{{short description|American historian}} '''Terrence Des Pres''' (1939 – November 16, 1987) was an American writer and Holocaust scholar.<ref name="NYT-obit">{{cite news| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE0DA133DF93BA25752C1A961948260| title=Terrence Des Pres, 47, A Writer and Professor| work=The New York Times| date= November 18, 1987}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MUn6-UtphPoC&dq=Terrence+Des+Pres&pg=PA91| title=Fifty Key Thinkers on the Holocaust and Genocide|author=Paul R. Bartrop |author2=Steven L. Jacobs | publisher =Taylor & Francis|year= 2010 | isbn= 978-0-415-77550-2 }}</ref>
== Life == Terrence Des Pres was born in Effingham, Illinois in 1939. He graduated from Southeast Missouri State College in 1962. He went on to graduate study in philosophy<ref name="UHMM"/> at Washington University in St. Louis, completing his doctorate there in 1968.<ref name="NYT-obit"/>
He was appointed a junior fellow in the Society of Fellows at Harvard University, where he formed a friendship with John Nathan. Des Pres served as the society's sommelier.<ref name="Nathan">Nathan, John (2008). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=poftzRFrMesC&pg=PA125 Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere: A Memoir]''. New York: Free Press. p. 125-126. {{ISBN|9781416593782}}</ref>
He was married twice, and had a son with his first wife.<ref>"[https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bostonglobe/name/judith-des-pres-obituary?id=24515429 Judith Des Pres Obituary]". ''The Boston Globe'', December 17–18, 2008; via Legacy.com.</ref>
== Work == Beginning in 1973 Des Pres was a professor at Colgate University, where he held the William Henry Crawshaw Chair in Literature;<ref name="NYT-obit"/> he taught classes on poetry, British and Irish literature, and the literature of the Holocaust.<ref name="UHMM">"[https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn38040 Terrence Des Pres papers]" – Biography. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 2025-05-31.</ref> At Colgate, he spent time with writer Frederick Busch.<ref>Hawtree, Christopher (March 24, 2006). "[https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/mar/25/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries Frederick Busch]". ''The Guardian''. Retrieved 2025-05-31.</ref><ref>Busch, Frederick (fall 1996). "Terrence Des Pres". ''TriQuarterly'', [https://issuu.com/triquarterly/docs/97 vol. 97], p. 60-67.</ref>
Des Pres is best known for his work on the Holocaust documented in his book ''The Survivor: An Anatomy of Life in the Death Camps''.
He also wrote ''Praises & Dispraises'', published posthumously in 1988, which dealt with poetry and its usefulness for survival.<ref>Dekoven, Marianne (October 2, 1988). "[https://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/02/books/heroic-resistance.html Heroic resistance]" [review of Des Pres's ''Praises & Dispraises'']. ''New York Times''. Retrieved 2025-05-31.</ref>
== Death == Des Pres died on November 16, 1987, at his home in Hamilton, New York.<ref name="NYT-obit"/> John Nathan refers to the death in his memoir as a suicide.<ref name="Nathan"/> Des Pres's death was ruled "accidental" by the Madison County medical examiners' office, Madison, NY.<ref name="Mariana">Mariani, Maria Anna. "Close reading of a title: On ''Survival in Auschwitz''", p. 247-264; here: 259 (note 12). In: ''The Ethics of Survival in Contemporary Literature and Culture'', eds. Rudolf Freiburg and Gerd Bayer. p. 259.{{isbn|978-3-030-83422-7}}</ref> According to a 1990 ''Boston Globe'' article, he died by hanging.<ref name="Mariana"/><ref>Mehegan, David (December 27, 1990). "The Holocaust and the Demon in us All". ''The Boston Globe''.</ref>
After his death, poet Paul Mariani spoke at a service for Des Pres at Colgate,<ref name="ColgateScene">{{cite web |date=January 1997 |title=Remembering Terrence Des Pres|url=http://colgate.edu/scene/jan1997/despres.html |website=The Colgate Scene |publisher=Colgate University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160919084624/http://colgate.edu/scene/jan1997/despres.html |archive-date=2016-09-19 |access-date=2025-05-21}}</ref> where they may have spent time together as Mariani worked on his master's degree.
==See also== *List of Harvard Junior Fellows *Carolyn Forché, who was influenced by Des Pres, and organized the "Genocide and Memory" conference in 1997, where Des Pres was remembered.<ref name="ColgateScene"/> Her poem "Ourselves or Nothing" is about Des Pres. *Peter Balakian, poet and Colgate professor, also organized the 1997 "Genocide and Memory conference.<ref name="ColgateScene"/> In addition to their Colgate connection, Balakian is of Armenian descent, and Des Pres' work with survival literature included the Armenian genocide. *Paul Mariani, poet, wrote the introduction to Des Pres' collection of essays "Writing Into the World" *Geoffrey Hartman, professor at Yale University, had interviewed Des Pres and presented a video of it at the "Genocide and Memory" conference along with a paper.<ref name="ColgateScene"/>
== Bibliography == *{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ae5NL9JuIOgC&q=Terrence+Des+Pres| title=The Survivor: An Anatomy of Life in the Death Camps| place= New York| publisher= Oxford University Press| year= 1976| isbn= 0-19-501952-0 }}; reprint, Oxford University Press, 1980, {{ISBN|978-0-19-502703-7}} *{{cite book| title=Praises & dispraises: poetry and politics, the 20th century | url=https://archive.org/details/praisesdispraise0000desp | url-access=registration | publisher=Viking| year= 1988| isbn=978-0-670-80406-1 }} *''Writing into the World.'' New York: Viking. 1991. foreword by Elie Wiesel {{ISBN|0-670-80464-9}} * "Remembering Armenia" to introduce ''The Armenian Genocide in Perspective''. edited by Richard G. Hovannisian Transaction Publishers: 1986. {{ISBN|0-88738-636-9}} {{ISBN|978-0-88738-636-7}} *"Introduction" for ''Treblinka: The inspiring story of the 600 Jews who revolted against their murderers and burned a Nazi death camp to the ground'', by Jean-Francois Steiner. Plume, 1994. {{ISBN|0-452-01124-8}}
===Edited=== * {{cite book| title=Thomas McGrath: life and the poem |editor=Reginald Gibbons |editor2=Terrence Des Pres | publisher =University of Illinois Press| year= 1992| isbn= 978-0-252-01852-7 }}
== Awards ==
* 1978: National Jewish Book Award in the Holocaust category for ''The Survivor: An Anatomy of Life in the Death Camps''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/awards/national-jewish-book-awards/past-winners?category=30757|title=Past Winners|website=Jewish Book Council|language=en|access-date=2020-01-21}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
== Further reading == *"[http://www.interfaithfamily.com/relationships/travel/This_Land_Is_My_Land_but_Maybe_Not_Your_Land.shtml This Land is My Land, but Maybe Not Your Land]"{{dead link|date=May 2025}} InterfaithFamily.com – Jean-Paul Des Pres article mentioning his father
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Des Pres, Terrence}} Category:1939 births Category:1987 deaths Category:20th-century American historians Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:American historians of the Holocaust Category:Colgate University faculty Category:People from Effingham, Illinois Category:Southeast Missouri State University alumni Category:Washington University in St. Louis alumni Category:Suicides by hanging in New York (state) Category:Historians from New York (state) Category:Historians from Illinois Category:20th-century American male writers Category:Harvard Fellows