Michael Courtney Jenkins Putnam
After receiving degrees from Harvard University (AB ’54, AM ’56, PhD ’59), Putnam taught at Brown University from 1960 until 2009 and thereafter was W. Duncan MacMillan II Professor of Classics and Professor of Comparative Literature, emeritus. His scholarly work centered around Latin literature and its reception. Recent work included a long essay on Statius and an edition of the Latin poetry of Pierio Valeriano for the I Tatti Renaissance Library as well as an extended study of classical “farewell” poetry (propemptica). Chief intellectual foci included the Classics Department at Brown University and the American Ƶ in Rome, of which he was a Life Trustee. He was also a Member of the American Philosophical Society and Trustee of Bay Chamber Concerts in Rockport, Maine.