Jean Blackall, first woman tenured in English at Cornell, dies at 97

Jean Frantz Blackall, a Cornell faculty member from 1958-94, died July 15 in Williamsburg, Virginia. She was 97.

In 1971, Blackall became the first woman to receive tenure in what was then the Department of English in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S); she was also the first woman to become a full professor in the department, in 1978. She specialized in British and American 19th and early 20th century fiction, particularly in the works of Henry James and Edith Wharton, and in women's studies.

She was the author of "Jamesian Ambiguity and 'The Sacred Fount'" in 1965 and numerous articles on James, Wharton, Harold Frederic and other Victorian novelists. She was a founding member of the national Henry James Society and of the Edith Wharton Society. After retirement she continued to teach at the Christopher Wren Society at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

"Jean was an open-minded and independent scholar who warmly welcomed women colleagues as they started to be recruited and she nurtured graduate students working on 19th century American literature, especially women writers," said Mary Jacobus, professor emerita in the Department of Literatures in English (A&S).

Other colleagues echoed that sentiment.

"Jean made a point of welcoming me when I first arrived at Cornell on a one-year visiting appointment, expressing her pleasure at being joined by a female colleague," said Laura Brown, the John Wendell Anderson Professor of English (A&S). "She added vehemence to that welcome when she learned that I was being considered for an assistant professorship for which I would be giving up a tenured position. Jean told me, in effect, 'You deserve tenure. Don't let them devalue you. That's wrong - for you and for all of us.' I loved Jean's awareness, her frankness and also her calm and straightforward access to foundational values."

Blackall was also an early affiliate of the interdisciplinary Women's Studies (now Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies) Program, said Sally McConnell-Ginet, professor emerita in the Department of Linguistics (A&S). "Her somewhat traditional ladylike demeanor, coupled with a slight Southern twang, belied her strong conviction that not only she, but other women, truly were every bit as capable as the male professors who so dominated the professoriate well beyond her admission to that group."

"When I got hired in 1979 with an appointment in women's studies, a new program, Jean was very warm and interested in me because of her knowledge of English literature and my interests in Victorian girlhood," said Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow and professor emerita in women's studies and human development. "She was extremely gracious and wanted to let me know that I was welcome here."

Blackall earned her undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College in 1950 and her master's and doctoral degrees in English literature from Harvard (Radcliffe) University in 1957.

"Jean was a rigorous and meticulous reader of my writing," said Tassie Gwilliam, Ph.D. '85, associate professor at the University of Miami, who worked with Blackall when she was a graduate student at Cornell. "We connected first as lovers of Henry James and the 19th century novel. Jean had a slightly austere warmth and a sneaky sense of humor; she was both generous and challenging."

Blackall was predeceased by her husband, Eric A. Blackall, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of German Literature, and is survived by her son, Roger Blackall, daughter-in-law Tania Farah and their three children.

A memorial service will be held Nov. 8, at 10 a.m. in the Bethlehem Chapel at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

Kathy Hovis is a writer for the College of Arts and Sciences.