Lee M. Hollander

Lee Milton Hollander (November 8, 1880 – October 19, 1972) was an American scholar of Norse literature and mythology. He was a long-term faculty member and head of the Department of Germanic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and published many translations of Old Norse texts.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Hollander received his primary and secondary education in Frankfurt and his B.A. (in Germanic philology with minors in comparative literature and English) and PhD (with a dissertation on prefixal -s in Germanic) from Johns Hopkins University. He then spent two years traveling and studying in Scandinavia. On his return to the United States he taught German and Norwegian at the University of Michigan and then the University of Wisconsin and began to publish first translations and then scholarly articles. When World War I broke out, he lost his job like other faculty who taught German, and worked for the university library maintaining a newspaper clippings file until being hired by the University of Texas in 1920. He spent the remainder of his teaching career there, 47 years. He became chairman of the Department of Germanic Studies in 1929 and after his retirement was Professor Emeritus.

Hollander's translation of Kierkegaard was the first into English. In his translations of Old Norse works, he placed high importance on preserving the style. His complete works encompass 16 books and monographs, 22 translations, 88 articles, and 157 reviews.

Hollander married Jean Wright Fisher in June 1912; they had three children. He played violin in both the University of Texas Symphony Orchestra and the Austin Symphony Orchestra, and participated in founding both. He was also a gardener and beekeeper. He was politically liberal and contributed to The Nation and volunteered at the Austin Human Rights Center helping students master English. He died on his way home from the University of Texas campus on October 19, 1972.

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