Joyce Sparer Adler

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Joyce Sparer Adler
Born(1915-12-02)December 2, 1915[1]
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedSeptember 13, 1999(1999-09-13) (aged 83)
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Critic, playwright and teacher
Known forFounding faculty-member of University of Guyana

Joyce Sparer Adler (December 2, 1915 – September 13, 1999) was an American critic, playwright, and teacher. She was a founding member of the faculty of the University of Guyana,[1] writer of important critical analyses of Wilson Harris and Herman Melville, and 1988 president of the Melville Society.

Biography

Joyce Sparer Adler was born in New York City, the daughter of Louis and Lillian (Solomon) Lifshutz. She received a B.A. cum laude[citation needed] from Brooklyn College in 1935, and an M.A. in 1951. Her first marriage, to Max Sparer, ended in divorce. She had two daughters, Ellen and Laura.

She was an English teacher in the New York City public school system, and an active member of the teachers'

screenplays[citation needed] and editing for the journal Blood.[1]

In 1963 she traveled to Georgetown, Guyana as a member of a small group recruited to conduct seminars for teachers in the colony of British Guiana, after which she was invited by Premier Cheddi Jagan[citation needed] to return and be a founding member of the University of Guyana.[citation needed] She stayed for five years, during which time she was actively involved in the political events that led to the independence of Guyana from Great Britain.[citation needed] She was a friend of many Guyanese political figures, including Cheddi Jagan and Janet Jagan[citation needed] who each later served as president.

While in Guyana, she wrote the study Attitudes Towards 'Race' in Guyanese Literature (San Juan: University of Puerto Rico, 1968). She became especially involved with the work of Guyanese author Wilson Harris, becoming one of the leading international authorities [

ISBN 976-640-140-3
).

In 1968, she returned to the United States after marrying mathematician and author Irving Adler.[3] She lived in Shaftsbury, Vermont for the remainder of her life, raising three of her grandchildren after the death of her daughter Ellen in 1975.

Shortly after coming to

ISBN 0-8147-0575-8
).

She adapted three Melville novels as plays, published as the book Dramatizations of Three Melville Novels, with an Introduction on Interpretation by Dramatization (Edwin Mellen Press, 1992.

Billy Budd, premiered at the University of Kansas in 1995. Her dramatization of Moby-Dick received its first dramatic reading in Kahului, Hawaii at an international meeting of the Melville Society in 2003. Her Benito Cereno was first staged at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts
in 2005.

Adler traveled extensively, speaking at conferences and universities around the world, [citation needed] including Australia, Belgium, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Singapore.

In addition to her professional work, Adler was a committed

civil rights
movements throughout her life.

Notes

  1. ^
    ISBN 976-640-140-3
    .
  2. ^ "Teacher and writer Irving Adler dies at 99". Washington Post. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
  3. ISBN 9766401403
    .

References
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