Background
Helen Adolf was born in 1895 in Vienna, Austria. Her mother, Hedwig Spitzer Adolf, was an artist. Her father, Jakob Adolf, was a lawyer
literary historian writer poet
Helen Adolf was born in 1895 in Vienna, Austria. Her mother, Hedwig Spitzer Adolf, was an artist. Her father, Jakob Adolf, was a lawyer
Adolf attended the University of Vienna and graduated in 1923 with her Doctor of Philosophy in literature. Outside of working at Reclam, Adolf also wrote poetry and studied subjects like religion and psychology.
Her family was Jewish. Adolf had one older sister, Anna Adolf Spiegel. She received her medical degree from the University of Vienna and eventually moved to the United States to work in medical education.
Unable to find work in Vienna, she moved to Leipzig, Germany to seek work.
Upon moving to Leipzig, she worked for Reclam. At Reclam, she worked on creating publications focused around the history of the German Confederation through the beginning of World War I in Germany.
She also translated literature, including Sainte Thérèse d"Avila by Jeanne Galzy. She served as secretary at the International Society for the Psychology of Religion from 1923 until 1938.
Due to the Anschluss, Adolf decided to leave Europe.
She went to the United States in April 1939. She received assistance from the American Friends Service Committee. She attended the University of Pennsylvania to study Spanish.
She worked in Virginia and Colorado at secondary schools teaching languages.
She moved back to Philadelphia in 1943. She started working at Pennsylvania State University that year.
In 1946 she started working at the University Park campus. In 1953 she became full professor there.
She was the schools" first Liberal Arts Research Scholar, which she was named in 1958.
She wrote in German, writing poetry. She studied The Holy Grail extensively and published the book Visio Pacis: Holy City and Grail in 1961. The book was awarded the Louis H. Memorial Award.
Her work was published in Austria in 1964.
A Festschrift was published about her in 1968. She was awarded the Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class, in 1987.
She retired in 1979. Helen Adolf died December 13, 1998.