William E. Harkins
Born in State College, Pennsylvania, William Edward Harkins (1921-2014) received his BA from Pennsylvania State University. After military service, he did graduate work in the Slavic Department at Columbia University where he received his PhD in 1950. His dissertation was published as a book, The Russian Folk Epos in Czech Literature, 1800-1900. Harkins taught in the Slavic Department at Columbia for the next forty years. Professor Emeritus of the Department of Slavic Languages at Columbia University, he was an expert on Russian prose, a specialist in Slavic folklore, one of the first American scholars to do serious work in Czech literature, the author of a monograph on Karel Čapek, a translator from the Czech, the author of the Dictionary of Russian Literature and of a Czech language textbook, co-author of a widely used textbook of Russian grammar, and a promoter of regional studies.
Harkins chaired Columbia’s Slavic Department and was director of Columbia’s Russian (now Harriman) Institute, in addition to serving on a number of other organs, including the University Senate and the Committee on Instruction. His actively promoted Czech studies at Columbia and elsewhere, serving in professional associations in the Slavic field at large and as president of the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages. Harkins also had a special interest in Japanese prints and served twice as president of the Japanese Art Society (formerly Ukiyo-e Society).
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