Joyce Sparer Adler

Infobox Person
name = Joyce Sparer Adler


caption =
birth_date = birth date|1916|12|02
birth_place = New York, New York
death_date = death date and age|1999|09|13|1916|12|02
death_place =
other_names =
known_for = Founding faculty-member of University of Guyana
occupation = Critic, playwright and teacher
nationality = American

Joyce Sparer Adler (December 2, 1916 - September 13, 1999), was an American critic, playwright, and teacher. She was a founding member of the faculty of the University of Guyana, writer of important critical analyses of Wilson Harris and Herman Melville, and 1988 president of the Melville Society.

Biography

Joyce Sparer Adler was born in New York City, the daughter of Louis and Lillian (Solomon) Lifshutz. She received a B.A. cum laude from Brooklyn College in 1935, and an M.A. in 1951. Her first marriage, to Max Sparer, ended in divorce. She had two daughters, Ellen and Laura.

She was an English teacher in the New York City public school system, and an active member of the teacher's union. She lost her job during the McCarthy era. She held a number of jobs during the 1950s, including writing television screenplays and editing for the journal "Blood".

In 1963 she travelled to Georgetown, Guyana as a member of a small group recruited to conduct seminars for teachers in the colony of British Guiana, after which she was invited by Premier Cheddi Jagan to return and be a founding member of the University of Guyana. She stayed for five years, during which time she was actively involved in the political events that led to the independence of Guyana from Great Britain. She was a friend of many Guyanese political figures, including Cheddi Jagan and Janet Jagan who each later served as President.

While in Guyana, she wrote the ground-breaking study "Attitudes Towards 'Race' in Guyanese Literature" (San Juan: University of Puerto Rico, 1968). She became especially involved with the work of Guyanese author Wilson Harris, becoming one of the leading international authorities on his work. In 1997 she served as guest editor of a special issue of "The Review of Contemporary Fiction" devoted to Harris. Adler's many writings about Harris, originally published in a variety of journals, were published posthumously as the book "Exploring the Palace of the Peacock: Essays on Wilson Harris" (Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 2003). ISBN 976-640-140-3).

In 1968 she returned to the United States after marrying mathematician and author Irving Adler. She lived in Shaftsbury, Vermont for the remainder of her life, raising three of her grandchildren after the death of her daughter Ellen in 1975.

Shortly after coming to Vermont she began work on her book "War in Melville's Imagination" (New York: New York University Press, 1981. ISBN 0-8147-0575-8). This book played an important role in a revolution in Melville criticism, revealing him to be a rebel and social critic rather than an apologist for the status quo.

She adapted three Melville novels as plays, published as the book "Dramatizations of Three Melville Novels, with an Introduction on Interpretation by Dramatization" (Edwin Mellen Press, 1992. ISBN 0-7734-9443-X). Her play "Melville, Billy and Mars," a dramatization of Billy Budd premiered at the University of Kansas in 1995. Her dramatization of Moby-Dick received its first dramatic reading in Kahului, Hawaii at an international meeting of the Melville Society in 2003. Her Benito Cereno was first staged at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 2005.

Adler travelled extensively, speaking at conferences and universities around the world, including Australia, Belgium, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Singapore.

In addition to her professional work, Adler was a committed social activist who engaged in many peace and civil rights movements throughout her life.

Sources

* Joyce Sparer Adler (obituary), Bennington Banner, 9/15/1999
* "Exploring the Palace of the Peacock: Essays on Wilson Harris", Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 2003, pp. xxxv - xxxix. ISBN 976-640-140-3
* Who's Who in the World, 7th Edition, Marquis, Chicago, 1984. ISBN 0-8379-1107-9