Andrew Bongiorno Papers, 1938-1991, n.d.
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Administrative/Biographical History
Andrew Bongiorno was born in Palermo, Sicily, on August 5, 1900, the son of Antonio and Concetta Guercia Bongiorno. When he was eleven years old, his parents immigrated to Cleveland, Ohio, where he first attended public schools (1911-19) and then Adelbert College at Western Reserve University, now Case Western Reserve University (1919).
In 1920, he transferred to Oberlin College where he became the associate editor of the Oberlin College Literary Magazine. To help meet his expenses, he worked as a waiter at the Park Hotel (now the Oberlin Inn). Later on, he spoke proudly of becoming headwaiter while still an undergraduate. In 1923, he received his A.B. degree in political science, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. The following year, he earned an A.M. in English from Oberlin College and accepted an appointment as an instructor in English at the University of Missouri (Columbia, Missouri). In 1925 he returned to Oberlin College. He remained there until his 1967 retirement with the exception of two brief periods, first as a graduate student at Cornell University (1931-33; Ph.D. 1935) and then as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago (1946-47).
During his tenure at Oberlin College, spanning four decades, Andrew Bongiorno rose through the ranks, becoming Professor of English in 1948 and serving two terms as the department chairman (1949-52 and 1958-64). In addition, he served his institution on both the College Faculty Council and the General Faculty Council. He chaired the Committee on the Relation of Art and Music to Liberal Education. A devout Catholic, he advised the Oberlin Newman Club from its inception until his retirement. He was a member of the Modern Language Association, The Dante Society, The Renaissance Society, and the American Association of University Professors.
However, Professor Bongiorno was most distinguished as a teacher. Generations of students remember and revere his “gentle elucidation” of the metaphysical poets, his devotion to Dante, and his desiring that students share his love of literature and the Italian language. His teaching was marked by “the irresistible authority that inevitably accompanies deep learning marked by spiritual humility.” As well as nurturing students’ love of literature, Professor Bongiorno inculcated and expected a deep respect for critical thinking, a skill he consistently emphasized, especially in his course on literary criticism. After his retirement in 1967, he returned to the classroom at Oberlin College to offer again his “Dante in Translation” course, a student favorite for decades. In 1971, he addressed an Oberlin College audience on “Why I Teach.”
Andrew Bongiorno’s legendary gifts as a teacher led to several summer teaching appointments: The University of the Pacific (Stockton, California); San Diego State College; and Case Western University. After his retirement, he held visiting professorships at Scripps College (Claremont, California), 1967-68 and 1969-70, and the University of Arizona (Tucson, Arizona), 1968-69.
Although his own publications were not numerous—a few articles, co-translation of Mind And Society (1935), and a monograph, Castelvetro on the Art of Poetry (1983)—his editorial acumen rivaled his accomplishments as a teacher. Professor Bongiorno’s training and reading in the classical tradition made him a discerning critic of the many draft manuscripts for which students, colleagues, and friends sought his assistance and advice. He could be counted on “to detect inconsistencies, illogicalities, and solecisms, not to mention just plain fuzzy writing, all pointed out with a gentle firmness that was bracing and unforgettable to experience.” (David P. Young, Memorial Minute, October 26, 1999)
Although even in his last years he declined to accept an honorary degree, always maintaining that he was not a scholar, other honors came to him. On his retirement in 1967, his colleagues in the English Department established a scholarship fund in his honor. This fund annually awards a scholarship to a student for excellence in English studies at the end of the junior year. Also in 1967, the Diocese of Cleveland awarded him the Newman Honor Key. In 1974 he received Oberlin’s Alumni Medal.
On July 5, 1933, Andrew Bongiorno married Laurine Elizabeth Mack (A.B., Oberlin, 1925; Ph.D., Radcliff, 1930). Mrs. Bongiorno was widely admired as a lecturer in the fine arts and as editor of the Allen Art Museum Bulletin. With her, Professor Bongiorno “worked in wonderful harmony, and [they] derived substantial joy and support from each other’s minds and spirits” until her death in 1986 (David P. Young). Andrew Bongiorno lived on his own for another ten years, and then moved to Kendal at Oberlin.
Andrew Bongiorno died on November 28, 1998.
Sources Consulted
“Andrew Bongiorno.” Oberlin News-Tribune (December 8, 1998): n.p.
Dirda, Michael. “The Learning Channels,” Book World (February 15, 1998): 15.
Dye, Nancy S. Letter to the Oberlin Community on the Death of Andrew Bongiorno.
November 30, 1988.
Oberlin College Biographical Form, n.d.
Shaw, John (A.B., Oberlin College, 1947). Personal interview.
Ward, Andrew. “For Andrew Bongiorno.” A nine-page typescript ms.
Ward, Andrew, “In Memory of Andrew Bongiorno,” Oberlin Alumni Magazine (OAM)
(Spring 2000): 25-28.
Young, David P., Memorial Minute: “Andrew Bongiorno 1900-1998 Emeritus Professor
of English,” OAM (Winter 1999): 51.
Author: Elizabeth Brinkman Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative Information
The Andrew Bongiorno Papers are arranged into five series: 1. Correspondence; 2. Speeches; 3. Writings; 4. Teaching and Research Files; and 5. Photographs. The teaching and research files in Series 4 make up the bulk of the collection, with extensive lecture notes and quotations for his teaching, particularly on the work of Dante, and research index card notes for his translation of Lodovico Castelvetro’s Poetica d’Aristotele Vulgarizzata et Sposta published in 1984. A copy of the book can be found in Series 3, Writings, along with published articles, book reviews, and manuscripts for articles or speeches.
The correspondence series reveals a deep and long-standing friendship with John and Vera Diekhoff, with letters from Bongiorno dating from 1941 to 1976. John Diekhoff, a specialist on John Milton, served as an English professor and administrator at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland from 1956 to 1970. The letters are witty and humorous, charged with intellectual energy. The series also contains correspondence with Oberlin faculty member Roger W. Sperry, neuropsychologist, neurobiologist and Nobel laureate, from 1982 to 1986. The remainder of the correspondence deals primarily with Oberlin’s solicitation of funds for a scholarhip in Bongiorno’s honor.
Series 5, Photographs, holds one contact sheet of black and white portraits of Bongiorno taken by the College for its Alumni Magazine in 1966 for the April issue featuring one of Bongiorno’s articles. This article discusses the activism of Oberlin students to promote civil rights and protest illegal discrimination in the South as a continuation of the Oberlin tradition.
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Series I. Correspondence, 1941, 1945, 1948-49, 1951, 1957-60, 1967-69, 1971-72, 1975-76, 1982-86, 1990-91, n.d.
Comprises letters to and from John and Vera Diekhoff, Roger W. Sperry, Donald Pease, and other unidentified persons. Also includes letters from donors to the Bongiorno Scholarship Fund.
Series II. Speeches, 1938, 1941, 1944, 1949, 1959, 1967, n.d.
The Speeches series is subdivided into two subseries. Subseries 1 contains speech texts by Bongiorno, while subseries 2 holds one speech by F. Champion Ward.
Series III. Writings, 1947, 1949-50, 1959, 1961, 1966-67, 1969, 1971-75, 1984, n.d.
The Writings series is subdivided into three subseries. Subseries 1, Published Writings by Andrew Bongiorno, holds Oberlin Alumni Magaine articles, journal articles, book reviews, a published work of translation, and a special printing of a memorial minute for President Ernest Hatch Wilkins on the occasion of his death in 1966. Subseries 2 holds one article by an author other than Bongiorno on “The Jeopardy of Private Institutions.”
Suseries 3 comprises manuscripts for articles and poems, some of which are represented in published form in subseries 1.
Series IV. Teaching and Research Files, 1940, 1943, 1945, 1948, 1950, 1955, ca. 1980s, n.d.
The largest of the series, Teaching and Research Files holds typed and handwritten lecture notes, copies of sources, and research note cards for Bongiorno’s published translation, Castelvetro on the Art of Poetry, 1984.
Series V. Photographs, 1966
Comprises one black and white contact sheet of portraits of Bongiorno taken by the College for its Alumni Magazine.