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Professor Porte earned his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1962, when he also was awarded the coveted Bowdoin Prize (established in 1791) for an essay on Emerson. In 1969, at the age of 36, he became one of the youngest persons in the history of the English department to be promoted to full professor. He was appointed a Rockefeller Scholar in Residence in Bellagio, Italy (1979), and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow (1981-82). He served as a visiting scholar and lecturer around the world; as scholarly consultant for publishing companies, universities, professional associations, and media groups; and on the editorial boards of key academic journals.
At Cooper Union (1951-52), he discovered his ineptitude for and lack of interest in an engineering career. While reading on his subway commute, Joel was moved by a paragraph in Mark Van Doren's A Liberal Education to devote himself instead to literary study. This allure led him to night school at Brooklyn College (1952-53), then to the City College of New York, where he was admitted after presenting himself uninvited to the Registrar. It also led him, while at CCNY, to life in a cold-water flat near Chelsea (and thus to the public baths at 9th Avenue and 25th Street), and to violoncello lessons with Otto Deri, a famed teacher.
In 1957, Joel earned his A.B. from CCNY magna cum laude in English and Classics, with two Clafin medals for excellence in Greek, the Ward Prize in English Composition, and election to Phi Beta Kappa. Throughout college, he also worked as an office boy at Atlas Corporation to help support his mother and younger brother. There, he received crucial support from the woman he considered his surrogate, intellectual "mother," and whom he would honor in later writings, Emilie Dixon. Although he was to journey thereafter to Harvard and to Cornell, his outsider status as a young man informed a lifelong generosity to others who, like himself, lacked "natural" entitlement.
In his distinguished academic career, Professor Porte published twelve books with, among others, Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, Columbia, and Yale University Presses. He also published book introductions, journal articles, and reviews. His most highly respected works include his literary biography of Emerson, Representative Man (Oxford 1979; rev. ed., Columbia 1988); In Respect to Egotism: Studies in American Romantic Writing (Cambridge 1991); and Consciousness and Culture: Emerson and Thoreau Reviewed (Yale 2004).
His edited volumes are international standards in the field. Selected titles include Emerson in His Journals (Belknap/Harvard 1982); the Library of America Emerson (1983); the Cambridge New Essays volume on Henry James's Portrait of a Lady (1990); The Cambridge Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson (1999); and Emerson's Prose and Poetry: A Norton Critical Edition (2001). The latter two volumes were co-edited with Professor Saundra Morris of Bucknell University, his former student at Cornell.
The Norton was adopted, in 2002, by the French Ministry of Education as a required text for the Agrégation national exam for aspiring college teachers. The Norton Emerson and other volumes edited by Professor Porte are also used as textbooks in colleges and universities across the nation -- including Harvard, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, NYU, Williams, Oberlin, and UCLA -- and abroad. In 2003, The Cambridge Companion was reissued for publication in China.
Notable essays and lectures range in topic from the Puritans through nineteenth- century America, the philosophy of George Santayana, the poetry of Wallace Stevens, the history of cereal boxes, and the Quaker Oats Man as cultural symbol.
Joel's students knew him as an intimidatingly erudite yet beloved, benevolent teacher and loyal mentor, with passions for literature, language, imagination,and life. He read them poetry in English, Greek, Latin, Italian, French, and German, and amused them with his wit. His coworkers remember him as a wonderful friend and deeply dedicated colleague.
He was singularly lacking in pretension. His famously impish sense of humor delighted in good jokes and bad puns alike. He enthusiastically befriended others. Waiting for chemotherapy with other cancer patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering, he might preside over a sudden seminar on Philip Roth; be instructed in the art and science of bridge painting; or, though a non-believer, graciously accept the prayers of a Rabbi. He adored music – from Brahms to Peggy Lee to Willie Nelson, and the 'cello, especially as played by his daughter.
He loved to travel, and became an expert at internet planning. Cancer treatment in New York City often included a carefully arranged stay for himself and his wife Helene at a fine hotel, at an excellent rate. In the twenty months between his diagnosis and his death, Joel and Helene traveled to Venice, Verona, Vicenza, and Padua; to Rome; and often to their cherished house in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom.
Finally, Joel was a particularly loving and devoted father, and a source of pride, joy, and inspiration to his only child, Susanna.
Joel Porte leaves his wife, Helene Sophrin Porte; his daughter, Susanna Maria Porte; two brothers, Alvin and Merrill, and their wives, Bonnie and Carmen; two nieces, Ariel and Trina; a nephew, David; his father-in-law, David Sophrin; his sister-in-law, Gail Sophrin; many dear friends; and scores of former students who gratefully transmit his legacy to students of their own.
A memorial service will be held at Cornell in September. Donations may be sent to Hospicare and Palliative Care of Tompkins County, 172 East King Road, Ithaca.
Cremation arrangements are under the direction of The Lansing Funeral Home, Inc., 32 Auburn Road, Lansing, NY 533.8600