John Duncan Spaeth

Background

John was born on September 27, 1868 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of Adolph Spaeth and Maria Dorothea Duncan Spaeth. He was the older brother of the musicologist Sigmund Spaeth.

Education

John Spaeth played varsity football and was a crewman at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received the A. B. in 1888. He went on to the University of Leipzig, where he specialized in early Anglo-Saxon literature and was awarded the Ph. D. in 1892.

Career

Spaeth accepted an assistant professorship in English at Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota, for the academic year 1893-1894. He then became an instructor at Central High School in Philadelphia.

In 1905 Spaeth left Philadelphia to become a preceptor at Princeton University, of which Woodrow Wilson was then president. Spaeth proved well-suited for the role of guide and philosopher that being a preceptor entailed, and quickly established himself as one of the most popular of the new contingent that Wilson brought in to revitalize the curriculum.

He purchased an eighteenth-century stone house in a decayed area of the town; and with the help of students he gave "The Barracks" character and warmth, welcoming generations of them before its fireplace for instruction and social meetings.

He was made a professor in 1911, a promotion he celebrated with a year's study in Italy and France (1912 - 1913), and in 1930 became Murray professor, a post previously held by Alfred Noyes and Henry van Dyke.

In 1910 Spaeth made a special place for himself at Princeton by organizing a formidable crew to practice on the newly completed Lake Carnegie.

One epigram stated that Spaeth was appointed by Governor A. Harry Moore to the New Jersey Commission on Leisure Time, but that he him-self had no leisure. Spaeth lectured frequently in New York and Philadelphia and was a visiting professor at Haverford and Reed colleges, at the University of Wichita (Kansas), and, during summers, in California, Utah, and elsewhere.

During World War I he worked in military camps to improve literacy. He took special pride in his Camp Reader for American Soldiers (1918), which the War Department adopted for the use of the American Expeditionary Forces.

Spaeth continued such work in 1918 as educational director of the YMCA at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, and Camp Jackson, South Carolina, and, later.

He resigned in 1938 and died at Wayne, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia.

Achievements

• John Duncan Spaeth's major scholarly works were Early English Poems, edited with Henry S. Pancoast (1911), and Old English Poetry: Translations Into Alliterative Verse With Introductions and Notes (1921), which went into a number of printings. Spaeth was named president of the University of Kansas City (Missouri), his program there emphasized the liberal arts and played down institutionalized sports. He also served a member of the board of managers of the New Jersey State Reformatory.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Early English poems

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Old English Poetry; Translations Into Alliterative Verse with Introductions and Notes

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Die Syntax Des Verbums In Dem Angelsachsischen Gedicht Daniel (1893) (German Edition)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • Christian theology in Browning's poetry

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Camp reader for American soldiers

Personality

Spaeth became a fixture of Princeton life, known for his deep bass voice, his energy, his vigorous stride, and later for his rapid driving of cars. In classes he was entirely the actor, delivering Shakespearean lines with passion or pathos.

Interests

• He enjoyed climbing mountains.

Connections

In 1902 he married Marie Tinette Haughton; they had four children. His wife's death in 1937 depressed Spaeth and apparently affected his health. Only in 1941, when he married Amy Williams Fielding, did he return to his earlier vigor and good humor.

Father:

Adolph Spaeth

Mother:

Maria Dorothea Duncan Spaeth

Spouse:

Marie Tinette Haughton

Spouse:

Amy Williams Fielding

Brother:

Sigmund Spaeth

associate:

Albert H. Smyth

associate:

Ernest Lacy