Paul Fussell facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Paul Fussell
Fussell in Paris, France, May 1945
Born	(1924-03-22)22 March 1924 Pasadena, California
Died	23 May 2012(2012-05-23) (aged 88) Medford, Oregon
Occupation	Educator; historian; social critic; author
Language	English
Alma mater	Pomona College (B.A.), Harvard University (MA), (PhD)
Genre	Non-fiction
Years active	1951–2003
Notable awards	Literary: National Book Award; National Book Critics Circle Award; Ralph Waldo Emerson Award.
Spouse	Betty Harper ​ ​ (m. 1949; div. 1981)​ Harriette Behringer ​ (m. 1987)​
Children	Rosalind Fussell, Samuel Wilson Fussell
Military career
Allegiance	United States of America
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	Purple Heart; Bronze Star
Signature

Paul Fussell Jr. (born March 22, 1924 – died May 23, 2012) was an American writer, historian, and university professor. He studied how culture and literature changed over time. His books covered many topics, from old English literature to how social classes work in America. Fussell fought in World War II and was injured in France. After the war, he wrote many books and taught at universities like Rutgers University and the University of Pennsylvania. He is most famous for his writings about World War I and II. He showed the real, often harsh, truth of war, instead of a romantic idea of it.

Paul Fussell's Life Story

Paul Fussell was born in Pasadena, California. He was the second of three children. His father, Paul Fussell, was a lawyer in Los Angeles. His mother, Wilhma Wilson Sill, was from Illinois. Paul's brother, Edwin Sill Fussell, was also a writer and professor. His sister, Florence Fussell Lind, lives in Berkeley, California.

Paul Fussell had two children. His daughter, Rosalind, is an artist and teacher. She wrote a graphic novel. His son, Samuel Wilson Fussell, is a writer. He wrote a book about bodybuilding.

Paul Fussell went to Pomona College in 1941. In 1943, he joined the United States Army as an officer. He arrived in France in 1944 as a 20-year-old second lieutenant. He was part of the 103rd Infantry Division. He was wounded while fighting in Alsace, France. For his bravery, he received the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

After the war in Europe ended, Fussell returned to the United States. He was preparing to go to Japan with the 45th Infantry Division. He later wrote an essay called "Thank God for the Atom Bomb." This essay was about hearing the news of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki while waiting to deploy.

Fussell left the Army in 1946. He went back to Pomona College and finished his degree in 1947. In 1949, he married Betty Harper, who also went to Pomona. He then earned his master's and PhD degrees from Harvard University.

He started teaching at Connecticut College in 1951. Then he moved to Rutgers University in 1955. Later, in 1983, he joined the University of Pennsylvania. He also taught in Germany and England. He traveled a lot with his family in Europe during the 1950s to 1970s.

Paul Fussell and Betty Fussell divorced in 1981. He later married Harriette Behringer. He retired from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994. He lived with his wife in Oregon.

Paul Fussell's Books and Teaching

When Paul Fussell first went to college, he wanted to be a journalist. But his plans changed after a sergeant was killed next to him in battle. He wrote about this experience in his memoir Doing Battle (1996). In his books, he often spoke out against war. He believed in clear thinking and honesty. He showed what he saw as fake government talk and bad popular culture.

His first published book was Theory of Prosody in Eighteenth-Century England. This book later became Poetic Meter and Poetic Form (1965). It was a popular textbook for understanding poetry. He also wrote Samuel Johnson and The Life of Writing (1971). This book looked closely at the work of the English writer, Samuel Johnson.

One of his most famous books is The Great War and Modern Memory (1975). This book won several awards. It explored how World War I affected modern literature and writing styles. Historian John Keegan said this book was "revolutionary." It showed how literature could explain what large groups of people experienced. Joseph Heller, another famous writer, called it "the best book I know of about world war one."

Abroad: British Literary Travelling Between the Wars (1980) was a new kind of study. It looked at travel books written by authors like Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene.

Fussell enjoyed the discussions that came from his book Class: A Guide Through the American Status System (1983). He also wrote BAD: or, The Dumbing of America (1991). This book showed his strong opinions. His book Thank God for the Atom Bomb and Other Essays (1988) continued his fight against misleading language from governments and the military.

His book Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War (1989) explored how people acted during World War II. In his memoir Doing Battle: The Making of a Skeptic (1996), he wrote about losing his childhood beliefs. He realized the world was not always fair or reasonable. His last book, The Boys' Crusade: The American Infantry in Northwestern Europe, 1944–45 (2003), was again about the experiences of soldiers in World War II.

Awards and Special Recognitions

Paul Fussell's book The Great War and Modern Memory (1975) won many important awards. These included the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It was also named one of the 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the Twentieth Century by the Modern Library.

In 1977, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. This is a special honor for writers.

He won the 2005 Hessell-Tiltman Prize for his book The Boys' Crusade. Paul Fussell was also interviewed in two documentaries. He appeared in Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's film The War (2007). He was also in the ABC documentary The Century: America's Time (1999).

His Final Years

Paul Fussell passed away on May 23, 2012. He was 88 years old. He died of natural causes in Medford, Oregon. Before that, he had lived in Portland, Oregon for two years.

Books by Paul Fussell

• Theory of Prosody in Eighteenth-Century England. 1954.
• Poetic Meter and Poetic Form. 1965.
• The Rhetorical World of Augustan Humanism: Ethics and Imagery from Swift to Burke. 1965.
• Theory of Prosody in Eighteenth-Century England. 1966.
• Eighteenth-Century English Literature. 1969. editor with Geoffrey Tillotson and Marshall Waingrow
• Samuel Johnson and The Life of Writing. 1971.
• English Augustan Poetry. 1972.
• The Great War and Modern Memory. Oxford University Press. 1975. pp. 384. ISBN 0-19-513332-3. OCLC 1631561.
• The Ordeal of Alfred M. Hale: The Memoirs of a Soldier Servant. 1975. editor
• Abroad: British Literary Travelling Between the Wars. 1980.
• The Boy Scout Handbook and Other Observations. 1982.
• Sassoon's Long Journey. 1983. editor, from The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston
• Class: A Guide Through the American Status System. Touchstone. 1983. ISBN 978-0-671-79225-1. https://archive.org/details/class00paul.
• Caste Marks: Style and Status in the USA. 1984. – this is the UK edition of Class
• The Norton Book of Travel. 1987. editor
• Thank God for the Atom Bomb and Other Essays. 1988.
• Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War. Oxford University Press. 1989. pp. 352. ISBN 978-0-19-506577-0. OCLC 19125231. https://archive.org/details/wartimeunderstan00paul/page/352.
• BAD – Or, The Dumbing of America. 1991.
• The Bloody Game: An Anthology of Modern War. 1991.
• Fussell, Paul (1990). The Norton Book of Modern War. ISBN 0-393-02909-3. OCLC 21521876. https://archive.org/details/nortonbookofmode00fuss. editor
• The Anti-Egotist. Kingsley Amis: Man of Letters. 1994.
• Fussell, Paul (1996). Doing Battle – The Making of a Skeptic. ISBN 0-316-29717-8. OCLC 34192801. https://archive.org/details/doingbattlemakin00fuss. autobiography
• Fussell, Paul (2002). Uniforms: Why We Are What We Wear. ISBN 0-618-06746-9. https://archive.org/details/uniformswhyweare00paul.
• Fussell, Paul (2003). The Boys' Crusade: The American Infantry in Northwestern Europe, 1944–1945. ISBN 0-679-64088-6. https://archive.org/details/boyscrusadea00fuss.

See also

In Spanish: Paul Fussell para niños