• Date of Birth: April 03, 1900
  • Born City: Boston
  • Born State/Country: MA
  • Parents: George Warren & Elizabeth Augusta Mockler B.
  • Date of Death: September 11, 1966
  • Death City: Ann Arbor
  • Death State/Country: MI
  • Education:

    A.B. Harvard, 1920; A.M., 1921; Ph.D. 1924.

  • Dissertation:

    "De Menandri ironia" (Harvard, 1924).

  • Professional Experience:

    Instr. Lat. & Gk. U. Vermont, 1924-5; asst. prof, to prof. Gk. U. Michigan, 1925-46; prof. Gk. lang. & lit., 1946-66; chair, Gk. dept., 1944-6; mng. comm. ASCSA, 1946-66; res. fell., 1957.

  • Publications:

    "A New Literary Fragment on Demosthenes," TAPA 57 (1926) 275-95; "The Michigan 'Rosetta' Mirror," with J. E. Dunlap, Art & Archaeology 27 (1929) 195-200; "The Overtrustful Editors of Chariton," TAPA 62 (1931) 68-77; "Euripidis Baccharum interpretatio secundum versus 877-881," Mnemosyne 60 (1932-3) 361-8; "Some Conjectures for the Text of Chariton," CP 28 (1933) 307-10; "Maximus Planudes and Plato Phaedrus 245C-246A," CP 28 (1933) 130; "Chariton's Romance, the First European Novel," CJ 29 (1933-4) 284-8; "Maximus Planudes' Text of the Somnium Scipionis, " CP 29 (1934) 20-9; "Modal Usages in Chariton," AJP 57 (1936) 10-23; De Chaerea et Callirhoe amatoriarum narrationum libri octo, (Oxford, 1938); Chaereas and Callirhoe (trans.) (London & Ann Arbor, 1939); "Joseph Justus Scaliger," CV 36 (1940) 83-91; "Two Notes on Menander," CP 36 (1941) 396-8; "Striking the Trojan Horse, Vergil and Isaac Porphyrogen-netos," CW 35 (1941-2) 280-1; "The Aristophanic Bird-Chorus: A Riddle," AJP 64 (1943) 87-91; "Cicero's Greek Text of Herodotus 1.31," AJP 65 (1944) 167-9; "Menander's Dyskolos: Restorations and Emendations," CP 55 (1960) 174-6; "Specimen Repair Work on Menander's Dyskolos," CJ 56 (1961) 338-43; Menander's Dyscolus (ed. & trans.), APA Philol. Mono. 24 (Bronx, NY, 1966).

  • Notes:

    Warren Blake was first and always a Bostonian and a Harvard man. He was valedictorian of the class of 1920 and delivered the Latin oration to an audience that included the President of the United States. That he had done a dissertation on Menander prepared him for the influence of Campbell Bonner at Michigan, who successfully secured him for papyrology and Greek textual criticism.Like the best men of his generation he was loyal to one institution. He taught at Michigan for 41 years, again and again teaching Thucydides, whom he had virtually memorized, and a famous introduction to classical philology. Among his students were Roger Pack and G. M. Browne. He composed Latin poetry that regularly appeared in the Michigan alumni magazine. Rather than marry, he lived until old age with his mother and had time for his work.His articles are always intelligent and settle what they set out to do. His masterpiece is certainly his Chariton, the first critical text of a Greek author by an American philologist to win international acclaim. No mean achievement. His careful translation, as always the ultimate commitment, should be treated as his commentary. For long years he worked on an index verborum to Chariton which remained unpublished in the form of thousands of filecards. Between 1944 and 1960 he completed a translation with commentary of Aelian, Historia Animalium. He never found a publisher. With the Dyskolos, he returned at the end to his earliest interest. His edition, though excellent, was put in the shade by Lloyd-Jones's OCT and Handley's commentary. He smoked heavily and died of cancer of the lung while reading proof of his last book.

  • Sources:

    G. M. Browne; WhAm 4:92.

  • Author: William M. Calder III