Margaret Jane Williams Pepperdene (née Williams; December 25, 1919 – November 20, 2009) was an American academic of English literature. A 1962 Guggenheim Fellow, she was the inaugural Ellen Douglass Leyburn Professor of English at Agnes Scott College and later taught English at The Paideia School.
Margaret W. Pepperdene | |
|---|---|
| Born | Margaret Jane Williams December 25, 1919 Vicksburg, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Died | November 20, 2009 (aged 89) Decatur, Georgia, U.S. |
| Occupation | English literature academic |
| Spouse |
John H. Pepperdene
(m. 1941; div. 1948) |
| Awards | Guggenheim Fellowship (1962) |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | |
| Thesis | Irish Christianity and Beowulf: basis for a new interpretation of the Christian elements (1953) |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | |
Biography
editPepperdene was born on December 25, 1919 in Vicksburg, Mississippi.[1] She was the only child[2] of Jane (née Stocks) and Le Blanc Williams.[3] After spending a year at the Gulf Park College for Women (1937-1948), she obtained her Bachelor of Science degree from Louisiana State University in 1941.[1] On June 6, 1941, she married John H. Pepperdene, an Illinois Central Railroad worker;[4] they remained married until their divorce in 1948.[3] She was part of the WAVES during World War II.[5]
From 1946 to 1947, Pepperdene worked at the University of Oregon as an English instructor while also taking summer classes.[1] In addition to a year as a Fulbright Fellow at Queen's University Belfast (1950-1951),[1][5] she did graduate studies at Vanderbilt University, where she worked as a teaching fellow (1948-1950) and assistant instructor (1951-1952) and obtained her Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in 1948 and 1953, respectively.[1] Her doctoral dissertation was titled Irish Christianity and Beowulf: basis for a new interpretation of the Christian elements.[6] She was an American Association of University Women Martha Catching Enochs Fellow at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (1954-1955).[1]
After working as an instructor (1952-1954) and assistant professor (1954-1956) at Miami University, Pepperdene moved to Agnes Scott College as an assistant professor of English in 1956.[1] She was the inaugural Ellen Douglass Leyburn Professor of English,[2] being promoted to the position in the late 1960s.[7] She was also chair of the English department,[8] as well as the Writers' Festival director.[2] Following her 1985 retirement from Agnes Scott, The Paideia School hired her to teach English to upper-class students, and she spent 22 years there until her retirement in 2008.[2]
In 1956,[9] Pepperdene was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to research Christianity in Beowulf.[1] She was editor of That Subtile Wreath, a 1974 volume of lectures for John Donne's 400th birthday as part of Agnes Scott's James Ross McCain Lecture Series.[10] She won the 1987 Georgia Humanities Council Governor's Award.[2] In 2006, Agnes Scott awarded her an honorary doctor of humane letters.[11]
Pepperdene was reportedly close to alumni from Agnes Scott and Paideia even after they graduated, as well as poets James Dickey, Robert Frost, and Eudora Welty.[2] Her hobbies included crossword puzzles from The New York Times, raising pedigreed poodles, and watching football games and films.[2]
Pepperdene died from lung cancer on November 20, 2009 at her home in Decatur, Georgia.[2] She was 89.[2]
References
edit- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Reports of the Secretary and of the Treasurer. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 1955. p. 149. Archived from the original on May 22, 2023. Retrieved July 13, 2025.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Badie, Rick (November 24, 2009). "Margaret Pepperdene, 89: Teacher and scholar". Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
- 1 2 The Monthly Supplement. International Who's Who. 1956. p. 2264.
- ↑ "Pepperdene-Williams". Sun Herald. June 10, 1941. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
- 1 2 "Two at V.U. Win Fulbright Scholarships". Nashville Banner. June 28, 1950. p. 14 – via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ Pepperdene, Margaret Williams (1953). Irish Christianity and Beowulf: basis for a new interpretation of the Christian elements (Thesis). Vanderbilt University. OCLC 1176043758.
- ↑ Vanderbilt Alumnus. Vol. 55. Vanderbilt University. 1969. p. 40. JSTOR community.35361963.
- ↑ "Spring banquet slated". The Clarksdale Press Register. March 26, 1974. p. 16.
- ↑ "Margaret W. Pepperdene". Guggenheim Fellowships. Retrieved July 13, 2025.
- ↑ "Notes on Current Books". The Virginia Quarterly Review. 50 (4): cxx–clviii. 1974. ISSN 0042-675X. JSTOR 26435449.
- ↑ "Honorary Degrees". Agnes Scott College. Archived from the original on June 2, 2025. Retrieved July 13, 2025.