Millicent Bell

Millicent Bell, a Professor of English (Emerita) at Boston University, is a scholar and writer born in New York City. She studied first at New York University, then at Brown University. While at Brown, she wrote her doctoral dissertation on Henry James, and in addition to books, e.g. Edith Wharton and Henry James: the Story of Their Friendship and Meaning in Henry James, she has published many essays on James's fiction. She is also a member of the editorial board of the ongoing definitive edition of James' Complete Letters. Her published writings have, over the years, included essays on other American and English writers, a book on Hawthorne's aesthetics, Hawthorne's View of the Artist, and, most recently, a study of Shakespeare's tragedies, Shakespeare's Tragic Skepticism, as well as poetry and translations and a prizewinning biography, Marquand: an American Life. She has also held appointments as a Visiting Professor or Lecturer in France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy, and been the recipient of Guggenheim and other fellowships. For several years between her undergraduate and graduate studies, she was active as a journalist on the staff of several American newspapers and for Time Inc., and was an Editor of Architectural Forum.