Terrence Des Pres


Terrence Des Pres was an American writer and Holocaust scholar.

Life

Terrence Des Pres was born in Effingham, Illinois in 1939. He graduated from Southeast Missouri State College in 1962. He went on to graduate study in philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis, completing his doctorate there in 1968.
He was appointed a junior fellow in the Society of Fellows at Harvard University, where he formed a friendship with John Nathan. Des Pres served as the society's sommelier.
He was married twice, and had a son with his first wife.

Work

Beginning in 1973 Des Pres was a professor at Colgate University, where he held the William Henry Crawshaw Chair in Literature; he taught classes on poetry, British and Irish literature, and the literature of the Holocaust. At Colgate, he spent time with writer Frederick Busch.
Des Pres is best known for his work on the Holocaust documented in his book The Survivor: An Anatomy of Life in the Death Camps.
He also wrote Praises & Dispraises, published posthumously in 1988, which dealt with poetry and its usefulness for survival.

Death

Des Pres died on November 16, 1987 at his home in Hamilton, New York. John Nathan refers to the death in his memoir as a suicide. Des Pres's death was ruled "accidental" by the Madison County medical examiners' office, Madison, NY. According to a 1990 Boston Globe article, he died by hanging.
After his death, poet Paul Mariani spoke at a service for Des Pres at Colgate, where they may have spent time together as Mariani worked on his master's degree.

Edited