Shattuck, Roger Whitney

▪ 2006

      American literary scholar (b. Aug. 20, 1923, New York, N.Y.—d. Dec. 8, 2005, Lincoln, Vt.), was a prominent authority on 20th-century French literature and culture. Shattuck wrote, edited, translated, or contributed to numerous books or other publications, perhaps the most famous of which was his first book, The Banquet Years: The Origins of the Avant-Garde in France, 1885 to World War I (1958). Three of his books were studies of French novelist Marcel Proust, including a 1974 biography that won a National Book Award. One of Shattuck's later works, Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography (1996), was the subject of much attention and debate; referencing many works in the canon of Western literature, it argued that human curiosity could lead to unintended and even perilous consequences for society.

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