1911 ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT JOURNAL AND DIARY OF BRILLIANT AND NOTED LINGUIST AND FUTURE PROFESSOR WHILE AN UNDERGRADUATE AT HARVARD

On offer is the superb original manuscript journal and diary of Prof. Edgar C. Knowlton (1890-1978), noted linguist, translator and author who in intimate detail writes of his life, opinions and observations as an undergrad student at Harvard University, living at Stoughton Hall. He is a super diarist who in this large page a day book dated January 1, 1911 to December 31, 1911, writes and over-writes pages on his friends and classmates, his opinions on general society, manners, philosophy, books, movies, social mores and much, much more. This is an intimate peek at pre World War I America from the point of view of an intensely intelligent observer of himself, the human condition and those around him. Knowlton also records his thoughts and ideas on various books and topics that he was reading or studying for his coursework at Harvard. Researchers and historians of the era would be hard pressed to find a more frank and honest diarist. BIO NOTES: Biography of Edgar C. Knowlton Edgar C. Knowlton was born on 19 Sept 1890, at Manchester, New Hampshire, the son of George and Alice Knowlton. His father was a druggist. Knowlton obtained his B.A. from Harvard University in 1912, his M.A. in 1913, and his Ph.D. in 1918. His "Potter Prize" dissertation was titled "Nature as an Allegorical Figure." After his schooling he entered the army and served in France during World War I. Knowlton began his teaching career in the public schools at Manchester, where he is found living with his parents in the 1920 Census. He later worked at Lafayette College, followed by stints at the University of Illinois, Ohio Wesleyan, and summer sessions at the University of Texas, then at Stanford University and finally for many years in the University of Wisconsin system starting at the old La Crosse State College. He began teaching at La Crosse in 1935, the school later became part of the University of Wisconsin system. Knowlton had a reading knowledge of German, French, Latin, Greek, Danish, Dano-Norwegian, Welsh, Old Irish, Spanish, and Italian. He spoke German and French. He wrote a book entitled An Outline of World Literature, as well as contributions to a dozen and half books and periodicals. He also published translations of old Welsh poetry and was the co-author of a freshman English textbook. In 1920, Knowlton married Mildred Mason Hunt at Fall River, Massachusetts and had a son, Edgar C. Knowlton, Jr, born 1921, in Ohio, while his father was teaching at Wesleyan. Edgar junior also became an academic, teaching at the University of Hawaii. He was very fluent in languages as well, proficient in even more than his father. He also became a widely published author and eventually a Professor Emeritus of European Languages at the University of Hawaii. A Festschrift in his honor "East Meets West" was published in 1988 by the University of Hawaii, where it is stated that Prof. Knowlton was fluent in eleven languages, with a working knowledge of fifteen others. Edgar (Sr.) appears to have retired from Wisconsin University, La Crosse. He died while living at Wisconsin in November of 1978 at the age of 88 years and 1 month. For the first 112 pages the entries take up the entire pages though Knowlton is not bound by convention and carries on from one day to the next if he needs more writing space, afterwards they become less full with the last third of the volume having brief entries and November and December very brief entries. Each page is one day. The 10 x 8 inch book has 365 manuscript pages, bound in red cloth, good condition, with minor wear to extremities, some white paint spots to cover, written in ink, in a legible hand. Size: 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. …