Edgar Leon Newman

 

Died November 30, 2001

College: Berkeley

Widow: Ms. Linda Clark
Unit 101
551 Milton Court
Long Beach, CA 90803-6352
LClark2@csulb.edu

Children: Jonathan, 1964; Suzanne, 1967

Edgar Leon (Ned) Newman, born in New Orleans on January 21, 1939, died

in Baltimore on November 30, 2001, losing a battle with multiple

myeloma.

After graduating from Yale Ned went on to the University of Chicago,

where he received a Ph.D. in Modern French and European History in 1969.

He spent his teaching career in the history department of New Mexico

State University in Las Cruces, but he particularly relished his many

trips to Paris for research and, after libraries and archives closed,

trying out restaurants. In 1974 he cofounded the Western Society for

French History, which held its 38th meeting in 2010 and now honors him

with an annual Newman lecture. Ned published many articles in major

historical journals in the United States and France (such as the JOURNAL

OF MODERN HISTORY and ANNALES HISTORIQUES DE LA REVOLULTION FRANCAISE),

edited the two-volume HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF FRANCE FROM THE 1815

RESTORATION TO THE SECOND EMPIRE (Greenwood Press, 1987), and many

numerous presentations at historical conferences. At the time of his

death he had nearly completed a book manuscript on French Worker Poets

1830-1852, and he often said that contact with those voices from the

past somewhat compensated for the fact that cancer treatments limited

his social contacts. Yale classmate Dr. Crosson O’Donovan kindly paid

many visits to his hospital room during the final weeks of his life, and

other classmates, including Jon Farnum and Scott Merritt, phoned to

cheer him up.

Ned is survived by his wife and fellow French historian Linda Clark, two

children from his previous marriage, Jon and Suzanne, and his stepmother

Colette Newman. After his death family and friends gathered at

Galatoire’s Restaurant in New Orleans to remember Ned, his wit, and his

smile.

—by Linda Clark