July 14th, 2017
The Department of English remembers retired faculty member, Ken Silverman, who passed away on July 7th, 2017, at age 81. Ken was born in Manhattan on February 5th, 1936 to immigrants who after World War I emigrated from what is now Lithuania. He studied English at Columbia University, receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1956, his master’s in 1958, and his doctorate in 1964.
Ken taught at NYU until his retirement in 2001, after a long and prosperous career. His academic research focused on Colonial American literature, and went on to accommodate his longtime interest in magic. He was the noted biographer of Puritan preacher Cotton Mather, winning both the Pulitzer Prize and Bancroft Prize for his first major biography.
We offer our sympathies to Ken’s family and loved ones, and join them in honoring him as a beloved educator and friend.
You can read more about Professor Silverman’s life in The Washington Post.