Manfred weidhorn biography sample

Manfred Weidhorn was born

YU News

English Literature Professor Manfred Weidhorn Reflects on 52 Year Career at Yeshiva University Since 1963, Yeshiva University students looking for an engaging encounter with English literature have been able to find courses taught by Dr. Manfred Weidhorn, the Abraham and Irene Guterman Chair in English Literature and professor emeritus of English, on the roster. An immigrant from Vienna who earned his PhD in English at Columbia University, Weidhorn is a prolific scholar and writer whose works include a dozen non-fiction books and over a hundreds essays on Shakespeare, Milton, Winston Churchill, Galileo, literary themes, cultural history, and the relationship between religion and science, in addition to young adult biographies of Napoleon, Robert E. Lee, and Jackie Robinson. At Yeshiva College and Stern College for Women, he has taught classes on topics that range from the Russian short novel to the Scientific Revolution and everything in between, encouraging students to approach each topic in new and sometimes unconventional ways. As Weidhorn prepares to leave the teaching life to focus on his writing, YU News sat down with him to discuss his passion for literature, the ways in which his field—and students—have evolved over the last half a century and why it’s never too late to pursue a dream. How did you discover your love for literature? I was born in Vienna, and when I was six years old my family tried to flee to the United States to escape Hitler. My father was in Paris trying to start a business and my mother and I were visiting my grandparents when Hitler took over Austria, so we fled to Paris. My father went to the United States to try to bring us over; in the meantime, my mother and my grandparents and I went to Antwerp. Then Hitler invaded there, too. We tried to get away but ended up in occupied Paris for a year. Then we had to sneak across the border between occupied and unoccupied France and wait for transit visas to Spain and Cub

An immigrant from Vienna who earned

Q: Seeking fame by notability or notoriety

One remark I love to quote but cannot locate is Churchill’s self avowed quest for fame by “notability or notoriety.” Great word play. The best I can remember is seeing it in one of the early companion volumes of the official biography, edited by his son Randolph. Where may I find it? —M.L., New Jersey

A: No attribution

By placing “notability” first, Churchill clearly thought it was better to be notable than notorious. Alas, a search of Hillsdale College’s massive digital scans of 80 million words by and about him comes up empty.

The only instance of “notability and notoriety” together is in Manfred Weidhorn‘s “Patterns in Churchill’s Charmed Life” (Finest Hour 99, Summer 1998):

The law of averages dictates that some of these dreamers succeed. Churchill was one of them. Hence he is the hero of our hypothetical non-realistic novel. As a young man, Churchill put the world on notice with his memorably declared resolve to be an achiever by either notability or notoriety.

Hits and misses

There are 1000 occurrences of “notability” (including “notable,” etc.) in the Churchill canon, but only 121 for “notoriety.” Being lazy, I looked up the 121. Alas no reference includes “notability” in the phrase except Professor Weidhorn’s article.

Now Manny Weidhorn is rarely wrong, and was evidently quoting WSC from somewhere. But where? The only Churchill quote that’s even close was in his autobiography My Early Life, 1930 edition, 231. He is writing about his epic escape from the Pretoria prison camp in the Boer War:

I was not to languish as a prisoner. I was to escape, and by escaping was to gain a public reputation or notoriety which made me well-known henceforward among my countrymen, and made me acceptable as a candidate in a great many con

Fall 1998, Volume 16.1

Essay

Manfred Weidhorn

Beyond Conservatism and Liberalism

Manfred Weidhorn was born in 1931, in Vienna, Austria. He came to the United States in 1941. He earned graduate degrees in English from the University of Wisconsin and from Columbia University. He has published over seventy essays in scholarly journals, two books on seventeenth-century literature, four books on Churchill, three biographies for Young Adults, and one self-help book. He currently lives in northern New Jersey with his wife and two sons.

Whenever a political crisis erupts in France, commentators drag out the chestnut that one half of the French people still celebrates the Revolution of 1789 while the other half still opposes it—as though a left-right division were one of those piquant French idiosyncrasies. It, of course, is no such thing; the French are hardly the only ones so afflicted. Recall W. S. Gilbert’s observation about Nature seeing to it that everyone is born "either a little Liberal or else a little Conservative." All societies, in fact, contain a conservative faction which is slow to change tradition and which favors those with property and power, and a liberal faction which seeks reform and sides with those less well endowed. The French stand out only because of their droll custom of taking to the streets every few years, whereas in other countries the struggle is carried on more discreetly.

To be sure, many people, pace Gilbert, are perhaps not clearcut conservative or liberal, but, because of simplification, sensationalism, and commercialization, the political culture of democracies is dominated by a "Crossfire" mentality, which monopolizes the dialogue, enhances frequent verbal clashes between the two sides, and vitiates all nuances. As a result, on issue after issue, people predictably seem to line up on one side or the other, while theoreticians build the creedal scaffolding, satirists im

Robert E. Lee - Hardcover

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9 Weidhorn accomplishes the difficult task of bringing to life the great southern generaldifficult because Lee is the subject of so many legends and because he has been nearly canonized in parts of the south. Here Weidhorn presents Lee not only as a brillant military strategist, one capable of inspiring great loyalty in his men, but also as a leader whose tragic flaw is his inability to truly order his subordinateshe merely ``urges'' various battle plans. Although Lee's pre- and post-Civil War life is discussed, the primary focus is on his years as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, the main southern force. The book is filled with anecdotes about Lee, all of which are presented in a fashion that is readily accessible to young readers. The black-and-white photographs are appropriate to the age level and subject matter. They are all the more valuable, however, because of the excellent captions containing additional information that accompany them. This is an excellently written, objective introduction to a great man, as well as to a turbulent period in American history. It will be a popular addition to the collection, especially for young Civil War buffs. Elizabeth M. Reardon, McCallie School, Chattanooga, Tenn.
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