Frederick J. Hoffman was born September 21, 1909 in Port Washington, Wisconsin. His
education consisted of a Bachelor of Arts in English from Stanford University (1934, Phi
Beta Kappa), a Master of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Minnesota (1936), and a
Doctor of Philosophy in English from Ohio State University (1942). In 1945 Hoffman received
the prestigious Rockefeller Fellowship. His teaching positions included Ohio State
University where he served as assistant professor from 1942 to 1947; associate professor at
the University of Oklahoma (1947-1948); associate professor and professor at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison (1948-1960); and professor at the University of California, Riverside
(1960-1965) where he served as chairman of the English department (1961-1963). Hoffman
served the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as Distinguished Professor of English from 1965
until his death on December 24, 1967, which occurred shortly after his August 1967 marriage
to Mary C. Holm. During his teaching career Hoffman also held visiting professorships at
Duke, Harvard and Stanford Universities, and was a Fulbright professor in France and Italy
(1953-1954).
During his career Hoffman was the author of twenty-one books and approximately 250 essays
published in books and magazines. His books include Freudianism and
the Literary Mind (1945), The Little Magazine: A History
and a Bibliography (1946, with Charles Allen and Carolyn F. Ulrich), and The Twenties: American Writing in the Postwar Decade (1949).
Hoffman also lectured widely on his primary field of interest, American literature,
especially that of the modern era. He was particularly interested in psychoanalysis and
modern literature, and in the literary and cultural history of the 1920s.
