Background
Leon Edel was born on September 9, 1907 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of Fannie (Malamud) and Simon Edel. He grew up in Saskatchewan, Canada, where he moved with his family in his youth.
845 Rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montréal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada
Leon Edel graduated from McGill University and received his Bachelor of Arts in 1927 and his Master of Arts in 1928.
University of Paris, 75005 Paris, France
Leon Edel received a Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Paris in 1932.
Leon Edel was born on September 9, 1907 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of Fannie (Malamud) and Simon Edel. He grew up in Saskatchewan, Canada, where he moved with his family in his youth.
Leon Edel graduated from McGill University and received his Bachelor of Arts in 1927 and his Master of Arts in 1928. He received a doctorate of letters from the University of Paris in 1932. In Paris Edel met American author Edith Wharton, a close friend of Henry James, who provided him with information that gave him a scholarly advantage over later biographers and ultimately a deeper insight into his subject’s personality.
Leon Edel taught English and American literature at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia University) for two years (1932-1934) in Montreal, but he soon returned to Paris and pursued research on Henry James.
He served in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1947. In 1949 he published a complete edition of James’s plays, and the following year he joined the faculty of New York University where he worked from 1950 to 1972. For the academic year 1965-1966, he was also a Fellow on the faculty at the Center for Advanced Studies of Wesleyan University.
Edel edited The Complete Tales of Henry James, 12 vol. in 1963-1965, and Henry James Letters, 4 vol. during 1974-1984.
Besides, in addition to teaching at the University of Hawaii at Manoa from 1972 to 1978, Edel lectured in later years.
Leon Edel also completed critical biographies of Willa Cather "Willa Cather: A Critical Biography" (1953) and Henry David Thoreau "Henry D. Thoreau" (1970) and edited the papers and diaries of critic Edmund Wilson. His reflections on his craft are published in Literary Biography (1975), taken from a series of lectures of 1957 at the University of Toronto, and Writing Lives: Principia Biographica (1984).