Roger Shattuck

Roger Whitney Shattuck (August 20, 1923 in Manhattan, New York – December 8, 2005 in Lincoln, Vermont) was an American writer best known for his books on French literature, art, and music of the twentieth century.

Born in New York City to parents Howard Francis Shattuck, a physician, and Elizabeth (Colt) Shattuck, he studied at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire before entering Yale College.

He left Yale to join the Army Air Corps, serving as a cargo pilot in the Pacific theater during the Second World War. He spoke little about his experience in the war, but tried writing about it his entire life. He tried capturing the moment he flew over Nagasaki with his copilot, seeing the aftermath and rubble on the ground. After the war, he returned to school, graduating from Yale in 1947. Shattuck then moved to Paris where he worked for UNESCO's film service. In this capacity he came into contact with luminaries of European culture such as Jean Cocteau, Alice B. Toklas and Georges Braque, and met his future wife Nora White, a dancer with the Ballets Russes.

Returned to New York, Shattuck worked in publishing, and later taught at Harvard University, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Virginia, and Boston University, despite his lack of a graduate degree. He retired as a professor emeritus from Boston University in 1997.

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