Carroll, Carleton W. 1939-

PERSONAL:

Born October 20, 1939, in Rochester, NY; son of Clayton W. (a teacher) and Beatrice J. (a teacher) Carroll; married; wife's name Paulette (a writer), June 27, 1963. Education: Ohio State University, B.A., 1961; University of Wisconsin, M.A., 1965, Ph.D., 1968.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Corvallis, OR.

CAREER:

Academician and translator. University of Wisconsin, Madison, assistant professor, 1968-74; Oregon State University, Corvallis, assistant professor, 1974-78, associate professor, 1978-94, professor, 1994-2001.

MEMBER:

International Arthurian Society, International Courtly Literature Society, Medieval Association of the Pacific, Esperanto League of North America, Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Order of the Academic Palms (France), 1992.

WRITINGS:

(Translator, with Robert W. Ackerman and Frederick W. Locke) Chrétien de Troyes, Ywain, the Knight of the Lion, Ungar (New York, NY), 1977.

(Editor and translator) Chrétien de Troyes, Erec and Enide, introduction by William W. Kibler, Garland (New York, NY), 1987.

(Translator) Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances, introduction by William W. Kibler, Penguin Books (New York, NY), 1991.

(Editor, and translator, with Lois Hawley Wilson) Olivier de la Marche, Le Chevalier Délibéré (title means "The Resolute Knight"), Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (Tempe, AZ), 1999.

(Editor, with Barbara K. Altmann) The Court Reconvenes: Courtly Literature across the Disciplines: Selected Papers from the Ninth Triennial Congress of the International Courtly Literature Society, University of British Columbia, 25-31 July, 1998, D.S. Brewer (Rochester, NY), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Carleton W. Carroll is an academician and translator. Born in Rochester, New York, on October 20, 1939, Carroll comes from a family of educators. In 1961 Carroll earned a bachelor of arts degree from Ohio State University. Two years later, he married a writer. In 1965 Carroll completed a master of arts degree from the University of Wisconsin, and by 1968, he had completed a Ph.D. as well. In that year, he was hired by the University of Wisconsin at Madison as an assistant professor, holding that position until 1974. At that point he moved to Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, also serving as an assistant professor. In 1978 he was promoted to associate professor. He was a full professor from 1994 until his retirement in 2001. In 1992 he was inducted into France's Order of the Academic Palms.

Carroll translated his first book from French into English in 1977 when he published Ywain, the Knight of the Lion. Translated with Robert W. Ackerman and Frederick W. Locke, the story was originally written by Chrétien de Troyes, a late-twelfth-century French poet and troubadour. The romantic story features Celtic characters and is translated into a moderate form of English, not entirely modern, nor outmoded. In 1987 Carroll edited and translated another of Chrétien de Troyes' stories, called Erec and Enide. The story relates the love between Erec, the son of King Lac, a knight of the Round Table, and Enide, the daughter of a minor nobleman. In 1991 Carroll translated a collection of Chrétien de Troyes' works, packaged as Arthu-rian Romances. In addition to including the previous two stories, the collection also includes "Cligés" and "Lancelot."

In 1999 Carroll edited Le Chevalier Délibéré, an allegorical poem by Olivier de la Marche, a Burgundian poet and chronicler. Carroll had assistance with the translation from Lois Hawley Wilson. This fifteenth-century story reflects the times as chivalry came into decline as the Renaissance approached. Edward Benson, writing in the Renaissance Quarterly, found the poem "charming to read," but had "a couple of quibbles with the translation." Benson concluded: "This volume would be a valuable addition to institutions with graduate programs in European history or French literature. Not the least of its attractions is a series of fifteen descriptions, also carefully translated, of what Olivier wanted in decorative miniatures."

In 2003 Carroll, with Barbara K. Altmann, edited The Court Reconvenes: Courtly Literature across the Disciplines: Selected Papers from the Ninth Triennial Congress of the International Courtly Literature Society, University of British Columbia, 25-31 July, 1998. The collection contains thirty-four essays, the majority of which are in English. Angus J. Kennedy, writing in Medium Aevum, remarked that "this volume retains all the strengths of its predecessors: breadth of interest, first-rate editing, publishing standards of the highest technical quality."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

French Studies, April, 2001, Adrian Armstrong, review of Le Chevalier Délibéré, p. 228; October, 2005, Leslie C. Brook, review of The Court Reconvenes: Courtly Literature across the Disciplines: Selected Papers from the Ninth Triennial Congress of the International Courtly Literature Society, University of British Columbia, 25-31 July, 1998, p. 533.

Medium Aevum, fall, 1989, review of Erec and Enide; fall, 2005, Angus J. Kennedy, review of The Court Reconvenes.

Renaissance Quarterly, summer, 2000, Edward Benson, review of Le Chevalier Délibéré.

Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies, January, 1990, Michelle A. Freeman, review of Erec and Enide, p. 138.