User:Guraira/John David Yohannan

John David Yohannan John David Yohannan was born May 10, 1910, in Dilman, Iran to his parents, Dr. David Yohannan and his moterh Mariam (Yauvre) Yohannan. After his father's death in 1918, his widowed mother broght him along with his two sisters Louise and Helen to the United States of America in 1919. They left Hamadan to Baghdad, then India and through England to the United States of America. The Yohannan family resided at various times in Michigan, New York and New Jerssy and most recently lived in Haddam, Connecticut. John graduated from the City College of New York in 1935 with a BA and gained his Master's degree from Columbia University in 1939, and Ph.D. from New York University in 1947. John D. Yohannan (1911-1997) by Thomas Yohannan (son) Posted: Monday, July 02, 2001 at 01:46 PM CT

John David Yohannan was born May 10, 1910, in Dilman (Salmas), Persia. His parents were Dr. David Yohannan, a physician who had studied medicine at the Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, and Mariam (Yauvre) Yohannan, of Urmia, Persia. Following his father’s death in Hamadan — in flight from Urmia in 1918 — he, his mother, and his sisters Louise and Helen emigrated to the United States of America, via Baquba (Mesopotamia), Bombay, and England.

Yohannan grew up in Flint, Michigan, Yonkers, New York, and New York City. He graduated from the City College of New York in 1935, gained his Master’s degree from Columbia University (thesis on The Persian Poet Hafez in England and America) in 1939, and then completed his Ph.D. at New York University (thesis on Persian Poetry in England to FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat) in 1947.

He served in the U.S. Air Corps Military Intelligence from 1943 through 1946. He married Catherine Parandes (1920-2000) of Hartford, Connecticut, in 1943. They had two children: Timothy (1945-1998) and Thomas (b. 1952), who lives in Barcelona, Spain.

Yohannan’s academic honors included a Blumenthal fellowship from New York University in 1941, a Ford Foundation Grant in 1954, and Fulbright lectureships at the Universities of Salonica and Athens in Greece 1958-1960, and at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, in 1963.

He taught for almost 40 years, with the interruption of his wartime military service, at the City College of New York and the CUNY Graduate Center. He was instrumental in setting up the Comparative Literature Program at the latter institution. Among the books in comparative and Oriental literature which he produced is the Treasury of Asian Literature, first published in 1956 and still in use as a college textbook for survey courses. Yohannan also served on the editorial board of the journal Literature East and West for more than thirty years.

He retired from the City University as Professor Emeritus in 1976, and soon thereafter moved to Haddam, Connecticut, where he resided with his wife until his death in 1997.

John served in the U.S. Air Corps Military Intelligence from 1943 through 1946, he married Catherine Parandes of Harfort in 1943; he has two sons, Timothy who is living in San Francisco and Thomas who lives in Barcelona, Spain.

John's academic honors include a Blumnthal fellowship from New York Univeristy in 1941, a Ford Foundation Grant in 1954 and Fullbright Lecturships at the Universities of Salonika and Athens in Greece from 1958 through 1960 and at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan in 1963.

John was a Professor Emirtus of English and Comparative literature at the City College of New York. Among the books in Comparative and Oriental Literatue whihc he has authored is the widely circulated "Treasury of Asian Literature", published in 1956 and still in print. From 1945 to 1976 he served on the editorial board of the journal "Literature East and West".

Education:

B.A., The City College, New York., 1935 M.A., Columbia University, New York., 1939 (Thesis on "The Perisan Poet Hafez in England and America"). P.h.D., New York University, New York., 1947 (Thesis on "Perisan Poetry in England to FirzGerlad's Rubaiyat"). Teaching Experience:

The City College of New York 1938-1943. The City College of New York 1946-1947. Course Specialization - Undergraduate

Surveys in English, American and Oriental literature. The American Transcendentalists. Course Specialization - Graduate

The Oreint and American Transcendentalism. Oriental-Western Literary Relations. Oriental Drama. The Story of Joseph and Potiphar's Wife in World Literature. Honors:

Phi Beta Kappa, Gamma of New York. Blumenthal Fellow, NYU, 1941. Ford Foundation Fellow, 1954-1955. Fulbright Lecturer, University of Thessaloniki, Greece 1958-1959. Univeristy of Athens, 1959-1960. Fulbright Lecturere in American Literature and Consultant in Comparative Literature, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan 1963-1964. Publications: Books

A Treasury of Asian Literature, John Day Co., N.Y. 1956 and New American Library, N.Y. 1958, 478 pp. Joseph And Potiphar's Wife in World Literature, New Directions, N.Y. 1958, 310 pp. Persian Poetry in England and America: A two hundered year history (Persian Studies Series), Caravan Books, Delmar, N.Y., 1977, 373 pp. New Writing From The MIddle East, in collaboration with Leo Hamilian, New American Library and Frederick Ungra, N.Y., 1978, 506 pp. Publications: Articles

Tennyson and Persian Poetry, Modern Languate Notes, LVII, 2, Feb 1942, pp. 83-92. Emerson's Translations of Persian Poetry from German Sources, American Literature, XIV, 4, Jan 1943, pp. 407-420. The Influence of Persian Poetry upon Emerson's Work, TBID., XV, 1, March 1943, pp. 25-41. Did Sir Richard Burton Translate Sadi's Gulistan?, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, London, Oct 1950, pp. 185-188. The Persian Poetry Fad in England, 1770-1825, Comparative Literature, IV, 2, Spring 1952, pp. 137-160. One Hundred Years of FitzGerlad's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, EPETIRIS, Univeristy of Athens, Greece, 1960, pp. 259-274. Teaching Persian Literature in English Translation, Middle East Studdies, IV, 1, Fall 1962, pp. 6-8. Joseph in Egypt and Elsewhere, East-West Review, Kyoto, Japan, I, 3, Winter 1965, pp. 254-270. Thomas Mann's Joseph in Egypt as a study in Comprative Literature, Annuaire De Litterature Comparee, I, 1965, Waseda Univeristy, Tokyo, Japan, pp. 257-267. The fin de Siecle Cult of FitzGerlatd's Rubaiyat, Iran Number, Review of National Literatures, ed. Javad Haidari, II, 1, Spring 1972, pp. 74-91. Publications: Reviews

New York Times (Sunday) Book Review - May 11, 1952 "There Was a Lot of Wit in Omar", P. 4., Arthur J. Arberry's Omara Khayyam: A New Vetsion. New York Times (Sunday) Book Review - Dec 28, 1952 "About 4000 Years Ago", P. 6., Theodor H. Gaster's "The Oldest Stories in The World". New York Times (Sunday) Book Review - May 26, 1966 "Whitman and Mysticism", Section 2, p. 5., / V. K. Chari's "Whitman in The Light of Vedantic Mysticism". New York Times (Sunday) Book Review - July 28, 1968 "Echoes of a Poet", Robert Graves' and Omar Ali Shah's "The Original Rubaiyyat of Omar Khayyam / The long Islander (Special Whitman Number). New York Times (Wednesday Nov 21 1979, P. A18) "Our Failure to Understand Khomeini's Revolution". Journal of the American Oriental Society (1982 P.152) Review of Poetry of Asia: Five Milleniums of Verse in Thrity-Three Languages, ed. Keith Bosley, Wetherhill, 1979. Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 19, No.4, Winter 1982, pp. 430-441 "Hebraism and Hellenism in Thomas Mann's Story of Joseph and Potiphar's Wife.

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