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Evans (J. Martin) Papers
SC1163
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
Undetermined
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: J. Martin Evans papers
Identifier/Call Number: SC1163
Physical Description:
15 Linear Feet
and 216 megabytes
Date (inclusive): 1943-2011
Physical Location: Special Collections and University
Archives materials are stored offsite and must be paged 48 hours in advance. For more
information on paging collections, see the department's website:
http://library.stanford.edu/spc.
The materials are open for research use. Audio-visual materials are not available in
original format, and must be reformatted to a digital use copy.
John Martin Evans was born in Cardiff, Wales, on Feb. 2, 1935. After a two-year stint
working in military intelligence for the Royal Air Force from 1953 to 1955, Evans attended
Oxford, where he received his BA in 1958 from Jesus College, and his MA and DPhil from
Merton College in 1963. At Oxford, his thesis advisor was Dame Helen Gardner, the doyenne of
17th-century studies. Under her guidance, he began a lifelong career in Milton studies.
Gardner was influential in other ways: She convinced Evans to apply to Stanford when the
academic job market in Britain was so poor that 250 scholars with doctorates in English were
competing for two university positions.
Evans was offered the job, and immediately flew to Switzerland and proposed to Mariella
Lafranchi, whom he had met at Oxford. He didn't know half her family had emigrated to
California decades before; Evans moved into a large extended family in the United States and
never looked back.
In 2004, the Milton Society of America named him as a prestigious "honored scholar" for
lifetime achievement.
He hosted a 400th birthday party for John Milton in 2008, with a marathon reading of
Paradise Lost – some called it a "Martinfest." The event reunited many of his former
students from across the United States and Canada.
At his death, he was in his 50th year of teaching at Stanford. He held many awards for his
teaching and service, including the Bing Award for teaching (1992), the Richard W. Lyman
Award (1990) and the Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching (1984). The 1987 Walter J.
Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching cited "the magnificence of his teaching at all levels
of the department curriculum" and "the passion about literature that infuses all his
teaching and writing."
Evans was associate dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences (1977-81), director of
undergraduate studies (1983-86) and chair of the English Department (1988-91). He was named
the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor in 2002.
He was a champion of the humanities, and passionate in their defense: "The humanist's
material is not a mysterious concatenation of natural phenomena or a mass of raw statistical
data waiting to be given significance by the ordering mind of the analyst," he wrote in a
2009 article in Stanford magazine.
Evans was survived by his wife of almost 50 years, Mariella Evans of Stanford; his daughter
Jessica Evans, his son-in-law Yung Duong and grandson, Owen Evans-Duong, all of Oakland; and
his daughter Joanna Evans and son-in-law David Harris of Ojai, Calif.
Cynthia Haven http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/february/martin-evans-obit-021513.html
[identification of item], J. Martin Evans Papers (SC1163). Dept. of Special Collections and
University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must
be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford
University Libraries, Stanford, California 94305-6064. Consent is given on behalf of Special
Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright
owner, heir(s) or assigns. See:
http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of
digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
English literature -- Study and teaching.
Stanford University -- Faculty.
Universities and colleges -- Faculty.
Milton, John