Lemay, J.A. Leo 1935-
(Joseph Alberic Leo Lemay)

PERSONAL:

Born January 7, 1935, in Bristow, VA; son of Joseph Albert (a steelworker) and Valencia Lee Lemay; married Muriel Ann Clarke (a real estate broker), August 11, 1965; children: John, Lee, Kate. Education: University of Maryland, A.B., 1957, A.M., 1962; University of Pennsylvania, Ph.D., 1964. Politics: Republican. Religion: Unitarian Universalist.

ADDRESSES:

Home—P.O. Box 4044, Greenville, DE 19807. Office—Department of English, University of Delaware, 219 Memorial Hall, Newark, DE 19716. E-mail—lemay@udel.edu.

CAREER:

George Washington University, Washington, DC, assistant professor of English, 1963-65; University of California, Los Angeles, assistant professor, 1965-70, associate professor, 1970-75, professor of English, 1975-77; University of Delaware, Newark, H.F. du Pont Winterthur Professor of English and Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Professor, 1977—. Center for Editions of American Authors, advisory committee member, 1974-76. Military service: U.S. Army, 1957-59.

MEMBER:

Modern Language Association of America, American Humor Studies Association (president, 1981), American Antiquarian Society, Institute for Early American History and Culture (council member, 1978-81), Society for the Study of Southern Literature, Maryland Historical Society, Pennsylvania Historical Society, Virginia Historical Society.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Guggenheim fellow, 1974-75; Institute for Advanced Study fellow, University of Delaware, 1980-81 and 1998-99; senior fellowship, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1983-84 and 1994-95; Huntington Library fellowship, 2000; grants from American Philosophical Society and Colonial Williamsburg; named Distinguished Scholar of Early American Literature, Early American Literature Group, Modern Language Association.

WRITINGS:

Ebenezer Kinnersley: Franklin's Friend, University of Pennsylvania Press (Philadelphia, PA), 1964.

Men of Letters in Colonial Maryland, University of Tennessee Press (Knoxville, TN), 1972.

A Calendar of American Poetry in Colonial Newspapers and Magazines through 1765, American Antiquarian Society (Worcester, MA), 1972.

"New England's Annoyances": America's First Folk Song, University of Delaware Press (Newark, DE), 1985.

The Canon of Benjamin Franklin, 1722-1776: New Additions and Reconsiderations, University of Delaware Press (Newark, DE), 1986.

The American Dream of Captain John Smith, University of Virginia Press (Charlottesville, VA), 1991.

Did Pocahantas Save Captain John Smith?, University of Georgia Press (Athens, GA), 1992.

A Documentary History of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 1: Printer, 1706-1730, Volume 2: Rising Citizen, 1730-1747, 1997.

The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 1: Journalist, 1706-1730, Volume 2: Printer and Publisher, 1730-1747, University of Pennsylvania Press (Philadelphia, PA), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including American Literature, New England Quarterly, Early American Literature, William and Mary Quarterly, PMLA, and Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Editorial board member, American Literature, 1976-79.

EDITOR

The Oldest Revolutionary: Essays on Benjamin Franklin, University of Pennsylvania Press (Philadelphia, PA), 1976.

Essays in Early Virginia Literature Honoring Richard Beale Davis, Burt Franklin (New York, NY), 1977.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: A Genetic Text, University of Tennessee Press (Knoxville, TN), 1981.

(With P.M. Zall) Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, Criticism, Norton (New York, NY), 1986.

Deism, Masonry, and the Enlightenment: Essays Honoring Alfred Owen Aldridge, University of Delaware Press (Newark, DE), 1987.

Benjamin Franklin: Writings, Literary Classics of the United States (New York, NY), 1987.

An Early American Reader, United States Information Agency (Washington, DC), 1988.

Robert Bolling Woos Anne Miller: Love and Courtship in Colonial Virginia, 1760, University Press of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA), 1990.

Reappraising Benjamin Franklin: A Bicentennial Perspective, University of Delaware Press (Newark, DE), 1993.

(And author of notes), Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, Poor Richard, and Later Writings: Letters from London, 1757-1775, Paris, 1776-1785, Philadelphia, 1785-1790, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1733-1758, The Autobiography, Library of America (New York, NY), 1997.

(And author of notes) Benjamin Franklin, Silence Dogood, the Busy-Body, and Early Writings: Boston and London, 1722-1726, Philadelphia, 1726-1757, London, 1757-1775, Library of America (New York, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS:

Author and historian J.A. Leo Lemay has been a professor of history at the University of Delaware since 1977. Many of his works concentrate on colonial American history and the prominent figures and social conventions of the time.

In The American Dream of Captain John Smith, Lemay "defends the early Virginia leader against his critics, past and present," noted J. Russell Snapp in the American Indian Quarterly. He examines and refutes numerous claims that Smith published exaggerated accounts of his military and personal triumphs, and that he approached colonization with particular brutality and disregard for native populations. "Lemay concludes that Smith reported events accurately and that he intended American colonization to free all humanity from oppression and want," Snapp reported. Even during conflicts, such as his potentially deadly conflict with Pazunkey Indian king Opechancanough, Smith persisted in asserting this his basic motives were driven by a desire for friendship and cooperation between the settlers and the natives. Mississippi Quarterly reviewer Paul A. Gilje commented: "Although Smith should not be dismissed simply as a swaggering braggart, portraying him as nearly infallible is too much to accept." Still, both critics acknowledge Smith's importance in American history, and Snapp noted that "Smith certainly contributed much to Virginia's early survival, and his maps and writings continued to shape the colonization of North America, including New England, long after Smith returned to England in 1609."

With Robert Bolling Woos Annie Miller: Love and Courtship in Colonial Virginia, 1760, Lemay examines an often overlooked aspect of colonial life: that of courtship and romance. The book provides "a colorful picture of the intimate life of aristocratic Virginians," commented Genevieve Stuttaford in Publishers Weekly. Based on a combination diary/journal that Bolling prepared after the courtship was over, Lemay's book examines the intricacies of courtship among Virginia's elite society, where relationships were initiated and built amidst the movement and noise of parties and dances. Though Bolling and Miller both eventually married others, the book provides a glimpse into a "previously shadowed facet" of life during the infancy of the American colonies, Stuttaford remarked.

The Life of Benjamin Franklin is a proposed seven-volume biography of one of America's founding fathers and most intriguing personalities. "Franklin had a very long life with innumerable activities," Lemay commented in an interview with Ben Yagoda in Philadelphia's City Paper. "He did various types of things extraordinarily well," Lemay noted, and many of those abilities and accomplishments are covered minimally in other Franklin biographies. Lemay's prodigious biography is an attempt to offer a complete picture of Franklin, his times, and his numerous accomplishments. "I try to do some justice to most of his multiple activities," Lemay told Yagoda. The first volume of the exhaustive historical biography covers the years 1706 to 1730, when Franklin worked primarily as a journalist. In the second volume, covering 1730 to 1747, Lemay carefully examines Franklin's years as a printer and publisher. Lemay "succeeds admirably in capturing the energy, intelligence, and decisive character" of a young, brilliant, and ambitious Franklin, commented a reviewer in Reference & Research Book News. George Cohen, writing in Booklist, remarked that "Lemay's first two volumes bring Franklin, the man, to life and define his place in America's early history." In a Library Journal review, critic T.J. Schaeper asked: "Is this mammoth biography worth the effort?" Schaeper concluded: "Yes!" A writer in Early American Literature concluded that, "in Lemay's works, Franklin's full complexity stands revealed."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Mulford, Carla and Davis S. Shields, editors, Finding Colonial Americas: Essays Honoring J.A. Leo Lemay, University of Delaware Press (Newark, DE), 2001.

PERIODICALS

American Indian Quarterly, fall, 1994, J. Russell Snapp, review of The American Dream of Captain John Smith, p. 589.

Booklist, October 1, 2005, George Cohen, review of The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 1: Journalist, 1706-1730 and Volume 2: Printer and Publisher, 1730-1747, p. 20.

City Paper (Philadelphia, PA), January 19, 2006, Ben Yagoda, "Franklin, Institution," interview with J.A. Leo Lemay.

Contemporary Review, October, 1993, Esmond Wright, review of Reappraising Benjamin Franklin: A Bicentennial Perspective, p. 218.

Early American Literature, winter, 2000, "A Tribute to J.A. Leo Lemay," p. 1.

Library Journal, October 1, 2005, T.J. Schaper, review of The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 1: Journalist, 1706-1730 and Volume 2: Printer and Publisher, 1730-1747, p. 89.

Mississippi Quarterly, fall, 1994, Paul A. Gilje, review of The American Dream of Captain John Smith, p. 679.

Publishers Weekly, May 18, 1990, Genevieve Stuttaford, review of Robert Bolling Woos Annie Miller: Love and Courtship in Colonial Virginia, 1760, p. 74; September 19, 2005, review of The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 1: Journalist, 1706-1730 and Volume 2: Printer and Publisher, 1730-1747, p. 58.

Reference & Research Book News, February, 2006, review of The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 1: Journalist, 1706-1730 and Volume 2: Printer and Publisher, 1730-1747.

ONLINE

In Character,http://www.incharacter.org/ (May 1, 2006), Rosalind Remer, "Interview: Benjamin Franklin: Poor Richard's Influence," interview with J.A. Leo Lemay.

University of Delaware Department of English Web site,http://www.english.udel.edu/ (May 1, 2006), biography of J.A. Leo Lemay.