Robert M. Lumiansky was a scholar of Medieval English and president of the American Council of Learned Societies

American Council of Learned Societies

The American Council of Learned Societies , founded in 1919, is a private nonprofit federation of seventy scholarly organizations.ACLS is best known as a funder of humanities research through fellowships and grants awards. ACLS Fellowships are designed to permit scholars holding the Ph.D...

.

Born in Darlington

Darlington, South Carolina

Darlington is a city in and the county seat of Darlington County, in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of South Carolina. It is a center for tobacco farming. The population was 6,720 at the 2000 census and is part of the Florence Metropolitan Statistical Area...

, SC, Robert Lumiansky received a bachelor's degree from The Citadel

The Citadel (military college)

The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, also known simply as The Citadel, is a state-supported, comprehensive college located in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. It is one of the six senior military colleges in the United States...

, a master's degree from the University of South Carolina

University of South Carolina

The University of South Carolina is a public, co-educational research university located in Columbia, South Carolina, United States, with 7 surrounding satellite campuses. Its historic campus covers over in downtown Columbia not far from the South Carolina State House...

, and a doctorate from the University of North Carolina

University of North Carolina

Chartered in 1789, the University of North Carolina was one of the first public universities in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century...

. He was professor and chairman of the English Department at the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

 from 1965 to 1973 and professor of English at New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

from 1975 to 1983.
Died April 2, 1987.

Works

• A Study of the English Ablaut Verbs, 1935
• Of Sondry Folk: The Dramatic Principle in the Canterbury Tales, 1955
• Critical Approaches to Six Major English Works: Beowulf Through Paradise Lost, 1968
• The Chester Mystery Cycle, 1974
• Malory's Originality: A Critical Study of Le Morte Darthur, 1977
• Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, 1979
• Le Morte Darthur, 1982