- William Whittingham Lyman Jr
William Whittingham Lyman Jr, (
January 3 ,1885 -November 8 ,1983 ) also known as Jack Lyman, was an American writer and academic, primarily in the field of Celtic studies.Life and Work
Lyman was born at
Napa County ,California , the son ofWilliam Whittingham Lyman and Mrs Sarah A. Nowland, and the grandson ofTheodore Benedict Lyman . His father built the Lyman winery, now known as the El Molino winery. In 1905, whilst an undergraduate atUniversity of California, Berkeley , he was convinced byCharles Mills Gayley to achieve anacademic major inEnglish literature . Upon completion of hisMaster's degree , Gayley arranged for him to receive a universityfellow ship to travel to theUniversity of Oxford to studyCeltic languages with SirJohn Rhys . After a year at Oxford, Lyman spent two years atHarvard University studying theIrish language . He returned to theUniversity of California, Berkeley to take up a post as Instructor in Celtic (then atenure -track position) within the English department in 1911-1912. In the same year, Celtic appears on the list of approved majors in the College of Letters and Science and in the following year Lyman is named also as "Graduate Adviser" in Celtic. There he remained until 1922, whereupon he moved to Southern California and taught until his retirement. After retirement he and his family moved back to the family home at Bayles Mills, St Helena.Commenting on his long life,
Ruth Witt-Diamant declared him to be the "oldest living poet".He was a poet of some renown, as mentioned by
Josephine Miles :"In a legendary time in the Greek Theater in Berkeley at the end of the first world war, poets gathered around the visitor Witter Bynner with a great sense of inventiveness and praise. Names I have heard from that time were Genevieve Taggard, Hidegarde Flanner, Eda Lou Walton, David Greenhood, Jack Lyman."
From preface to cite book | author=Taggard, Genevieve | title=To The Natural World | publisher=Ahsahta Press | year=1980 | id=ISBN 0-916272-13-3
At some point in his life he married the US poet
Helen Hoyt .Publications
As Editor
*
As Author
* - Contains 24 poems in all, chiefly concerning the natural beauty of various California locales; dedicated to Helen Hoyt. The book itself is an early example of LA printer Richard Hoffman.
*
Memoirs
His memoirs are held at the University of California, "Berkeley Bancroft BANC MSS 71/150 c".
References
*cite web | title=Celtic Studies At Berkeley (Feb. 17, 2005) | work=Celtic Studies Program, University of California, Berkeley, last updated by Elizabeth LaVarge-Baptista | url=http://ls.berkeley.edu/dept/celtic/celtic_study_berkeley.html | accessmonthday=April 13 | accessyear=2005
*cite web | title=California Death Records | work=California Death Records as held on Rootsweb.com | url=http://vitals.rootsweb.com/ca/death/search.cgi?surname=Lyman&given=William&dyear=&dplace=&mlast=&flast=&year=&bplace=&sex=&start=16&stype=Exact | accessmonthday=April 13 | accessyear=2005
*cite web | title=W. W. Lyman | work=Napa County Biographies, as held on CAGenweb.com | url=http://www.cagenweb.com/archives/Biographies/napa/napa-conn.htm | accessmonthday=April 13 | accessyear=2005
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