Life
Born in 1923 as Peter Joachim Fröhlich in Berlin, Gay and his family fled from Nazi Germany in 1939 and arrived in America in 1941. In Berlin he was educated at the Goethe-Gymnasium. His family initially booked passage on the MS St. Louis (whose passengers were eventually denied visas) but fortuitously changed their booking to an earlier voyage to Cuba. He came to the United States in 1941 and took American citizenship in 1946 where he changed his name from Fröhlich (German for "happy") to Gay. Gay received his education at the University of Denver, where he was awarded a BA in 1946 and at Columbia University where he was awarded an MA in 1947 and PhD in 1951. Gay worked as political science professor at Columbia between 1948–1955 and as history professor from 1955-1969. He taught at Yale from 1969 until his retirement in 1993. He was married to Ruth Slotkin (died 2006) in 1959 and has three stepchildren.
Read more about this topic: Peter Gay
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“You’ll have to learn that public life takes a lot of sweat; but it doesn’t need to worry you. You won’t always be right, but you mustn’t suffer from being wrong. That’s what kills people like us.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“The painter stood entranced before the work which he had wrought;... he grew tremulous and ... crying with a loud voice, “This is indeed Life itself!” turned suddenly to regard his beloved:MShe was dead!”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“Why not make an end of it all?... My life is a succession of griefs and bitter feelings.... What is death?... A very small matter, when all is said; only a fool would be concerned about it.”
—Stendhal [Marie Henri Beyle] (1783–1842)