Theodore Ziolkowski (September 30, 1932 – December 5, 2020) was a scholar in the fields of German studies and comparative literature. He coined the term "fifth gospel genre". Early life Theodore J. Ziolkowski was born on September 30, 1932 in Birmingham, Alabama to Cecilia (née Jankowski) and Mieczysław Ziółkowski, second-generation and first-generation Polish immigrants to the United States. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Duke University in 1951, a Master of Arts from Duke University in 1952 and, following studies at the University of Innsbruck on a Fulbright Fellowship, his Ph.D from Yale University in 1957. Personal life Ziolkowski married Yetta Goldstein in 1951. Together they had two sons, Jan and Eric. Career Following appointments at Yale and Columbia, he was called to Princeton University as professor of German in 1964. In 1969 he was appointed Class of 1900 Professor of German and Comparative Literature and, from 1979 to 1992, Dean of the Graduate School. From 2001 to his death, he was professor emeritus. A past president of the Modern Language Association (1985) and visiting professor at several universities (Yale, CUNY, Rutgers, Bristol, Munich, Lueneburg), he received many awards for his books and honors in the United States and abroad, including the Goethe-Medaille of the Goethe-Institut, the Jacob-und-Wilhelm Grimm Preis (DAAD), the Forschungspreis of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Bundesverdienstkreuz (1. Klasse) of the Federal Republic of Germany, and the D.Phil.h.c. from the University of Greifswald. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was also a corresponding member of the Austrian Akademie der Wissenschaften, the Göttingen Akademie der Wissenschaften, and the Deutsche Akademie fur Sprache und Dichtung. Awards He received the James Russell Lowell Prize and the Henry Allen Moe Prize in the Humanities of the American Philosophical Society. Death Ziolkowski died in Kirkland Village, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on December 5, 2020. Works 1964. Hermann Broch 1965. The Novels of Hermann Hesse: Themes and Structures 1966. Hermann Hesse 1969. Dimensions of the Modern Novel: German Texts and European Contexts 1972. Fictional Transfigurations of Jesus (James Russell Lowell Prize of MLA) 1973, ed. Hesse: A Collection of Critical Essays. 1976, ed.Hermann Hesse: My Belief. Essays on Life and Art 1977. Disenchanted Images: A Literary Iconology 1979. Der Schriftsteller Hermann Hesse 1980. The Classical German Elegy, 1795–1950 1983. Varieties of Literary Thematics 1990. German Romanticism and Its Institutions 1991,