| Joseph Leon Edel | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Leon Edel |
| Born | 9 September 1907 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | 5 September 1997 Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. |
| Nativity | United States |
| Religion | Jewish |
| Known for | Biography of Henry James |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| ASN | 32982708 |
| Rank | Technical Sergeant |
| Rank at Ritchie | Private |
| Camp Ritchie | Class 13 (30 October – 23 December 1943) |
| Section | 7A (13); E (13) |
| Enlisted | New York City, New York |
{{Needs source}}, or explain disagreements on talk. Baseline import notes: About the data.
Joseph Leon Edel (1907–1997) was a Ritchie Boy (born Leon Edel; from United States; Jewish) who trained at Camp Ritchie in class 13.
Biography
Right|thumb|125px|Cover of volume one of Leon Edel's five-volume biography of Henry James, Avon Books paperback edition 1978 Edel was born on 9 September 1907 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Fannie (Malamud) and Simon Edel. In it Edel, who was born in Pittsburgh to Russian parents, writes about his arrival to Camp Ritchie, his training at the MITC, and then his transfer to Camp Sharpe, where we joined one of the Mobile Radio Broadcasting teams.
For the academic year 1965–1966, he was a fellow on the faculty at the Center for Advanced Studies of Wesleyan University. And at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (1972–1978). Edel enjoyed privileged access to letters and documents from James' life housed in the Widener Library at Harvard University, after gaining the blessing of members of James' family.
During WWII, Edel trained at Camp Ritchie and was one of the Ritchie Boys. There are many good non-fiction books and short stories that describe the experiences of Ritchie Boys during their training at Camp Ritchie and their service in WWII. Back on February 9, I wrote the following: "There are many good non-fiction books and short stories that describe the experiences of Ritchie Boys during their training at Camp Ritchie and their service in WWII.
The discovery of impassioned but inconclusive letters written in 1875–1876 by James to the Russian aristocrat Paul Zhukovski, while Edel was deep in the process of finishing his biography caused an ethical crisis; his decision was to continue to ignore what he considered a peripheral aspect of the self-identified "celibate" and sexually diffident James's life. Joseph Leon Edel (9 September 1907 – 5 September 1997) was an American/Canadian literary critic and biographer. He married his first wife Bertha Cohen in 1935.
From 1944 to 1952, he worked as a reporter and feature writer for the left-wing New York newspapers PM and The Daily Compass. Though he wrote on James Joyce (James Joyce: The Last Journey, 1947), Willa Cather (Willa Cather: A Critical Biography, 1953) and the Bloomsbury group, his lifework is summed up in his five-volume biography of Henry James (Henry James: A Biography 1953–1972). The marriage ended in divorce in 1950.
Edel discussed the notion of biography in Literary Biography (1957), in particular his conviction that literary biography should enfold a subjective author's self-perceptions into his output. Edel's second and third volumes of the James biography earned him the 1963 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and a National Book Award for Nonfiction in 1963. His edition (1975-93) appeared in five volumes covering the decades from the 1920s to the 1960s.
He then married Roberta Roberts and in 1979 that marriage also ended in divorce. His third marriage, to Marjorie Sinclair, lasted until his death in 1997. Novick published Henry James: The Young Master (in 2007 Novick also published Henry James: The Mature Master).
He was the elder brother of North American philosopher Abraham Edel. The Encyclopædia Britannica calls Edel "the foremost 20th-century authority on the life and works of Henry James." His work on James won him both a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize. He discussed his time at the camp in his memoir The Visitable Past.
He also edited many collections of James' fiction, plays, literary criticism and personal letters. He referred to other scholars who sought access in vain as 'trespassers'. Edel did treat James's relationships with novelist Constance Fenimore Woolson and sculptor Hendrik Christian Andersen at length, especially in volumes three and four of the biography.
After weighing all the evidence, Edel confessed that he was unable to decide whether James experienced a consummated sexual relationship. Although later scholarship and new materials have called into question the accuracy of his portrait of James, Edel's work remains an important source for studies of the author. Novick's volume "caused something of an uproar in Jamesian circles" as, like other more recent biographies of Walt Whitman and John Singer Sargent, it challenged the notion, deriving from a once-familiar paradigm in biographies of homosexuals when direct evidence was non-existent, that James lived a celibate life.
Novick also criticized Edel for following a discounted Freudian interpretation of homosexuality "as a kind of failure." Edel also edited the notebooks and diaries of literary critic Edmund Wilson. Edel was married three times.
I came across an excerpt from Ritchie Boy Leon Edel's memoirs. "(Hans Habe, an instructor) spoke about opposition within the army to psychological warfare. Old army hands regarded us as superfluous.
Bullets, not words, were the staples of combat. However, the military had to reckon with the comparatively new media of broadcasting. A special kind of communication was required if we were to reach our fighting enemy, our occupied allies, or newly liberated populations.
This was the supreme and not very secret mission of psychological warfare." Books by such authors as Nina Wolff Feld, Bruce Henderson, Beverley Eddy, and K. Lang Slattery are just a few that come to mind. I especially enjoy the first-hand stories written by Ritchie Boys, only a few of which I have read.
Recently I read and wrote about The Visitable Past written by Pulitzer Prize winning author Leon Edel. Today, I finished a book by Max Lerner, Flight and Return, A Memoir of World War II. Also an excellent book and easy read.
Also an excellent book and easy read." Today, I finished a novel by Ritchie Boy Maximilian, The Expendable Spy. Here is an excerpt from the review on Amazon: From the deserts of Libya and Egypt to the icy lakes of Scotland, from London under the Blitz to German occupied France, from Alpine glaciers to the stately homes of Britain, the book ranges over the landscapes of World War II.
In October 1996, about a year before Edel died, Sheldon M. He died on 5 September 1997.
Research notes
- Henry James Scholar
- to 3rd MRBC, 12/31/43
- Henry James scholar
- Author, "The Visitable Past"
- Portrait and summary from Notable Ritchie Boys slides (source).
Gallery
Technical record
| Field | Imported value |
|---|---|
| MRBC3 | 3 |
| Approx Age at Death | 90 |
| Nara ASN | 32982708 |
| Nara Name | EDEL JOSEPH L |
| Nara State | 23 |
| Nara County | 61 |
| Nara POE | 2364 |
| Nara DOE | 120743 |
| Nara Grade Alpha | PVT |
| Nara Grade Code | 8 |
| Nara Branch Alpha | NO |
| Nara Branch Code | 2 |
| Branch | No branch assignment |
| Nara Term or Enlistment | 5 |
| Term of enlistment | Enlistment for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law |
| Defer. Date | 0 |
| Nara Source | 0 |
| Nara Nativity | 32 |
| Nativity.1 | PENNSYLVANIA |
| Nara Year of Birth | 7 |
| Nara Race | 1 |
| Nara Race Description | White citizen |
| Nara Education | 7 |
| Nara Civilian Occupation | 6 |
| Nara Marital Status | 2 |
| Nara Height (inches) | 83 |
| Nara Weight (lbs) | 993 |
| Class_ASN | 32982708 |
| Class_Name | EDEL, Joseph L.; Edel, Joseph L. |
| match_method | asn_exact_name_exact |
| row_source | both |
Sources
- Wikipedia: Leon Edel
- Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
- Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
- NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
- 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
- Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2020-01-20 (1 post)
- Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2020-02-09 (1 post)
- Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2020-03-23 (1 post)
- Dan Gross, Timeline of Joseph Leon Edel for Camp Ritchie (private research document; 1 source documents reviewed)
- Dan Gross, Timeline of Edel, Joseph Leon for Camp Ritchie (private research files; selected non-private narrative findings; 1 source files: JOSEPH L. EDEL.doc)