist Lionel Robbins.[53] Marion Edwards Park, the president of the college, held the ceremony in her house.[52]

Herben died on 22 December 1967, at his home in Rosemont, Pennsylvania.[14] He was survived by his wife and six grandchildren,[14] including the geologist and author Sarah Andrews.[54] A fund for the purchase of history materials was established in his name, and that of Howard L. Gray,[55] at Bryn Mawr by Mary O. Slingluff of the class of 1931.[15] One of Herben Jr.'s books, a rare 1617 copy of The Faerie Queen; The Shepheards Calendar: Together with the Other Works of England's Arch-Poët, Edm. Spenser signed by John Dryden,[56] was bequeathed at his death to Julia McGrew of Vassar College's Department of English, who subsequently donated it to the school.[57]

Publications

  • Herben, Stephen J. Jr. (1924). The Hrolfs Saga Kraka and Related Materials for the Study of Beowulf (Ph.D.). Princeton University.
  • Bender, Harold H. & Herben, Stephen J. Jr. (1927). "English Spick, Speck, Spitchcock, and Spike". The American Journal of Philology. Johns Hopkins University Press. XLVIII (3): 258–262. doi:10.2307/290130. JSTOR 290130. closed access
  • Herben, Stephen J. Jr. (January 1935a). "The Vercelli Book: A New Hypothesis". Speculum. The Mediaeval Academy of America. X (1): 91–94. doi:10.2307/2848240. JSTOR 2848240. S2CID 163050523. closed access
  • Herben, Stephen J. Jr. (December 1935b). "Heorot". Publications of the Modern Language Association. Modern Language Association. L (4): 933–945. doi:10.2307/458100. JSTOR 458100. S2CID 251023136. closed access
  • Herben, Stephen J. Jr. (January 1937a). "A Note on the Helm in Beowulf". Modern Language Notes. Johns Hopkins University Press. LII (1): 34–36. doi:10.2307/2912312. JSTOR 2912312. closed access
  • Herben, Stephen J. Jr. (January 1937b). "Rare Books in the Library". Bryn Mawr Alumnae Bulletin. Bryn Mawr Alumnae Association. XVII (1): 2–4. Retrieved 10 June 2017. icon of an open green padlock
  • Herben, Stephen J. Jr. (October 1937c). "Arms and Armour in Chaucer". Speculum. University of Chicago Press. 12 (4): 475–487. doi:10.2307/2849302. JSTOR 2849302. S2CID 162914295. closed access
  • Herben, Stephen J. Jr. (December 1938). "Knight's Tale, a 1881 ff". Modern Language Notes. Johns Hopkins University Press. LIII (8): 595. doi:10.2307/2912967. JSTOR 2912967. closed access
  • Herben, Stephen J. Jr. (January 1939). "The Ruin". Modern Language Notes. Johns Hopkins University Press. LIV (1): 37–39. doi:10.2307/2911804. JSTOR 2911804. closed access
  • Herben, Stephen J. Jr. (January 1944). "The Ruin Again". Modern Language Notes. Johns Hopkins University Press. LIX (1): 72–74. doi:10.2307/2911374. JSTOR 2911374. closed access
  • Herben, Stephen J. Jr. (Autumn 1963). "A Shakespearian Limerick". Shakespeare Quarterly. Folger Shakespeare Library. XIV (4): 481. doi:10.2307/2868198. JSTOR 2868198. closed access

Notes

  1. Reno at the time was nationally known as a divorce haven, with permissive laws and a short three-month residency requirement.[50] Statutes recognized seven grounds for divorce: impotency, adultery, desertion, criminal conviction, drunkenness, extreme cruelty, and neglect.[51] Whether true or not, those seeking a divorce had to fit their request into those seven options.[51] Cruelty, easiest to prove and least damaging to the defendant, was frequently invoked as a substitute for a no-fault divorce.[51]

References

  1. "Class Letters and Personal Items". Rutgers Alumni Monthly. II (I): 16–28. October 1922. open access
  2. "Class Notes". Princeton Alumni Weekly. XLIX (23): 12–27. March 25, 1949. icon of an open green padlock
  3. "Bryn Mawr, Texas Visitors to Teach English, Philology". The Stanford Daily. Vol. 81, no. 61. Stanford University, California. May 23, 1932. p. 4.
  4. Herben 1937a.
  5. Herben 1937c.
  6. Hughes 2012, p. 85.
  7. Leonard 1914–15, p. 382.
  8. "Honor Edison; One Minute Dark Tonight". Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Illinois. October 21, 1931. p. 1. icon of an open green padlock
  9. Seigneur, Erica & Johnson, Colton (2013). "Mary Fisher Langmuir". Vassar Encyclopedia. Vassar College. Retrieved June 11, 2017. icon of an open green padlock
  10. Howson 2011, p. 234.
  11. "Faculty Members Wed at Bryn Mawr". Delaware County Daily Times. Chester, Pennsylvania. September 22, 1932. p. 8 via Newspapers.com. icon of an open green padlock
  12. Smith 1998.
  13. Pole, Jack (February 16, 1999). "Caroline Robbins Obituary: Revolutionary History Teacher". The Guardian. London. p. 14 via Newspapers.com. icon of an open green padlock
  14. "Dr. S. J. Herben Dies; Professor Emeritus". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. December 26, 1967. p. 38 via Newspapers.com. icon of an open green padlock
  15. "Endowed Library Funds R-S". Bryn Mawr College. Retrieved May 18, 2018. icon of an open green padlock
  16. "Students 1911–1912". Evanston Academy: Courses of Instruction, Student Life. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University. May 1912. pp. 38–39. open access
  17. Downs 1938, p. 130.
  18. "Freshman Class of 160 at Rutgers College, Including 19 From New Brunswick". The Daily Home News. New Brunswick, New Jersey. September 24, 1914. p. 4 via Newspapers.com. open access
  19. "Here are Names of Students in Big Freshman Class". The Daily Home News. New Brunswick, New Jersey. September 25, 1914. p. 5 via Newspapers.com. open access
  20. "Mrs John Metlar Leads Brigade in 12 Hour Forest Fire Fight". The Daily Home News. New Brunswick, New Jersey. November 13, 1914. pp. 1, 8 via Newspapers.com. open access
  21. "3 Local Boys in Ambulance Unit for War Service". The Daily Home News. New Brunswick, New Jersey. May 14, 1917. p. 8 via Newspapers.com. open access
  22. "Praise for Rutgers Ambulance Unit". Plainfield Courier-News. Plainfield, New Jersey. May 15, 1917. p. 5 via Newspapers.com. open access
  23. Silvers, Earl Reed (1917–1918). Silvers, Earl Reed (ed.). War Records, H. doi:10.7282/T3BR8WDZ. open access
  24. "Stephen J. Herben, Jr". Plainfield Courier-News. Plainfield, New Jersey. September 13, 1917. p. 6 via Newspapers.com. open access
  25. "Personals: Mr. and Mrs. S. J. Herben". The Daily Home News. New Brunswick, New Jersey. February 21, 1918. p. 3 via Newspapers.com. open access
  26. "Stephen Herben Visits His Parents". Plainfield Courier-News. Plainfield, New Jersey. July 15, 1918. p. 6 via Newspapers.com. open access
  27. "Dr. Herben May Go to France". Plainfield Courier-News. Plainfield, New Jersey. May 31, 1918. p. 8 via Newspapers.com. open access
  28. "Rev. Dr. S. J. Herben Called to France". Plainfield Courier-News. Plainfield, New Jersey. October 15, 1918. p. 6 via Newspapers.com. open access
  29. "Rev. S. Herben Dead at 75". Plainfield Courier-News. Plainfield, New Jersey. February 23, 1937. p. 11 via Newspapers.com. icon of an open green padlock
  30. "H. G. Parker Gets Rutgers Degree at 154th Annual Commencement Here Today". The Daily Home News. New Brunswick, New Jersey. June 15, 1920. pp. 1, 7 via Newspapers.com. open access
  31. "Princeton Degrees for a Record Class". The New York Times. New York City. June 21, 1922. p. 14. open access
  32. "Foundation Fellows for 1922–1923". The American-Scandinavian Review. American-Scandinavian Foundation. X (6): 377. June 1922. open access
  33. "Scene of "Beowulf" Found in Denmark". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. October 19, 1924. p. 3 via Newspapers.com. icon of an open green padlock
  34. "Beowulf Hall Site is Found". The Detroit Free Press. Detroit, Michigan. October 26, 1924. p. 36 via Newspapers.com. icon of an open green padlock
  35. "Fact for Fiction". St. Joseph Herald-Press. St. Joseph, Michigan. October 27, 1924. p. 2 via Newspapers.com. icon of an open green padlock
  36. "Site of Hall Heorot Found: Princeton Professor Discovers Scene of Epic Poem". The Lincoln State Journal. Lincoln, Nebraska. November 14, 1924. p. A4 via Newspapers.com. icon of an open green padlock
  37. "Finds Scene of Ancient Poem". The Hartford Daily Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. December 25, 1924. p. 8 via Newspapers.com. icon of an open green padlock
  38. "Scene of "Beowulf" Traced". Nebraska State Journal. Lincoln, Nebraska. December 29, 1924. p. 2 via Newspapers.com. icon of an open green padlock
  39. Herben 1935b, p. 943.
  40. Osborn 2007, pp. 290, 290 n.8.
  41. Harris 2014, p. 187.
  42. "The Lexicographer's Uneasy Chair: Professor Bender and Other Princeton Scholars Complete Eight Years of Work on the New "Webster's Dictionary"". Princeton Alumni Weekly. XXXV (3): 55. October 12, 1934. icon of an open green padlock
  43. Bender & Herben 1927.
  44. "Exhibit Honors 400th Birthday of Shakespeare". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. April 9, 1964. p. 8D via Newspapers.com. icon of an open green padlock
  45. Herben 1937a, pp. 34–35.
  46. Cramp 1957, pp. 62, 62 n.24.
  47. Herben 1937c, p. 475.
  48. "The Bridal Party at Unique Wedding". The Boston Post. Boston, Massachusetts. May 28, 1921. p. B1 via Newspapers.com. open access
  49. "Son of Editor Declared Cruel". Reno Evening Gazette. Reno, Nevada. September 24, 1929. p. 12 via Newspapers.com. icon of an open green padlock
  50. "Timeline". Reno Divorce History. University of Nevada, Reno Libraries. Retrieved May 18, 2018. icon of an open green padlock
  51. "Grounds for Divorce". Reno Divorce History. University of Nevada, Reno Libraries. Retrieved May 18, 2018. icon of an open green padlock
  52. "Dr. S. J. Herben, Jr., Marries Dr. Robbins, Bryn Mawr Professor". The Daily Home News. New Brunswick, New Jersey. September 26, 1932. p. 7 via Newspapers.com. icon of an open green padlock
  53. Howson & Moggridge 1990, p. 12.
  54. Andrews 2004, pp. 330–331.
  55. "Howard L. Gray, Historian, 71, Dies". The New York Times. New York City. September 16, 1945. p. 42. closed access
  56. "Title: The Faerie queen ; The shepheard's calendar". Vassar College Library Catalog. Vassar College. Retrieved March 19, 2018. icon of an open green padlock
  57. Darlington 1970, p. 5 n.4.

Bibliography

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