Part of a series on
Theosophy
Founders Helena Blavatsky William Quan Judge Henry Steel Olcott
Theosophists Annie Besant Isabel Cooper-Oakley Robert Crosbie Abner Doubleday Geoffrey Hodson Wassily Kandinsky Archibald Keightley C. W. Leadbeater G. R. S. Mead Arthur E. Powell James Morgan Pryse Subba Row William Scott-Elliot Alfred Percy Sinnett Rudolf Steiner Brian Stonehouse Katherine Tingley Ernest Wood
Concepts Root races Seven rays Theosophical mysticism
Organizations Theosophical Society Theosophical Society Adyar Theosophical Society in America Theosophical Society in America (Hargrove) Theosophical Society Pasadena Theosophical Society Point Loma - Blavatskyhouse United Lodge of Theosophists
Texts At the Feet of the Master Book of Dzyan Esoteric Buddhism Isis Unveiled The Key to Theosophy The Secret Doctrine Theosophical Glossary The Voice of the Silence
Publications Lucifer Sunrise The Theosophist
Masters Kuthumi Maitreya Master Hilarion Master Jesus Morya St. Germain
Comparative Buddhism and Theosophy Christianity and Theosophy Hinduism and Theosophy Theosophy and literature Theosophy and visual arts Theosophy and Western philosophy
Related Agni Yoga Alice Bailey Anthroposophy Ascended Master Teachings Esotericism Gnosticism Hermeticism Jiddu Krishnamurti Liberal Catholic Church Masters of the Ancient Wisdom Mysticism Neo-Theosophy Neoplatonism New Age Occultism Order of the Star in the East Perennial philosophy Plane (esotericism)
v t e

John Algeo (1930–2019) was an American academic, trained as a linguist, and the author of one of the standard American textbooks on the history of the English language.

He was also a Theosophist^[1] and a Freemason.^[2] He was the Vice President of the Theosophical Society Adyar and, was a Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Georgia.

Biography

Algeo was born in St Louis, Missouri. He joined the army and served in the Korean War and became a sergeant. He married Adele Silbereisen in 1958. He earned a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Miami in 1955, and Master of Arts (1957) and Doctor of Philosophy (1960) degrees from the University of Florida. He was an instructor at Florida State University from 1959 to 1961. He returned to the University of Florida in 1961 as an assistant professor of English, becoming an associate professor in 1966, assistant dean of the graduate school in 1969 and a full professor in 1970. Algeo moved to the University of Georgia in 1971 as a professor of English. He was chair of the English department from 1975 until 1979. He became professor emeritus in 1994.^[3]

John Algeo was national president of the Theosophical Society America in 1993, president of the American Dialect Society, 1979, president of the Dictionary Society of North America, 1995-97, president of the American Name Society, 1984, editor of American Speech, 1969-82, and editor of Quest magazine, 1995.^[3]

John Algeo died October 13, 2019, in Bowling Green, Kentucky.^[4]

Books

Linguistics and philology

• English: An Introduction to English. Harcourt, Brace & World. 1970. With John Pyles.
• Spelling: Sound to Letters. MacMillan Company. 1971. With Ralph Williams, Judith Patton Hudson and Margaret Farcas.
• On Defining the Proper Name. Gainesville, Florida: University of Florida Press. 1973.
• A Concise Grammar of Contemporary English: Exercises in Contemporary English. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. 1973. ISBN 9780155129306. With Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum.
• Exercises in Contemporary English. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. 1974.
• Thomas Pyles: Selected Essays on English Usage. Gainesville, Florida: University Presses of Florida. 1979. Editor.
• Fifty Years among the New Words: A Dictionary of Neologisms 1941-1991. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1991. ISBN 9780521413770. Editor, with Adele S. Algeo.
• The Cambridge History of the English Language , Volume VI, English in North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2001. ISBN 9781139053822. Editor.
• Problems in the Origins and Development of the English Language. Boston: Wadsworth Publishing Company. 2004. ISBN 9780155070530. With Carmen Acevedo Butcher.
• British American Grammatical Differences. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2004.
• The Origins and Development of the English Language (6th ed.). Boston: Wadsworth. 2005. ISBN 978-1-4282-3145-0.
• British or American English? A Handbook of Word and Grammar Patterns. Cambridge University Press. 2006.

Theosophy

• Getting Acquainted with the Secret Doctrine. ISBN 978-0-8356-0209-9.
• Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna (January 2003). The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky Volume I 1861-1879. Quest Books. ISBN 978-0-8356-0836-7. Editor.
• Algeo, John; Nicholson, Shirley J. (July 2001). The Power of Thought: A Twenty-First Century Adaptation of Annie Besant's Classic work, Thought Power. Quest Books. ISBN 978-0-8356-0797-1. With Shirley Nicholson.
• Algeo, John (December 2006). Theosophy - An Introductory Study Course. Theosophical Publishing House. ISBN 978-0-8356-0190-0.
• Algeo, John (2001). Unlocking the Door: Studies in the Key to Theosophy. Olcott Institute of the Theosophical Society in America. ISBN 978-0-8356-0812-1.
• Reincarnation Explored. Theosophical Publishing House. 1987.

Wikiquote has quotations related to John Algeo.