Ousby, Ian (Vaughan Kenneth) 1947-2001

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OUSBY, Ian (Vaughan Kenneth) 1947-2001

PERSONAL: Surname is pronounced Ooz-bee; born June 26, 1947, in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England; came to the United States, 1968; died from lung and liver cancer, August 6, 2001; son of Arthur Valentine (a soldier) and Betty Lettice Grace (Green) Ousby; married Heather Dubrow, June 23, 1969 (divorced, 1979); married Mary Dustan Turner (divorced, 1993); married Anna Saunders. Education: Magdalene College, Cambridge, B.A., 1968, M.A., 1972; Harvard University, Ph.D., 1973. Hobbies and other interests: Looking at pictures and buildings; listening to music.

CAREER: University of Durham, Durham, England, temporary lecturer and tutor in English, 1974-75; University of Maryland, College Park, assistant professor, 1975-78, associate professor of English, 1978-2001. Participant in scholarly meetings. Guest on Canadian radio program, "Ideas."

AWARDS, HONORS: Fulbright travel grant, 1968-73; faculty research awards, University of Maryland, 1977 and 1978; Guggenheim fellowship, 1980-81; Edith McLeod Literary Prize, Stern Silver PEN Award, 1998, for Occupation: The Ordeal of France, 1940-1944.

WRITINGS:

Bloodhounds of Heaven: The Detective in English Fiction from Godwin to Doyle, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1976.

An Introduction to Fifty American Novels, Barnes & Noble (New York, NY), 1979.

(Editor, with John Lewis Bradley) Guide to Literature in English, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1987.

(Editor) Correspondence of John Ruskin and Charles Eliot Norton, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1987.

The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1988, new edition, 1993.

The Englishman's England: Taste, Travel, and the Rise of Tourism, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1990.

England, 10th edition (Ousby not associated with earlier editions), Norton (New York, NY), 1989.

Literary Britain and Ireland, 2nd edition, Norton (New York, NY), 1990. (Editor) James Plumptre's Britain: The Journals of a Tourist in the 1790s, Hutchinson (London, England), 1992.

The Blue Guide to Burgundy, 1992.

Cambridge Paperback Guide to Literature in English, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Guilty Parties: A Mystery Lover's Companion, Thames & Hudson (New York, NY), 1997.

The Crime and Mystery Book, 1997.

Cambridge Guide to Fiction in English, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1998.

Occupation: The Ordeal of France, 1940-1944, Cooper Square Press (New York, NY), 1998.

The Road to Verdun: World War I's Most Momentous Battle and the Folly of Nationalism, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2002, published as The Road to Verdun: France, Nationalism and the First World War, J. Cape (London, England), 2002.

Also editor, with John L. Bradley, of The Letters of John Ruskin to His Father, 1862. Contributing editor, Bleak House (critical edition), Norton (New York, NY), 1977. Contributor of column, Lone Star Book Review. Contributor to Mystery Encyclopedia, The Yearbook of English Studies, and Mystery and Detection Annual. Contributor of about thirty articles and reviews to literature journals, including University of Toronto Quarterly, Modern Language Review, Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Poe Studies, Victorian Poetry, and James Joyce Quarterly.

SIDELIGHTS: Ian Ousby examined two critical subjects in French history with his books The Road to Verdun: Nationalism and the Folly of World War I's Most Momentous Battle and Occupation: The Ordeal of France, 1940-1944. The battle of Verdun was a grisly bloodbath that lasted for months. The city of Verdun, France, was surrounded by nineteen forts, and the countryside around it filled with hundreds of thousands of French and German soldiers. The fighting began on February 21, 1916, and continued until December of that year. The French forces were known for their heroism in the face of overwhelming odds. The source of their courage is usually held to be their strong sense that France must be protected at all costs. Drawing on published and unpublished accounts, letters, and diaries from combatants in the battle, as well as scholars and artists who interpreted it later, Ousby gives the military details of the critical battle of Verdun and a historical analysis of French nationalism and its power. In doing so, he creates "a unique view of a specific battle and of warfare in general," remarked a writer for Kirkus Reviews. "To understand modern political thinking in France and the enthusiasm that France has for greater integration in Europe, one must understand Verdun—and the French people's determination that it can never be allowed to happen again," commented Michael Rose in Spectator. Ousby's account is a "consistently intelligent and readable" analysis of The Road to Verdun, stated a New Statesman reviewer.

Some of those fighting at Verdun went on to play major roles in World War II as well, including Charles de Gaulle and Marshal Petain; the former was the leader of the French resistance movement following German occupation, while the latter was the head of the Vichy government that cooperated with the Nazis. Ousby examined the painful years when the Nazis occupied France in Occupation: The Ordeal of France, 1940-1944. While a popular myth exists that most French people were resistant to the Vichy regime and its Nazi sponsors, Ousby shows that collaboration was unfortunately common. On the other hand, he does not discredit even the most seemingly trivial acts of resistance, stating that they did much to demoralize the Germans. Occupation is "comprehensive, incisive, compassionate, remarkably free of prejudice and condescension, and eminently readable," claimed Stanley Hoffmann in Foreign Affairs. Hoffmann noted that although the book does not delve deeply into all aspects of its subject, "it succeeds in showing how complex, painful, and often atrocious these years were for the French.... [Ousby] has captured the atmosphere of the occupation splendidly."

Ousby once told CA: "My book on detectives in nineteenth-century fiction grew out of a double love affair I'd been conducting for many years with detective fiction and with Victorian literature and culture. Since then, as teacher and scholar, I've pursued my interest in Victorian literature, working on Dickens, Hardy and, most recently, Ruskin. In my spare time, I continue to read detective fiction and have just started writing a regular monthly column about it, for the Lone Star Book Review, in a belated attempt to turn an apparently profitless vice into a profitable virtue."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Literature, September, 1994, review of Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, p. 635.

American Reference Books Annual, 1995, review of The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, p. 480; 1997, review of Cambridge Paperback Guide to Literature in English, p. 412.

Booklist, April 1, 1994, review of The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, p. 1473; August, 1996, review of The Cambridge Paperback Guide to Literature in English, p. 1922; April 1, 1998, Gilbert Taylor, review of Occupation: The Ordeal of France, 1940-1944, p. 1302.

Book Report, March, 1992, review of Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, p. 51.

Books, spring, 1999, review of Occupation: The Ordeal of France, 1940-1944, p. 21.

Bookwatch, October, 1997, review of Guilty Parties: A Mystery Lover's Companion, p. 3; March, 1999, review of Cambridge Guide to Fiction in English, p. 1.

Book World, February 15, 1998, review of Guilty Parties: A Mystery Lover's Companion, p. 6.

Catholic Library World, December, 1996, review of Cambridge Paperback Guide to Literature in English, p. 51.

Choice, July, 1994, review of Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, p. 1698; October, 1996, review of The Cambridge Paperback Guide to Literature in English, p. 256.

College & Research Libraries, September, 1994, review of Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, p. 424.

Contemporary Review, April, 1998, Geoffrey Heptonstall, review of Occupation: The Ordeal of France, 1940-1944, p. 216; February, 1999, review of Cambridge Guide to Fiction in English, p. 110.

Foreign Affairs, July-August, 1998, Stanley Hoffmann, review of Occupation: The Ordeal of France, 1940-1944, p. 129.

Globe and Mail (Toronto), January 21, 1989.

Guardian, April 30, 2002, Malcolm Brown, review of The Road to Verdun: France, Nationalism and the First World War. History Today, October, 1997, review of Occupation: The Ordeal of France, 1940-1944, p. 59.

Journal of Military History, January, 1999, review of Occupation: The Ordeal of France, 1940-1944, p. 209.

Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 1998, review of Occupation: The Ordeal of France, 1940-1944, p. 388; March 15, 2002, review of The Road to Verdun, p. 390.

Kliatt Young Adult Paperback Book Guide, May, 1999, review of Cambridge Guide to Fiction in English, p. 30.

Library Association Record, April, 1996, review of Cambridge Paperback Guide to Literature in English, p. 215; May, 1999, review of Cambridge Guide to Fiction in English, p. 301.

Library Journal, May 1, 1992, review of Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, p. 123; November 15, 1997, Kelli N. Perkins, review of Guilty Parties: A Mystery Lover's Companion, p. 58.

New Statesman, January 21, 2002, Ben Shephard, review of The Road to Verdun: Nationalism and the Folly of World War I's Most Momentous Battle, p. 50.

New York Times Book Review, August 9, 1998, review of Occupation: The Ordeal of France, 1940-1944, p. 18.

Nineteenth-Century Literature, December, 1994, review of Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, p. 412.

Publishers Weekly, March 16, 1998, review of Occupation: The Ordeal of France, 1940-1944, p. 48.

Review of English Studies, May, 1992, review of The Englishman's England: Taste, Travel, and the Rise of Tourism, p. 302.

School Librarian, February, 1993, review of Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, p. 38; August, 1996, review of Cambridge Paperback Guide to Literature in English, p. 128; spring, 1999, review of Cambridge Guide to Fiction in English, p. 54.

School Library Journal, November, 1994, review of Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, p. 138.

School Library Media Quarterly, fall, 1996, review of Cambridge Paperback Guide to Literature in English, p. 65.

Sewanee Review, July, 1994, review of Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, p. 90.

Spectator, January 29, 2002, Michael Rose, review of The Road to Verdun: France, Nationalism and the First World War, p. 30.

Times (London, England), April 12, 1990.

Times Literary Supplement, April 21, 1989; May 1, 1998, review of Occupation: The Ordeal of France, 1940-1944, p. 11.

Voice of Youth Advocates, December, 1998, review of Guilty Parties: A Mystery Lover's Companion, p. 331.

World & I, April, 1998, review of Occupation: The Ordeal of France, 1940-1944, p. 258.