Dr. Anthony William Riley was a professor with the Department of German at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario from 1962 to 1992. He was born in Radcliffe-on-Trent, England on 23 July 1929 to Cyril Frederick and Winifred Mary (White) Riley. On 16 July 1955, he married Maria Theresia Walter, with whom he had three children.
Dr. Riley obtained his Bachelor of Arts with Honours from the University of Manchester in 1952, and his PhD from the Universität Tübingen (Germany) in 1958. He was a lecturer at Tübingen from 1957 to 1959 and 1960 to 1962, and assistant lecturer at Queen Mary College at the University of London from 1959 to 1960. He was hired as an Assistant Professor in German language and literature at Queen's University in 1962. He attained the status of Associate Professor in 1965, and Professor in 1968. Riley was Head of the Department of German from 1967 to 1976, and Acting Head from 1979 to 1980 and 1986 to 1987. He was also a visiting Professor at the Universität München (Munich) in 1996.
Dr. Riley was the author of "Elisabeth Langgässer Bibliographie mit Nachlassbericht" (1970); wrote a number of articles on Langgässer, Alfred Döblin, Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, Frederick Philip Grove, Joseph Wittig, and Cordelia Edvardson; was co-editor of "The Master Mason's House" (Grove, 1976), "Echoes and Influences of German Romanticism" (1987), "Muse and Reason: The Relation of Arts and Sciences 1650-1850" (1994); was co-editor and co-translator on "Fanny Essler, 2 vols." (Grove, 1984); was editor of "Der Oberst und der Dichter/Die Pilgerin Aetheria" (Döblin, 1978), "Der unsterbliche Mensch/Der Kampf mit dem Engel" (Döblin, 1980), "Jagende Rosse/Der schwarze Vorhang" (Döblin, 1981), "Wadzeks Kampf mit der Dampfturbine" (Döblin), "Kleine Schriften I (1920-1921)" (Döblin, 1985), "Kleine Schriften II (1922-1924)" (Döblin, 1990), "Schicksalsreise" (Döblin, 1993), and "Kleine Schriften III (1925-1933)" (Döblin, 1999).
He served with the British Army from 1947 to 1949. He was a summer fellow with the Weil Institute for Studies in Religion and the Humanities (1965), Canadian Council Leave fellow (1969-1970, 1976-1977 and 1983-1984), and an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (1981). He was a member of the Canadian Association of University Teachers of German, for which he served as Vice-President (1973-1975) and President (1975-1976). He was co-founder of the Internationale Alfred Döblin-Gesellschaft, for which he served as Vice-President from 1984 to 1985; a member of the Deutsche Schillergesellschaft; the International Association for German Studies; and the Elisabeth Langgässer-Gesellschaft. Throughout his career, he was the recipient of the Queen's University prize for Excellence in Research (1983), the Canadian Association of University Teachers of German's Hermann Boeschenstein medal (1987), the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation's Konrad Adenauer Research Award (1989), and a Humboldt research grant (1999).
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