PERRY, Edward Delavan. Troy, NY 20.12.1854 — New York City 28.3. 1938. U.S. Indologist and Classical Scholar. Professor in New York. Son of Amos Sone Perry and Sarah Hillhouse. Studies of classical philology at Columbia University in New York (A.B. 1875). Further studies under Roth at Tübingen, Ph.D. there 1879. Taught at Columbia University: 1880-91 Tutor, then Instructor in Greek and Sanskrit, 1891-95 Professor of Sanskrit, 1895-1931 Jay Professor of Greek. Dean of Faculty of Philosophy in 1902-09. LL.D. 1904 Columbia University. Among his students was A. V. Williams Jackson. Married 1883 Alice Van Schaick.
Perry was a modest man who published very little, but was appreciated as teacher and organizator. In 1895 he succeeded his teacher as Jay Professor of Greek and left Sanskrit to his own student A. V. W. Jackson. In Indology he is well remembered because of his popular Sanskrit Primer, based on Bühler’s German work.
Publications: Diss. Indra im Rig-Veda: Eine mythologische Untersuchung. Tübingen 1878, publ. as “Indra in the Rig-Veda”, JAOS 11, 1885, 117-208.
– A Sanskrit Primer. 12+230 p. Boston 1885 and many editions.
– “Notes on the Vedic Deity Pûsan”, Studies Drisler 1900, 240-244.
– Obituary of A. V. Williams Jackson, JAOS 58, 1938, 221-224.
– The American University. 68 p. Albany 1900; a few writings on Greek.
Sources: *W. S. Messer, CJ 33, 1937-38, 561; *F. G. Moore, Columbia Univ. Quart. June 1938, 104-110; M. Reinhold in Briggs (ed.), Biogr. Dict. of N. Am. Class. 1994, 496f.; Who Was Who in Am. 1; a few lines in Wikipedia; photo in centuryarchives.org.
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