In Memoriam: Samuel Hynes

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Robert P. Matthews/Office of Communications

Professor emeritus of literature SAMUEL HYNES died Oct. 9 at his Princeton home. He was 95. Hynes joined the faculty in 1976 and retired in 1990. During World War II, Hynes flew 78 combat missions and received the Distinguished Flying Cross. He became known as an expert on the literature of war; that expertise informed much of his writing, including his 2018 book On War and Writing and his work as a contributor to two of Ken Burns’ documentaries, The War (2007) and The Vietnam War (2017). Hynes taught in the English department and the Woodrow Wilson School, and wrote several major works of literary criticism. (PAW published an essay by Hynes from On War and Writing in the Nov. 7, 2018, issue.)