Karl E. Beckson (February 4, 1926 – April 29, 2008) was an American educator, scholar, and author of numerous articles and sixteen books on British literature, culture, and authors including Oscar Wilde, Arthur Symons, and Henry Harland. Of particular interest to him was the late 19th century Symbolist Movement and its influence on late 19th century and early 20th century authors including James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, and Bernard Shaw. He co-authored, with Arthur Ganz, Literary Terms: A Dictionary, first published in 1960, and still available in its extensively revised 1990 third edition.
He earned a B.A., English, from University of Arizona in 1949, an M.A. from Columbia University in 1952, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1959. At Columbia, he studied with Lionel Trilling, Mark Van Doren, and William York Tindall. The subject of his Ph.D. dissertation was the Rhymers' Club. He first taught at Columbia (1956–1959), then at Bronx Community College (1959–1960), and at Fairleigh-Dickinson University (1960–1961). He taught at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, from 1961 until his retirement in 2004 having held the title of professor since 1976. He led a seminar for psychiatry residents with Dr. Simon Grolnick at Cornell University Medical College (1981–1995) with the title of Lecturer of English in Psychiatry.
City University of New York Summer Research Award, 1967. Research Foundation Award, 1972–1973. Andrew Mellon Fellowship, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, 1978. National Endowment of the Arts Senior Fellow, 1989–90.
Born Emmanuel Beckson and raised in East Harlem and the Bronx, son of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants, he obtained his first library card at the 96th Street branch of the New York Public Library. In 1943, at age 17, he volunteered for the United States Navy, serving to yeoman 2nd class aboard the destroyer USS Ross (DD-563), the only ship in U.S. naval history to survive two underwater mine explosions (Leyte Gulf, South Pacific). He was married since February 9, 1957 to Estelle Zimmerman, with whom he had two sons, Mace and Eric.
