Mary Ann Caws

Mary Ann Caws was born and grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina. She attended the National Cathedral School, and went on to get her B.A. at Bryn Mawr in 1954, her M.A. at Yale University (1956), and her doctorate from the University of Kansas in 1962; she holds an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Union College (1983). She is currently Distinguished Professor of English, French, and Comparative Literature at the Graduate School of the City of New York, and on the faculty of the Women’s Studies and Film Certificate Programs. Professor Caws was co-Director of the Henri Peyre French Institute from 1980 to 2002. She is an Officer of the Palmes Académiques (awarded by the French Minister of Education) and a Trustee of the French Institute of Washington. Acclaimed as a scholar of surrealism and of French twentieth century literature, she has published numerous books and essays, most recently Marcel Proust (2003), The Yale Anthology of Twentieth Century French Poetry (2004), Surrealism: Themes and Movements (2004), a memoir, To the Boathouse (2004), and Pablo Picasso (2005).