Stade, George 1933–

PERSONAL:

Born November 25, 1933, in New York, NY; son of Kurt Herman (a hairdresser) and Eva Stade; married Dorothy Fletcher, December 16, 1956; children: Bjorn, Eric, Nancy, Kirsten. Education: St. Lawrence University, B.A., 1955; Columbia University, M.A., 1958, Ph.D., 1965. Politics: "Independent."

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Office—Department of English, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Teacher at Collegiate School for Boys, 1957-58, Bernard Baruch School of Business, 1958-59, and Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, 1959-60. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, instructor in English, 1960-62; Columbia University, New York, NY, assistant professor, 1962-68, associate professor, 1968-70, professor of English, beginning 1970, chairperson of department, 1968-75, became professor emeritus.

MEMBER:

PEN, Modern Language Association of America, National Council of Teachers of English, National Book Critics Circle.

WRITINGS:

Robert Graves, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1966.

(Editor, with F.W. Dupee) Selected Letters of E.E. Cummings, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1969.

(Editor) Six Modern British Novelists, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1974.

(Editor) Six Contemporary British Novelists, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1976.

Confessions of a Lady-Killer (novel), Norton (New York, NY), 1979.

(General Editor) British Writers: Supplement II: Kingsley Amis to J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Scribner's Sons (New York, NY), 1992.

(General editor) British Writers: Supplement III: James M. Barrie to Mary Wollstonecraft, Charles Scribner's Sons (New York, NY), 1996.

(Editor with Carol Howard) British Writers: Supplement IV, Charles Scribner's Sons (New York, NY), 1997.

Sex and Violence: A Love Story (novel), Turtle Point Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Love Is War (novel), Turtle Point Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Literature, Moderns, Monsters, Popsters and Us, Pari Publishing (Pari, Italy), 2007.

Editor-in-chief of "Columbia Essays on Modern Writers" series, seventy-four volumes, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1964-76; and "European Writers: Selected Authors," series, fourteen volumes, Charles Scribner's Sons (New York, NY), 1983-91. Contributor of poems, articles, fiction, and reviews to periodicals, including Hudson Review, New York Times Book Review, and Harper's. Consulting editorial director of books, including Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, and Selected Short Fiction, and Jane Austen, Persuasion, Barnes & Noble Classics, both 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Though George Stade is better known as a literary critic, his Confessions of a Lady-Killer, a novel published in 1979, attracted the notice of several reviewers. Joseph McLellan, writing for the Washington Post, called this book "Nabokovian in its tight control of language, in its preoccupation with madness and illusion, in the curious ease with which it can probe and portray feelings that lie too deep for logic to process them or words to express them except obliquely."

Stade returned to novel writing in 2005. Sex and Violence: A Love Story takes place in the English department of a New York university. A series of grisly murders with literary themes threatens Professor Wynn O'Leary, who must also deal with inter-departmental politics, a midlife sexual crisis, and the death of his brother Joel. Reviewers generally considered the book enjoyable, but took issue with its many disparate themes. "The supporting characters are hard to keep straight … and the epistolary device … never organically meshes with the heart of the novel," opined a Publishers Weekly reviewer, although the reviewer also applauded Stade's satire of academia. Michael Dirda, writing in the Washington Post, deemed the story "witty and touching but esthetically patchy," and praised its many literary references by noting that "those who enjoy learned games will find it a playground."

Stade's 2006 novel, Love Is War, continues the themes of academic satire, midlife sexual politics, and suspense. English professor Charles Craig Lockhart is frustrated with his stagnant marriage and dull life, so he begins an affair with a thirty-year-old married student. Things quickly take a darker turn, as the two hatch a plot to kill their respective spouses and pursue happiness together. A Publishers Weekly reviewer noted that "Stade's flights of literary fancy are exhilarating," while Joanne Wilkinson, writing in Booklist, found that the book "offers a pleasing prose style, with many subtle literary allusions … and a nice touch of the absurd."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 2006, Joanne Wilkinson, review of Love Is War, p. 59.

New Republic, June 7, 1969, review of Selected Letters of E.E. Cummings.

New York Times, November 26, 1979, George Leonard, review of Confessions of a Lady-Killer.

Publishers Weekly, July 11, 2005, review of Sex and Violence: A Love Story, p. 65; July 24, 2006, review of Love Is War, p. 36.

Wall Street Journal, October 15, 2005, James Bowman, review of Sex and Violence.

Washington Post, January 8, 1980, Joseph McLellan, review of Confessions of a Lady-Killer; October 9, 2005, Michael Dirda, review of Sex and Violence.