Sacvan Bercovitch, BA (Eng.) 61, LLD 93, pictured in 1993 | Photo: Concordia's Records Management and Archives
Sacvan Bercovitch, BA (Eng.) 61, LLD 93, an eminent and influential American literature scholar, died on December 9, 2014, at his home in Brookline, Mass. He was 81.
The Montreal-born Bercovitch took evening courses at Sir George Williams University, one of Concordia’s two founding institutions, on his way to completing his BA in 1961. Upon graduation he was awarded the Governor General’s Medal for Literature.
He then headed to Claremont Graduate School (today called Claremont Graduate University) in California, where he earned his master’s degree and PhD.
Bercovitch then began an academic career that included positions at Columbia University, Brandeis University, the University of California and Harvard University. In 1983 he became the Charles H. Carswell Professor of English and American Literature and Language at Harvard, where he remained until his retirement in 2001.
Bercovitch’s best known work is The Puritan Origins of the American Self (1975), in which he argued that the American Puritans saw New England as a shining example for the rest of the world, the root of the idea of American exceptionalism.
He wrote and edited many books on American literature and culture and received several awards for both teaching and scholarship, including the Hubbell Prize for Lifetime Achievement in American Literary Studies and the Pearson-Bode Prize for Lifetime Achievement in American Studies.
Concordia awarded Bercovitch an honorary doctorate in 1993.
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