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For the Hungarian music educator, see Leó Weiner.

Leo Wiener (1862–1939) was an American historian, linguist,

Leo Wiener
author and translator.

Biography [ edit ]

Wiener was born in Białystok (then in the Russian Empire), of

Lithuanian Jewish origin.[1] His father was Zalmen (Solomon)
Wiener,[2][3] and his mother was Frejda Rabinowicz. He
studied at the University of Warsaw in 1880, and then at the
Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin.[4] Wiener later declared,
"Having 'for many years been a member of the Unitarian
Church,' and having 'preached absolute amalgamation with
the Gentile surroundings', [I] 'never allied with the Jewish
Church or with Jews as such."[1]

Wiener left Europe with the plan of founding a vegetarian

commune in British Honduras (now Belize). He sailed
Born 1862
steerage to New Orleans. On his arrival, in 1880, he had no
Białystok, Russian Empire
money.[5] After travel and work around the US, he went to
Died 1939 (age 77)
Kansas City, Missouri, and became a lecturer in the
Belmont, Massachusetts, United
department of Germanic and Romance languages at the States
University of Kansas.[6] He was a polyglot, and was reputed to Citizenship United States
speak thirty languages well.[7] Alma mater University of Warsaw
Friedrich Wilhelm University
Wiener published articles on Yiddish linguistic elements in
Known for became the first American
Polish, German, Ukrainian, and Belarusian. In 1898, Wiener
professor of Slavic literature;
traveled to Europe to collect material for his book The History translated 24 volumes of Leo
of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth Century (1899). Isaac Tolstoy's works into English
Peretz encouraged him and Abraham Harkavy, librarian at the Spouse Bertha Kahn
Asiatic Museum of St. Petersburg, presented him with a Children Norbert Wiener (son)
thousand Yiddish books, which formed the basis of the Yiddish Scientific career
collection of the Harvard University library. After this project
Fields history, linguistics
Wiener's interest in Yiddish declined.
Institutions University of Kansas (1892–95)
Harvard University (1895–1930)
Beginning in 1896, Wiener lectured on Slavic cultures at
Harvard University and became the first American professor of Notable George Rapall Noyes
students
Slavic literature. He compiled a valuable anthology of Russian
literature and translated 24 volumes of Lev Tolstoy's works into
English,[8] a task which he completed in 24 months.[9] He taught George Rapall Noyes.

Major works [ edit ]

Leo Wiener (1893). French Words in Wolfram Von Eschenbach.

Leo Wiener (1898). Popular Poetry of the Russian Jews.
Leo Wiener (1899). The History of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth Century.
Leo Wiener (1900). The Ferrara Bible.
Leo Wiener (1902–1903). Anthology of Russian Literature from the Earliest Period to the Present Time.
Leo Wiener (1909). Gypsies as Fortune-Tellers and as Blacksmiths.
Leo Wiener (1914). Philological Fallacies: One in Romance, Another in Germanic.
Leo Wiener (1915). Commentary to the Germanic laws and mediaeval documents.
Leo Wiener (1915). An Interpretation of the Russian People.
Josef Svatopluk Machar (1916). Magdalen. Translated by Leo Wiener.
Leo Wiener (1917–1921). Contributions Toward a History of Arabico-Gothic Culture.
Leo Wiener (1922). Africa and the Discovery of America. Vol. I–III.[10]
Leo Wiener (1924). The Contemporary Drama of Russia.
Leo Wiener (1925). The Philological History of "Tobacco" in America.
Leo Wiener (1926). Mayan and Mexican Origins.

Family [ edit ]

In 1893 Wiener married Bertha Kahn. The mathematician Norbert Wiener was their son.[11] Though he
himself was a prodigy, he believed in nurture and became dedicated to turn his son into a genius. Norbert
Wiener graduated from Ayer High School in 1906 at 11 years of age, and then entered Tufts College. He
was awarded a BA in mathematics in 1909 at the age of 14, whereupon he began graduate studies of
zoology at Harvard. In 1910 he transferred to Cornell to study philosophy. He graduated in 1911 at the age
of 17.

References [ edit ]

1. ^ a b "Reform Jews and Zionism 1919-1921" (PDF). americanjewisharchives.org.

2. ^ Klingenstein, Susanne (1991). "A Philologist: The Adventures of Leo Wiener (1862–1939) " (pp. 8-17), in her
Jews in the American Academy, 1900-1940: The Dynamics of Intellectual Assimilation. New Haven: Yale
University Press. Accessed via JSTOR, February 8, 2020.
3. ^ "Bialystok Birth Records" .[full citation needed]
4. ^ Liptzin, Sol (2007). "Wiener, Leo." Encyclopaedia Judaica. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA. Vol. 21,
pp. 47-48. Retrieved via Gale Virtual Reference Library, August 4, 2018. Also available online via
Encyclopedia.com .
5. ^ Klingenstein, Susanne (1998). Jews in the American Academy, 1900–1940: The Dynamics of Intellectual
Assimilation . Syracuse University Press. p. 9. ISBN 9780815605416.
6. ^ Conway, Flo; Siegelman, Jim (2005). Dark Hero of the Information Age . Basic Books. ISBN 9780738203683.
Retrieved November 10, 2010.
7. ^ Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures , 2018 The President and Fellows of Harvard College.
 8. ^ Tolstoy, Lev N. (1904). Leo Wiener (ed.). The Complete Works of Count Tolstoy . Vol. I. Translated by Leo
Wiener. Boston: Dana Estes & Company. pp. III–IV. Retrieved July 12, 2017 – via Internet Archive.
9. ^ Wiener, Norbert (1953). Ex-Prodigy: My Childhood and Youth. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The M.I.T. Press.
p. 85.
10. ^ Wiener, Leo (1921). "Africa and the Discovery of America" . American Anthropologist. 23 (1): 83–94.
doi:10.1525/aa.1921.23.1.02a00090 . JSTOR 660709 .
11. ^ Wiener, Norbert; Jerison, David; Singer, Isadore Manuel; Stroock, Daniel W. (1997). The Legacy of Norbert
Wiener: A Centennial Symposium: A Centennial Symposium in Honor of the 100th Anniversary of Norbert
Wiener's Birth, October 8-14, 1994, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts .
American Mathematical Soc. p. 4. ISBN 9780821804155.

External links [ edit ]

Works by Leo Wiener at Project Gutenberg Wikisource has original works

Works by or about Leo Wiener at Internet Archive by or about:
Leo Wiener
Works by Leo Wiener at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

Works by Leo Wiener at The Online Books Page

Authority control databases [hide]

International FAST · ISNI · VIAF

Norway · France · BnF data · Germany · Israel · Belgium · United States ·

National
Netherlands · Poland · Portugal · Vatican

People Deutsche Biographie · Trove

Other SNAC · IdRef

Categories: 1862 births American people of Polish-Jewish descent Harvard University faculty
1939 deaths American historians Linguists from the United States Translators of Leo Tolstoy
Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States

This page was last edited on 22 September 2023, at 23:49 (UTC).

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