Bernard Benstock (1930-1994)

Bernard Benstock, Professor of English at University of Miami and a charter member of the MFS International Advisory Board, died on July 14, 1994. Professor Benstock was an internationally reknowned scholar of Joyce studies and author of many books, including Joyce-again's Wake: An Analysis of Finnegans Wake (1965); James Joyce: the Undiscover'd Country (1977); James Joyce (1985); Narrative Con/Texts in Ulysses (1991), and the recently pu7blished Narrative Con/Texts in Dubliners. He was an editor of many important collections of essays on Joyce, as well as an author of books on Sean O'Casey, Dashiell Hammett and Lillian Hellman. To cite the memorial notice published in the July, 1994 James Joyce Newsletter, "he was . . . a truly extraordinary person, a superb and supportive colleague to untold numbers of Joyceans all over the world. He will be remembered for his brillant criticism and his endless curiosity; for his meticulous scholarship and his marvelously quick wit; for his incisiveness and his good nature; for his meticulous and high standards and his generous spirit." That generosity of spirit will be missed at MFS, for Professor Benstock was a valued member of the Board, always ready to provide us with thorough and insightful evaluations of the manuscripts we sent to him. We mourn his loss and join in the remembrances of him, which will include a memorial service at the University of Maimi on October 21, 1994, a James Joyce Society memorial tribute at the Gotham Book Mart in New York City on October 26, 1994, and a newly established scholarship, the Bernard Benstock Fellowship in Twentieth-Century Literary Studies at the University of Miami.