K-L Selig was my professor when I was an undergrad at Columbia, and he is
probably the main reason I chose to dedicate most of my academic energy to
picaresque novels and Cervantes.  I remember he once told my class, in his
inimitable Teutonic accent (with a touch of Texas) that the best (in fact
the only) way to eat a pomegranate was in the bathtub!

Bob Stone


2013/5/21 Lauer, A Robert <[log in to unmask]>

>  *From:* [log in to unmask] [[log in to unmask]]
> *Sent:* Sunday, May 19, 2013 10:09
> *To:* Lauer, A Robert
> *Subject:* Re: Tristes noticias
>
>   Selig was a great scholar and person.  I have only good memories of
> him.  May he rest in peace.
>
> Dario Fernandez-Morera
> Northwestern University
>
>
>  -----Original Message-----
> From: Lauer, A Robert <[log in to unmask]>
> To: CERVANTES-L <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sun, May 19, 2013 6:02 am
> Subject: FW: Tristes noticias
>
>   *From:* Cull, John [[log in to unmask]]
> *Sent:* Saturday, May 18, 2013 13:21
> *To:* Lauer, A Robert
> *Subject:* Re: Karl-Ludwig Selig
>
>  Estimado Profesor Lauer,
>
>  No recuerdo haber visto en este listserve (ni en otro alguno)
> noticias sobre el fallecimiento reciente de un hispanista
> distinguido y pionero en el estudio de la emblemática hispana:
> Karl-Ludwig Selig. A continuación le copio el "In memoriam"
> que apareció en una comunicación de Columbia University:
>
>  *Karl-Ludwig Selig*, professor emeritus of Spanish and Portuguese and a
> Cervantes scholar, died on December 1, 2012, on the Upper West Side. He was
> 86.
> Selig is regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts on Cervantes’ Don
> Quixote. Known for his course “The Novella: from Boccaccio to Cervantes,”
> Selig passionately made the case that the modern novel is dependent on
> Cervantes’ picaresque work. He also taught “Masterpieces of Western
> Literature and Philosophy II,” also known as “Super Lit Hum.”
>
>  PHOTO: LORI GRINKER / CONTACT PRESS IMAGES
> Those who took Selig’s class “could never get the books, or the professor,
> out of [their] mind. Fifty years later, people can recite his lectures,”
> said Christopher Allegaert ’78 in a recent Spectator article.
> Selig was born into a Jewish family in Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1926. He and
> his parents fled to the United Kingdom in 1939, before the start of WWII,
> relocating to Erie, Pa. Selig earned a B.A. from Ohio State, where he also
> swam; an M.A. from Ohio State; and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas,
> where he later taught. He received his United States citizenship in 1948
> and taught at the University of Minnesota, Johns Hopkins, North Carolina
> and Cornell before joining Columbia in 1966. Selig was presented Columbia’s
> Mark Van Doren Award for Teaching in 1974. After leaving Columbia in
> 1989, he taught at the University of the South (Sewanee) and at the
> University of Greifswald, Germany.
> Selig wrote or co-authored 45 books, many of which have been translated
> into multiple languages.
> Selig always was willing and excited to speak with his students, and
> dozens attended his 86th birthday celebration last August.
> Harper’s Magazine Publisher John Mac­Arthur ’78 referenced Selig last year
> in his Class Day address: “He wanted you to embrace the text, to read it
> with rigor, but also with pleasure. However, like all of my best
> professors, Selig insisted that reading text was a fundamentally serious
> endeavor, that text must be respected.”
> “He was resolved to fight as only a devotee of Don Quixote could,” said
> another former student, Dennis Klainberg ’84, “by staying optimistic,
> fighting to live another day and keeping in close touch with all his
> friends, colleagues and especially, his beloved students.”
> Selig had an appreciation for the rowing team, which named two sculls
> after him. A remembrance will be held for him this spring at the Columbia
> Class of 1929 Boathouse.
> *Former students may share memories of Selig on the “Fans of Karl-Ludwig
> Selig” group on Facebook. Several of Selig’s former students have taken
> up a collection for his caretaker, Gilbert Adiaba. For information on how
> to donate, contact Dennis Klainberg ’84 (**[log in to unmask]**) or
> Ted Allegaert ’87 (**[log in to unmask]**).*
>
>    Un saludo cordial,
>>
> John T. Cull
>
>  ------------------------------
>    NB de ARL: Gracias, John.  Es en efecto una triste noticia.  Lleguéa conocera Karl-Ludwig Selig en la MLA (haceaños)
> y después nos comunicamos brevemente por e-mail.  Mi impresión fue siemprede queera un hombre muy
>  sabio y muy bondadoso.  Por lo que leo, habría sido maravilloso haber
>  tenido clases con él.  Saludos cordiales.
>
>
>