Harris Fletcher

Harris Fletcher

Harris Francis Fletcher (23 October, 1892 – July 1979) was an American academic, author, and a leading authority on the work of John Milton.

He was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan. On July 8, 1915, he married Mary Ellen Davis in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Mary Ellen Davis died of influenza in the flu pandemic October 20, 1918. On 22 June, 1922, he married Dorothy Bacon in Coldwater, Michigan. Fletcher received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1925. Fletcher was Professor of English at the University of Illinois from 1926-1962, and Associate Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences from 1931-1938. Fletcher played a major role in the establishment of the university's Rare Book and Special Collections Library, which now include the largest collection of the works of the poet John Milton in the United States. He died in Champaign, Illinois in 1979.