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RAYMOND POGGENBURG AND BAUDELAIRE STUDIES AT VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

James S. Patty

The death of long-time Vanderbilt University Professor Raymond Poggenburg on March 14, 2004 at the age of seventy-seven will be a source of great sadness to readers of this periodical. Because he played a crucial role in the creation of the Bullełin Baudelairien, to mention just one of his contribu-tions to Baudelaire studies, it is fitting that his life and his work in that field be highlighted in these pages, with emphasis on the initiatives he took with a view to making Vanderbilt a center of Baudelairean activity.

A native of Jamaica (Long Island), N.Y., Raymond Poggenburg served in the U.S. Third Army in World War II, seeing combat in the Battle of the Bulge. He began the study of French at the University of Lausanne just after the war’s end. He eamed his B.A. degree at Hofstra University in 1949 and his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin in 1952 and 1955, having been mentored by W.T. Bandy. After teaching at Carleton College and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he was invited to be chairman of the newly created Department of French and Italian at Vanderbilt in 1962; he remained in that position until 1971 and finally retired from Vanderbilt in 1988.

Professor Poggenburg’s passionate interest in Baudelaire led him to make several decisions that were crucial to the furthering of Baudelaire studies at Vanderbilt. In 1965 he saw to the creation of the Bulletin Baudelairien, with W.T. Bandy as principal editor. In 1968 he arranged for his mentor to be invited to Vanderbilt as Distinguished Professor of French. Professor Bandy brought with