BABBITT, Irving. Dayton, Ohio 2.8.1865 — Cambridge, Mass. 15.7.1933. U.S. Romance Philologist interested in Pāli. Son of Edwin Dwight B. and Augusta Darling. Educated at Harvard (A.B. 1889, A.M. 1893, including Sanskrit), also studies in Paris 1891-92 (Pāli and Buddhism at E.P.H.E.). Instructor in Romance Languages at Williams College 1893-94, then at Harvard: Instructor in French 1894-1902, Assistant Professor 1902-12, Professor of French Literature from 1912. In 1900 married Dora May Drew, one son and one daughter. Babbitt was a religious humanist and cultural critic opposing romanticism. In politics rather conservative.
Publications: Works on French literature, etc.
– The Dhammapada transl. from Pali, with an Essay on Buddha and the Occident. 12+123 p. N.Y. 1936 (“by I.B., late Prof. of French, Harvard University”).
Sources: Who Was Who in America 1, 1897–1942 (no Asian interests mentioned); Wikipedia (long account with many further references).
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