Edith Fishtine Helman

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Edith Fishtine Helman (September 19, 1905 – March 31, 1994) was an American scholar of the Spanish Enlightenment and professor at Simmons College.

Personal life[]

Helman was born on September 19, 1905, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Russian immigrants Kallman Fishtine and Rose Esther Fishtine.^[1] As a child, she attended the Boston Public Schools through high school.^[1]

She studied at Simmons College for one year in 1921 before transferring to Boston University's College of Liberal Arts where she received a bachelor's degree in 1925.^[1][2] After graduation, she studied for a year at the University of Paris.^[1][2] Returning to the United States, she studied at Radcliffe College in 1926 and 1927.^[1] She then earned a master's degree in 1927 and a doctorate in 1930 from Bryn Mawr College.^[1][2]

In 1938, she married Bernard Helman, a Boston lawyer.^[1][a] The couple lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts and at their vacation home in Rockport, Massachusetts.^[1] The poet May Sarton signed a number of poems and gave them to Helman.^[1]

Helman died at her home in Rockport on March 31, 1994.^[1][2] She was buried in Sharon Memorial Park.^[2]

Career[]

Professor[]

As a French and Spanish professor, Helman taught first at Bryn Mawr and then joined the Simmons faculty as an Assistant Professor of Spanish in 1932.^[1] Helman also worked as a lecturer at Tufts University, Wellesley College, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.^[1] Her research interests included Goya, Jorge Guillén, Jovellanos, and Pedro Salinas.^[1][2]

Supported by grants and fellowships, she traveled throughout both Spain and South America, conducting research on Spanish Enlightenment thinkers and writers.^[1][2] In 1934 and 1962, the American Council of Learned Societies gave her grants to study in Spain.^[1] A 1940 fellowship offered by Pan-American Airlines through the U.S. State Department allowed her to study at the Universidad de San Marcos in Peru.^[1]

The Alice Freeman Palmer Fellowship allowed her to conduct research in Spain on Spanish Enlightenment thinkers and writers in 1949 and 1950.^[1][2] She returned to Spain to study the same topic from 1965 to 1966 on a Guggenheim Fellowship.^[1][2] At Simmons, Helman helped to establish the Lyle K. Bush Art Fund to create a permanent collection of art on campus.^[1]

Works by Helman[]

Helman was associate editor of Norton Publishing's Spanish Book Series and the co-editor of a collection of short stories written in Spanish for college students.^[2]

Books written and edited by Helman include:^[1]

• Cuentos Contemporaneos, ed. Doris King Arjona and Edith Fishtine. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1935.
• Don Juan Valero: The Critic, Edith Fishtine. Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania: Edith Fishtine, 1933.
• Jovellanos y Goya, Edith Helman. Madrid, Spain: Taurus Ediciones, S.A., 1970.
• La Zapatera Prodigiosa, by Federico García Lorca, ed. Edith F. Helman. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1952.
• Los "Capriochos" de Goya, Edith Helman. Spain: Salvat Editores, S.A> -- Alianza Editorial, S.A., 1971.
• Narradores de Hoy, ed. Edith Helman and Doris King Arjona. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1966.
• Trasmundo de Goya, Edith Helman. Madrid, Spain: Alianza Forma, 1963, 1983,1986, 1993

Other[]

In the 1930s and 1940s, Helman worked as an editor at The Christian Science Monitor.^[2]

Honors[]

Helman was inducted into the Hispanic Society of America in 1953, elected a fellow the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1956, and became a member of Phi Beta Kappa at Boston University in 1967.^[1][2] Helman was elected an honorary member of the in 1971, and entered the Collegium of Distinguished Alumni of the College of Liberal Arts at Boston University on March 30, 1974.^[1] She was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Spain in June 1977.^[1]

In January 1971, Helman retired as Professor of Spanish Emeritus at Simmons College.^[1] The following year, she received an honorary doctorate from Simmons.^[1] Her papers are held at the college.^[1]

Notes[]

References[]