Stewart, Randall

Randall Stewart (1896-1964), professor of English, was born in Fayetteville, Tennessee, on July 25, 1896. He received a bachelor of science degree from Vanderbilt University in 1917, a master of arts from Harvard in 1921, and a Ph.D. from Yale in 1930. His dissertation was an edition of the journals of Nathaniel Hawthorne, which was later published by Yale. He taught at the University of Oklahoma from 1917 to 1920, and again in 1921-22, after a year as instructor at the United States Naval Academy. He was assistant professor of English at the University of Idaho from 1923 to 1925, instructor at Yale from 1926 to 1931 and assistant professor from 1931 to 1934, and professor of English at Vanderbilt from 1934 until he came to Brown in 1937 with an appointment as full professor of English. He was at various times visiting professor at the University of Texas, the University of North Carolina, Harvard, the Breadloaf School of English at Middlebury College, Northwestern University, Yale, the University of Wyoming, and the University of Washington. He published a biography of Hawthorne in 1948, was general editor of an anthology, The Literature of the South in 1952, and co-editor of Masterpieces of English Literature and Masterpieces of American Literature. In 1955 he left Brown for Vanderbilt University. President Henry M. Wriston, accepting his resignation, said of Stewart, “He has been a brilliant and stimulating teacher, a warm-hearted and wise counselor of students, and a scholar whose research is characterized by great accuracy, fresh insights and warm appreciation. He has built up the work at Brown to such a degree that he leaves us in a strong position in his chosen field.” He taught at Vanderbilt until 1963. He died on June 17, 1964.