Milman Parry (1902 -December 3, 1935) was a scholar of epic poetry. 1902 (MCMII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... December 3 is the 337th (in leap years the 338th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The epic is a broadly defined genre of poetry, and one of the major forms of narrative literature. ...

He studied at the University of California at Berkeley (B.A. and M.A.) and at the Sorbonne (Ph.D.). A student of the linguist Antoine Meillet at the Sorbonne, Parry revolutionized Homeric studies. In his dissertations, which were published in French in the 1920s, he demonstrated that the Homeric style is characterized by the extensive use of fixed expressions, or 'formulas', adapted for expressing a given idea under the same metrical conditions. The University of California, Berkeley (also known as Cal, UC Berkeley, UCB, or simply Berkeley) is a prestigious, public, coeducational university situated in the foothills of Berkeley, California to the east of San Francisco Bay, overlooking the Golden Gate and its bridge. ... The Sorbonne, Paris, in a 17th century engraving The historic University of Paris (French: Université de Paris) first appeared in the second half of the 12th century, but was in 1970 reorganized as 13 autonomous universities (University of Paris I–XIII). ... Antoine Meillet (Paul-Jules-Antoine Meillet, November 11, 1866 - September 21, 1936), was one of the most important French linguists of the early 20th century. ... Homeric scholarship is the study of Homeric epic, especially the two large surviving epics the Iliad and Odyssey. ...

In his American publications of the 1930s Parry introduced the hypothesis that this peculiarity of Homer's style is to be explained by its being the characteristic style of oral composition (the so-called Oral Formulaic Hypothesis). The dissemination of the idea of Homer as an oral poet was continued by his student Albert Lord, most notably in The Singer of Tales (1960). Oral poetry is a form of poetry that is transmitted orally and memorized rather than written down. ... Albert Bates Lord was a Professor of Slavic and Comparative Literature at Harvard who, after the untimely death of Milman Parry, carried on that scholars research into epic literature. ...

Between 1933 and 1935 Parry, at the time Associate Professor at Harvard University, made two trips to Yugoslavia, where he studied and recorded oral traditional poetry of the South Slavs. 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Yugoslavia (Jugoslavija in all south Slavic languages, in Serbian and Macedonian Cyrillic Југославија) is a term used for three separate but successive political entities that existed during most of the 20th century on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe. ... The Slavic peoples are the most numerous ethnic and linguistic body of peoples currently living in Europe. ...

Parry's collected papers were published posthumously: The Making of Homeric Verse: The Collected Papers on Milman Parry, edited by Adam Parry, his son (Oxford University Press, 1971). The Milman Parry collection of records and transcriptions of Southslavic heroic poetry is now in the Widener Library of Harvard University. The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, commonly known as Widener Library, is the primary building of the library system of Harvard University. ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ...

He died in Los Angeles from an accidental gun-shot (A. Parry, Making of Homeric Verse xli). This article is about the largest city in California. ...

External link

• The Milman Parry Collection at Harvard University