WEIGHTMAN, J(ohn) G(eorge) 1915-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born November 29, 1915, in Callerton, Northumberland, England; died August 14, 2004, in London, England. Educator and author. A former professor of French at Westfield College, Weightman was well known as a gifted essayist and translator. Growing up in modest circumstances as the son of a coalminer, he proved a bright student with an early love of language that led to a scholarship at Hexham Grammar School. This was followed by study at Durham University (now Newcastle University), where he earned a B.A. in French. He was attending graduate courses at the University of Poitiers when World War II started. During the war, Weightman worked as a French translator and announcer for the British Broadcasting Corp., for which he read announcements that included secret messages to the French Resistance. After the war, he continued working for the BBC as a program organizer until 1950. He then entered academia as a lecturer in French at the University of London during the 1950s and early 1960s, completing his Ph.D. there in 1955. Next, he joined the faculty at Westfield College as a reader in 1963. In 1967, he made full professor, retiring as professor emeritus in 1981. While working as a professor, Weightman also enjoyed a successful side career as a prolific essayist and reviewer for such periodicals as Encounter, New Statesman, Times Literary Supplement, and the Observer, the last for which he wrote criticism on films and plays, as well as essays on various subjects. He also produced a number of translations from the French with his wife, including works by Claude Levi-Strauss and Serge Gainsbourg. Always fascinated by language and philosophy, Weightman authored the books On Language and Writing (1947) and The Concept of the Avant-Garde: Explorations in Modernism (1973). Named a commandeur of the Ordre des Palmes Academiques for his service to French culture, he completed three privately printed works before his death: The Cat Sat on the Mat: Language and the Absurd (2002), Reading the Bible in the Run-up to Death (2003), and Memoirs of a Language Freak (2004).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Daily Telegraph (London, England), August 24, 2004.

Guardian (London, England), August 19, 2004, p. 25.

Independent (London, England), August 25, 2004, p. 31.

Times (London, England), August 24, 2004, p. 26.