Charles P. Swiggart ’50

Pete died Feb. 14, 2004, in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Born in Nashville, Tenn., Pete attended Duncan College Preparatory School. He enrolled at Vanderbilt, but left to serve in the Army at Gen. MacArthur's Tokyo headquarters as a journalist for Stars and Stripes. After his service, he entered Princeton as a junior, became a member of Tower Club, and graduated with honors in English.

Pete earned a Ph.D. in English from Yale in 1954. Over the next nine years, he taught at Amherst College, Harvard University, and the University of Texas at Austin. From 1963-90, he was a professor in the English department at Brandeis University. His first book, The Art of Faulkner's Novels, published in 1963, became a standard text and remained in print into the 1980s. After publishing a textbook, Anatomy of Writing, in 1965, he returned to an early interest in analytic philosophy and published articles in Mind and other philosophical journals.

A lifelong chess player and amateur house builder, Pete loved hiking, skiing, and tennis.

To his three children, William '77, Katherine Ann, and Nathaniel, and three grandchildren, we extend our condolences.

The Class of 1950