Edel, Joseph Leon

(Joseph Leon Edel)(ĕd´əl, ā´dəl), 1907–97, American literary scholar and biographer, b. Pittsburgh, Pa. A professor at New York Univ. (1953–72) and the Univ. of Hawaii (1972–78), he received the 1963 Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for part of his definitive biography of Henry James (5 vol., 1953–72). He was also a coeditor of The Complete Notebooks of Henry James (1986) and edited several books of James's letters, plays, esays, criticism, and stories. Edel's other works include James Joyce: The Last Journey (1947) and Bloomsbury: A House of Lions (1979). His Wartime Memoir was published posthumously in 2001.