In Memoriam: Elaine Fantham, 1933-2016

Elaine Fantham, the Giger Professor of Latin Emerita and professor of classics emerita at Princeton University in New Jersey, died on July 11 in Toronto. She was 83 years old.

Dr. Fantham was born in Liverpool, England, and as a child, lived through the Nazi bombing raids of World War II. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Oxford and a Ph.D. at the University of Liverpool.

Professor Fantham joined the Princeton faculty in 1986 and remained there until her retirement in 1999. Earlier in her career, she taught at Indiana University and for 20 years was a member of the faculty at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Fantham was the author of several books including Roman Literary Culture: From Cicero to Apuleius (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996) and was associate editor-in-chief of the seven-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome (Oxford University Press, 2010).