Eric Wollencott Barnes

(Frank) Eric Wollencott Barnes (May 7, 1907, Little Rock, Arkansas – December 31, 1962, Boston, Massachusetts) was an American educator, diplomat, actor, and author.

Barnes attended public schools in Little Rock. He entered UCLA in 1925, and in 1926 transferred to L'École des Sciences Politiques in Paris, where he graduated in 1930. He received a diplome d'études superieures from the University of Paris in 1931, followed by a fellowship at the Sorbonne, then obtained a teaching post at the University of Paris in 1932.

In 1940 Barnes received a Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Paris.

In 1930 Barnes enlisted in the United States Foreign Service, and was appointed Vice Consul at Bucharest, Romania, and then in Sofia, Bulgaria. Returning to the U.S. in the mid-1930s he pursued an acting career in New York, where he appeared in several plays under the stage name Eric Wollencott.

In 1938 he took a position at Russell Sage College in Troy, New York, where he quickly rose to become an associate professor and chair of the English department. He became a full professor in 1945.

During World War II Barnes served as a civilian consultant to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and as a military information officer with the O.S.S. in Algiers.

After the war (September 1946) Barnes took a position at Dickinson College, as the Thomas Beaver Professor of English Literature and chair of the department.

...
Wikipedia