We were sorry to learn, somewhat belatedly, of the death of Society member George Wickes, who passed away last October at the age of 102.
A longtime professor at the University of Oregon, he was a dedicated scholar of English and comparative literature whose career spanned over six decades. He is also remembered for his work as a spy in Southeast Asia in the 1940s, where he interviewed Ho Chi Minh and later shared his insights in Ken Burns’ The Vietnam War series.
His main literary interests were Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell and Natalie Barney, and he also wrote on Americans in Paris and translated the memoirs of Fréderic Mistral. George was also an active member of the Ford Society, attending the occasional conference and contributing a chapter “What Hemingway Learned from Ford” to the International Ford Madox Ford Studies series (volume 15, 2016).
You can read his full obituary here: George Wickes Obituary – Claremont Courier.
For an account of his time as a spy, see this article in the University of Oregon News.
