Eric Bentley

Eric Russell Bentley taught classes in social science, history, drama, and dramatic literature at the college in the summer of 1942, and from spring of 1943 to summer of 1944. While faculty, he also sat on the Library Committee, the Campaign Publicity Committee, and the Membership Committee.

Bentley was born in Bolton, Lancashire, England and attended Oxford University, receiving his degree in 1938. He subsequently attended Yale University (B.Litt., 1939 and Ph.D., 1941).

At Black Mountain he wrote The Century of Hero Worship (1944). He took a leave of absence in the summer of 1944 to teach at Fiske University. He resigned from Black Mountain College at the end of the summer as a result of a conflict at the college.

When he left Black Mountain, Bentley taught at the University of Minnesota. Beginning in 1953, he taught at Columbia University and simultaneously was a theater critic for The New Republic. From 1960-1961, Bentley was the Norton Professor at Harvard University. Bentley is an authority on Bertholt Brecht, whom he met at UCLA as a young man and whose works he has translated extensively. He edited the Grove Press issue of Brecht's work.

Bentley became an American citizen in 1948, and currently lives in New York City. Bentley was married to Maja Tschernjakow Bentley Apelman, a student at Black Mountain College. They were later divorced. In 1953 he married Joanne Davis. They had twin sons.

Biography written by Mary Emma Harris for the Black Mountain College Project.

Relationships

Wife: Fellow BMC student, Maja Tschernjakow