Ralph Freedman

Ralph Freedman was a German-American literary scholar and professor emeritus of comparative literature at Princeton University, renowned for his acclaimed biographies Hermann Hesse: Pilgrim of Crisis and Life of a Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke. Born in Hamburg, Germany, he emigrated to the United States in 1940, served in the U.S. Army during World War II, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Washington in 1948, joined Princeton's faculty in 1965, retired in 1988, and taught briefly at Emory University thereafter. He died at age 96 in Decatur, Georgia.