| W. R. Johnson | |
|---|---|
 Photographed in 1984 | |
| Born | (1933-07-09)July 9, 1933 Trinidad, Colorado, United States |
| Died | April 13, 2024(2024-04-13) (aged 90) |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Classical studies |
| Sub-discipline | Latin poetry |
| Institutions | |
| Notable works | Darkness Visible: A Study of Vergil's Aeneid (1976) |
Walter Ralph Johnson (July 9, 1933 – April 13, 2024), commonly known as W. Ralph Johnson and published as W. R. Johnson, was an American classicist. He was the John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Classics at the University of Chicago from 1989 to 1998.
Career
Born in Trinidad, Colorado, on July 9, 1933, Johnson studied at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating BA in 1961 and MA in 1963 before completing his PhD there in 1967. He taught at Berkeley from 1966 to 1974, then Cornell University until 1981. He was then professor of classical languages and literatures at the University of Chicago from 1981 to 1988; in 1989, he became the John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor at Chicago. He retired in 1998, remaining an emeritus professor at Chicago until his death on April 13, 2024.
Published works
- W. R. Johnson, Luxuriance and Economy: Cicero and the Alien Style, University of California Publications in Classical Studies, 6 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971)
- W. R. Johnson, Darkness Visible: A Study of Vergil's Aeneid (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976)
- W. R. Johnson, The Idea of Lyric: Lyric Modes in Ancient and Modern Poetry (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982)
- W. R. Johnson, Momentary Monsters: Lucan and His Heroes (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1987)
- W. R. Johnson, Horace and the Dialectic of Freedom: Readings in Epistles 1 (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1993)
- W. R. Johnson, Lucretius and the Modern World (London: Duckworth, 2000)
- W. R. Johnson, A Latin Lover in Ancient Rome: Readings in Propertius and His Genre (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2009)
References
- ^ Patterson, Sara (10 May 2024). "W. Ralph Johnson, Pre-Eminent UChicago Critic of Latin Poetry, 1933‒2024". UChicago News. University of Chicago. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
- "Ten Faculty Receive Chair Professorships". University of Chicago Magazine. Vol. 81, no. 3. University of Chicago. March 1989. pp. 35–36. Retrieved 1 June 2024.