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The Philolexian Foundation

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The Philolexian Society of Columbia University

Sylvain Bromberger

Columbia College, Class of 1948

Vital

Full name
Sylvain Bromberger

Columbia & the Society

Columbia
Class of 1948 (Columbia College)
Society role
One of the mid/late-1940s revivers of the Philolexian Society (with Ginsberg, Hoffman, Hollander, Kelvin, Simpson, Gold, Melnechuk). 1947 Philolexian revival signatory (per Melnechuk's class-notes account of the original scroll).

Works (2)

  1. 1992 On What We Know We Don't Know: Explanation, Theory, Linguistics, and How Questions Shape Them · Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992
  2. 1993 The View From Building 20: Essays in Linguistics in Honor of Sylvain Bromberger · Cambridge: MIT Press, 1993

Primary sources

Columbia College Today & other articles

Columbia College Today — vol. 41 (~2001), Class of 1948 alumni class notes — reminiscence by Ted Melnechuk '48 about Sylvain Bromberger
Sylvain Bromberger, back in our student days at Columbia, was one of the literary bunch who revived the Philolexian Society and edited or wrote for the Columbia Review; others included Allen Ginsberg, Herbert Gold '46, Daniel G. Hoffman '47, John Hollander '50, Norman Kelvin, Louis Simpson '49GS, and me.

One of the mid/late-1940s revivers of the Philolexian Society.

Columbia College Today — vol. 41 (~2001), Class of 1948 alumni class notes — reminiscence by Ted Melnechuk '48 about Sylvain Bromberger →

Columbia College Today — vol. 44 (Nov 2002 / Jan 2003), Class of 1948 alumni class notes by Ted Melnechuk
Thomas Vinceguerra '85, former managing editor of CCT and now deputy editor of The Week, helped to revive the Philolexian Society in October 1985 and still helps to maintain and lead it... In the Columbia archives, Tom discovered the Philolexian Society's original membership scroll. From it, he could tell that, between Philos' original founding in 1802 and its 1985 revival, it was revived twice. The first revival was in 1944 and involved Walter Wager '44, who nowadays is that year's class correspondent. The second was in October 1947, and among the signatures from that time were those of Vincent Carrozza '49, Jason Epstein '49, and Theodor [sic] Melnechuk... Tom sent me a list of members of our class who were members of the Philolexian Society when it was revived in 1947. They included Sylvain Bromberger, the late Barry Decker, Herbert C. V. Feinstein, the late Allen Ginsberg, Donald…

Melnechuk's class-notes column names Sylvain Bromberger as a 1947 revival signatory — cross-checked against Thomas Vinciguerra's 1980s discovery of the original Philolexian membership scroll in the Columbia archives, which lists the members who signed at the October 1947 revival. Two-source confirmation of Society membership: (a) the physical scroll signature, and (b) Vinciguerra + Melnechuk's transcription.

Columbia College Today — vol. 44 (Nov 2002 / Jan 2003), Class of 1948 alumni class notes by Ted Melnechuk →

The Foundation's research archive

Philolexian Foundation research file: handwritten list of Philos by class year

listed under the year heading 1948 · Confidence: CERTAIN

Community-maintained record

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