Samuel Lynn Hynes

Samuel Hynes, who died on Thursday, October 10th, aged 95, was an eminent literary scholar and critic, as well as a World War II veteran who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service in the Marine Corps. Hynes, who was Professor of Literature emeritus at Princeton University, was best known for his memoir, Flights of Passage, which was a New York Times best-seller and winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. He was a notable literary critic, writing extensively for the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books and the Sunday Times. His books of criticism include classic works on Auden and his circle, on TE Hulme and on Thomas Hardy. He is acknowledged as one of the leading scholars of war literature, and a class on his work is taught at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He sat on the Booker Prize committee in 1981, when he made the deciding vote that awarded the prize to Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. Hynes appeared as a contributor on two documentaries by the award-winning documentary maker Ken Burns. He was one of the central voices in The War (2007), appearing in every one of the seven episodes, and also featured in The Vietnam War (2017). Hynes was born in 1924, grew up in Minneapolis, enlisted aged 18 in the Navy flight program and served with distinction as a bomber pilot in the Pacific. He married Elizabeth Iglehart, the sister of a friend and fellow pilot, in 1944. They had two daughters, Miranda (born 1950) and Joanna (born 1952). Hynes completed his BA at the University of Minnesota, then received his M.A. and PhD from Colombia under the 1944 G.I. Bill. His teaching career began at Swarthmore College, where he taught from 1949-1968. He was then Professor of English at Northwestern, where he was Chairman of the English Department from 1970-73. He came to Princeton in 1976. He is survived by his daughters, Miranda and Joanna; his grandchildren, Alex, Sam and Lucy Preston; and his great-grandchildren, Alastair and Aurelia Preston, and Elias Preston Hassan. Arrangements are under the direction of the Saul Colonial Home, 3795 Nottingham Way, Hamilton Square, NJ.