Letters from Francis P. Magoun, Jr. to Rudolf Hertz

Francis Peabody Magoun, Jr. (1895-1979), philologist, was Professor of Comparative Literature from 1937 to 1961; the title was changed to Professor of English in 1951. A scholar of medieval and English literature, Magoun attended Harvard University receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1916 and PhD in 1923. He also studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, England in 1919, and as a Guggenheim Fellow in 1956, pursued Finnish studies in Helsinki. Magoun began his teaching career at Harvard as an instructor in 1919, rising to the posts of Professor of Comparative Literature in 1937 and Professor of English in 1951 (emeritus 1961). His courses were in the fields of Old and Middle English. During World War I, Magoun served in the American Ambulance Corps in France. He then joined the Royal Flying Corps of the British Royal Airforce in 1917, rising to the rank of first lieutenant. For Magoun’s service in World War I, the British government awarded him the Military Cross in 1918. Magoun wrote fifteen books and published in both European and American academic journals. He served as managing editor of the Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies (1926-1930) and editor of Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature (1934-1935).

Magoun married Margaret Boyden (1903-1988) on 30 June 1926. Their children were Francis Peabody Magoun III (1927-1999), William Cowper Boyden Magoun (1928-2014), Margaret Boyden Magoun (1932-2017), and Jean Bartholow Magoun (born 1937).

Rudolf Hertz (1897-1965) was Professor of Celtic Philology at the University of Bonn. Among German-speaking scholars, Hertz was an expert in Old and Middle Irish, focusing his research around questions concerning the comparative grammar of Celtic and other Indo-European languages. After serving in World War I, Hertz studied at the University of Bonn, Germany, receiving his PhD in 1925 and his appointment as a lecturer in the field of Celtic philology. In 1938 Hertz was removed from his teaching position because of his non-Aryan origin during the National Socialist regime. After World War II, Hertz resumed teaching and was appointed associate professor and in 1953 full professor of linguistics at the University of Bonn. In 1953, Hertz became the founder and president of the German-Irish Society in Bonn.