Most, Glenn W. 1952–

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Most, Glenn W. 1952–

(Glenn Warren Most)

PERSONAL:

Born June 12, 1952, in Miami, FL; son of William (a physician) and Sylvia (a biochemist) Most. Education: Harvard University, A.B., 1972; Yale University, M.Phil., 1978, Ph.D., 1980; University of Tuebingen, D.Phil., 1980.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Florence, Italy.

CAREER:

Yale University, New Haven, CT, visiting lecturer in literary theory, 1978; University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, West Germany, assistant in classics, 1979-80; Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, Mellon fellow of American Academy in Rome, 1982-83; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, visiting fellow, 1993; University of Chicago, professor for Committee on Social Thought, 1997-2006; College de France, Paris, France, visiting professorship, 2003; University Paris 4-Sorbonne, Paris, France, visiting professor, 2006. Has also lectured at other colleges and universities.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

(Editor, with Hans-Gunter Dosch and Enno Rudolph) Leibniz: Specimen Dynamicum, Felix Meiner Verlag (Hamburg, Germany), 1982.

(Editor, with William W. Stowe) The Poetics of Murder, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1983.

The Measures of Praise: Structure and Function in Pindar's Second Pythian and Seventh Nemean Odes, Vandenhock & Ruprecht (Gottingen, Germany), 1985.

(Translator and author of notes and introduction, with Anthony Grafton and James E.G. Zetzel) F.A. Wolf, Prolegomena to Homer, 1795, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1985.

(Translator and annotator, with André Laks) Theophrastus, Métaphysique, Les Belles Lettres (Paris, France), 1993.

(Editor, with Hubert Petersmann and Adolf Martin Ritter) Philanthropia kai eusebeia: Festschrift für Albrecht Dihle zum 70. Geburtstag (festschrift), Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (Göttingen, Germany), 1993.

(Editor) Collecting Fragments = Fragmente sammeln, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (Göttingen, Germany), 1997.

(Editor, with André Laks) Studies on the Derveni Papyrus, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1997.

(Editor) Editing Texts = Texte edieren, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (Göttingen, Germany), 1998.

(Editor) Commentaries = Kommentare, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (Göttingen, Germany), 1999.

(Editor) Historicization = Historisierung, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (Göttingen, Germany), 2001.

(Editor) Disciplining Classics = Altertumswissenschaft als Beruf, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (Göttingen, Germany), 2002.

(Editor, with Susanna Morton Braund) Ancient Anger: Perspectives from Homer to Galen, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

Doubting Thomas, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2005.

(Editor and translator) Sebastiano Timpanaro, The Genesis of Lachmann's Method, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2005.

(Editor and translator) Hesiod, Hesiod, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2006.

Contributor to Geschichtsbewusstsein und Rationalitaet: Zum Problem der Geschichtlichkeit in der Theoriebildung (title means Historical Consciousness and Rationality: On the Problem of Historicity in Theory Formation), Klett-Cotta Verlag, 1982. Contributor to periodicals, including Classical Quarterly, Diacritics, and Hermes.

SIDELIGHTS:

In The Poetics of Murder, Glenn W. Most and William W. Stowe gather together twenty essays that discuss the detective story, written by such literary critics as F.R. Jameson, Dennis Porter, Umberto Eco, Frank Kermode, Albert D. Hutter, and Steven Marcus. Anatole Broyard commented in the New York Times that "the book is rather a good analysis not only of mystery fiction, but also of the idea of mystery itself, of the nature of narrative and of reality, of the very [act of] reading as a form of detection." New York Times Book Review critic Martha Bayles noted that while "the reader may be daunted at first by the jargon of scholars," the essays in The Poetics of Murder prove "brilliant." Broyard reiterated the observation. "‘The Poetics of Murder’ is one of those books," he wrote, "that, though hard to read straight through, richly repays browsing. Whether you care about the central subject … these essays are full of brilliant perceptions."

In 2005, Most published Doubting Thomas, a book that provides an in-depth analysis of Thomas, the Apostle who stated that he would not believe Christ had been resurrected until he examined the wounds from the crucifixion. Most provides detailed commentary on the depiction of Thomas found in the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of John. He then discusses how numerous theologians have used Thomas in their arguments. He has been viewed both as a symbol of faith and of unbelief. Throughout the book, Most returns to the question of whether or not Thomas did, in fact, physically touch the wounds once Jesus did appear to him. Although the Gospel account does not indicate that he did, medieval scholars felt that he had; later, Martin Luther and Calvin raised doubts that Thomas had, indeed, dared to touch the wounds of the risen Christ. Most's book is "a fine scholarly study," in the opinion of David I. Fulton in the Library Journal. Joyce E. Salisbury, a contributor to Catholic Historical Review, stated: "Readers will have to come to their own conclusions, but Most's analysis will surely inform even the most sophisticated speculations."