Jacques Barzun

acques Barzun (b.1907) grew up in Paris and moved to the United States as a teenager. In 1923 he entered Columbia College and graduated four years later at the top of his class. He was a lecturer at Columbia where he became a full professor in 1945 and Dean of the Graduate Faculties in 1955. In the following year he appeared on the cover of Time magazine.
In 1958 he was appointed the inaugural Dean of Faculties and Provost of the University. In 1967 he resigned from his administrative duties and focussed on teaching and writing until his retirement in 1975. A couple of decades later, after a period of poor health, he was advised that he had several years of life ahead and this encouraged him to complete a long-running project, his last and largest book Dawn to Decadence which became a most unexpected bestseller.