Professor Emeritus of French
Ernest Sturm (1932–2016) joined the Department of French and Italian on July 1, 1966, and retired on June 29, 2011. Among his numerous publications are three books devoted to the eighteenth-century novelist Crébillon fils, of whose writings Ernest was the leading international expert: Crébillon fils et le libertinage au dix-huitième siècle (Paris: Nizet, 1970), Crébillon fils, ou, La science du désir (Paris: Nizet, 1995) and Lettres athéniennes, extraites du Portefeuille d’Alcibiade/Crébillon fils (Paris: Nizet, 2001). He wrote a widely praised study of Camus and Dostoyevsky, Conscience et impuissance chez Dostoievski et Camus (Paris: Nizet, 1967) and translated two volumes of the essays of the eminent literary critic René Wellek: Une histoire de la critique moderne. La critique française, italienne et espagnole (1900-1950)/René Wellek (Paris: José Cortí 1966) and De la critique: quatorzes essais sur la crise des idées littéraires/René Wellek (Paris: Klinksieck, 2007). He also published a study of the poet Stéphane Mallarmé by Jean-Paul Sartre: Mallarmé, or, The Poet of Nothingness/Jean-Paul Sartre (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1988). In addition to publishing a well-received novel in French, he wrote a play that was produced by our College of Creative Studies. Ernest’s lectures on French literature, especially following the death of Sartre in 1980, were recognized by the French government, which in 1991 named him Chevalier in the Order of the Academic Palms, and soon after promoted him to the rank of Officer.
Born in Vienna, Ernest and his family escaped the Nazis by first moving to Bogotá, Colombia, and then settling in New York City. Ernest was a graduate of Brown University (1955) and NYU Law School (1959), and he practiced law in New York City and Washington, D.C., for a number of years. He then turned his attention to French literature and earned a Ph.D. in Romance Languages from Columbia University in 1967. He often spent summers in France, where he was well acquainted with the leading figures in literature and philosophy.
A popular teacher in our College of Letters and Science and College of Creative Studies, Professor Sturm taught courses on the Enlightenment and on Existentialism, including such courses as “The Power of Negative Thinking.” He was fluent in French, German, and Spanish, as well as English.