Barbara Josephine Lewalski (née Kiefer; February 22, 1931 – March 2, 2018)[1][2] was an American academic, an authority on Renaissance literature particularly known for her work on John Milton.
[3] Born in Topeka, Kansas, to John Kiefer, a farmer, and Vivo (née Hutton), an elementary schoolteacher and speech therapist, she received her BSE at Emporia State University in 1950 and her AM in 1951.
[4][5] Her first book, Milton’s Brief Epic: The Genre, Meaning and Art of Paradise Regained, has been praised as a "trail-blazing" work that marshals "great learning in the service of understanding a specific artefact, without swamping the artefact.
From 1956 to 1982 she taught at Brown University, holding the positions of Alumni-Alumnae University Professor (1976–82), Director of Graduate Studies in English (1968–72), and Chair of the Renaissance Studies Program (1976–80).
[6] Lewalski died in Providence, Rhode Island, at the age of 87.