Rosenblatt, Louise M(ichelle) 1904-2005

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born August 23, 1904, in Atlantic City, NJ; died of congestive heart failure February 8, 2005, in Arlington, VA. Educator and author. Rosenblatt was a notable reading scholar who held that the experience of reading was in itself just as important as the actual contents of the text. After graduating with honors from Barnard College in 1925, she traveled to France, earning a certificat d'études Français at the University of Grenoble in 1926 and a doctorate in comparative literature at the Sorbonne in 1931. As important as this education was her opportunity to meet such writers as André Gide and Gertrude Stein while she was in France. Returning to Barnard College, she taught English until 1938. From that time until 1948, she was an assistant professor at Brooklyn College; during World War II, she also worked for the Office of War Information. She then moved on to New York University, where she was a professor of English education until she retired in 1972. As a scholar, Rosenblatt held firm to her theory that the transaction between reader and text was essential in gaining meaning from any book, poem, or other writing; this position stood in contrast to the school of new criticism, which held that meaning could be derived objectively solely by examining the written word. Rosenblatt was the author or coauthor of many important books on literary theory, including Literature as Exploration (1938; fifth edition, 1995), The Reader, the Text, the Poem: The Transactional Theory of the Literary Work (1978; revised edition, 1994), Literacy (1983), Researching Response to Literature (1984), The Creating Word (1985), Writing and Reading: The Transactional Theory (1988), and Reading and Writing Connections (1989).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Washington Post, February 18, 2005, p. B6.

ONLINE

New York University Office of Public Affairs Web site, http://www.nyu.edu/public.affairs/ (February 15, 2005).

TownTopics.com, http://www.towntopics.com/ (March 2, 2005).