Aristides E. Phoutrides papers, 1895-1923

Phoutrides, Aristides E. (Aristides Evangelus) (1887-1923)

Aristides Phoutrides was born in 1887 in the island of Ikaria (Greece). He came to the United States at a very young age. Trained in the Classics at Harvard University (A.B. summa cum laude 1911, Ph.D. 1915), Phoutrides taught Greek and Latin there until 1917 and again in 1921. The same year he left for Yale, where he taught until his sudden and untimely death in the summer of 1923. Despite the brevity of his life, Phoutrides won numerous distinctions and awards. His contribution to the study of Modern Greek literature and folklore was significant. In addition to his pioneering translations of Modern Greek Literature, he was the first in the United States to publish significant critical works on Modern Greek Letters. His personal acquaintance with the poet Kōstēs Palamas, who led Phoutrides from his initial support of puristic Greek (kathareuousa) to an appreciation of demotic Greek, had great impact on the formation of his intellectual and scholarly identity. In addition to scholarship, Phoutrides devoted himself to creative writing. His literary works, ranging from poetry to short stories and drama, were all written in English and published in various periodicals of the time. On May 21st, 1916 the Boston Herald wrote: "Aristides E. Phoutrides is one of the great poets of the future." He also established one of the first Greek student organizations in the United States, Helikōn (1911-1918).

After his death his widow, Margaret Garrison Phoutrides, donated part of his personal library to the Harvard College Library, and also endowed a scholarship in her husband's memory. [http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~modgreek/history.html]