Reuel Wilson was on the faculty at UWO/Western University for many years. Given that it is rather quiet on campus right now and that less people read newspapers and, perhaps even less notice obituaries, my purpose here is to provide his obituary and the memorial notice found on the Western website. As well, information about Reuel's last book is included.
Many years ago, I played squash with Reuel and for a period when he was away, probably in Wellfleet, I lived in his house on Huron Street. Being the son of a very famous father and perhaps an even more popular mother, it contained photographs of many people who were recognizable, including his uncle, an actor. Over the years I would occasionally run into Reuel on campus and in our brief conversations, the famous people were never mentioned and I am sure he was pleased that the name "Wilson" guaranteed a certain degree of anonymity. I don't think any local reporters bothered him when one of his parents was in the news --- for example, when his mother called Lillian Hellman a liar on The Dick Cavett Show and was sued for $2.5 million, or when they passed on. I am fairly sure he enjoyed his quiet life on campus and he did come to London and stay here. I will say little more, since some of his colleagues provide comments about Reuel after the thorough obituary.
In recent years Reuel was sometimes seen walking through the stacks in Weldon Library, in which he had a carrel. The "library window" referred to in the blurb for his book, is the one in Weldon where he did his research and writing. If you want to know more about a very interesting and nice fellow, or are curious about what he might have to say about his days at Western and in London, I suggest you buy the book. It is simple to do so. Go to Amazon and look for the title, Holding the Road...
Order it and, no matter where you are, a copy will be printed close by and delivered to your door. Mine came the next day from Bolton and was quickly read and enjoyed. I am glad I was able to meet him.
"Reuel Wilson’s new memoir, Holding the Road: Away from Edmund Wilson and Mary McCarthy, follows the author through his childhood, spent in the households of his divorced parents, and then the expanding perspectives of his adult life. The reader meets Reuel’s closest relatives and confidants: Bowden Broadwater, his first step-father, Rosalind Wilson, his older half-sister, his uncle, Kevin McCarthy, the famous actor, and two remarkable Polish women, one a surrogate mother, the other McCarthy’s brilliant translator, who came to play the role of an aunt whom had never had. Following his diverse interests, Reuel traveled widely. Intellectual and cultural history are reflected in the people and places he knew and glimpsed – Montgomery Clift, Peggy Guggenheim, Hannah Arendt, Dwight Macdonald, Renata Adler, James Jones, Edward Said, Eldridge Cleaver in California, a zombie prostitute in Moscow, a flamboyant independent book seller in Havana, a venerable Marxist writer in Port-au-Prince. The book closes with an inside view of academia, the author’s home territory. He also recalls his mother’s stints as a college lecturer, and analyzes her ground-breaking novel The Groves of Academe. The conclusion, punctuated by a student demonstration under the writer’s library window, takes a broader view of the outlying city, landscape, and, by extension, of his adoptive country, Canada. In conclusion, he voices the hope that these fragments of life, now recalled in tranquility, will find wider resonance."
In Memoriam
Professor Reuel Wilson (1938-2026)
Remembering Reuel Wilson
The Department of Languages and Cultures mourns the passing of Reuel Wilson, who retired from the former Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures in 2002. Professor Wilson taught Polish, Russian, and Comparative Literature for many years at Western and is remembered by colleagues as a warm, kind, and generous presence in the department. Those who worked with him recall his wonderful sense of humour, his genuine interest in colleagues and students, and the encouragement he offered to those at earlier stages of their careers. He remained deeply interested in the department’s programs and left a lasting impression on those who had the privilege of knowing him. We extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends, former colleagues, and students.
(This is found on the Western University website - Department of Languages, Cultures, and Linguistics)
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The Obituary
Reuel Kimball Wilson Obituary
(From the London Free Press, June 22, 2026)
Reuel Wilson was born on December 25, 1938, in Manhattan, New York. He died at his home on June 4, 2026, surrounded by his loving family in London, Ontario, where he lived with his beloved wife Natsuko for 46 years.
Reuel Kimball Wilson was named after his father's uncle, a physician much esteemed by the family. His father Edmund Wilson was an influential literary critic, an early champion of European avant-garde and modernist expression, an active chronicler of his times, and an authority on the work of his contemporaries, including F. Scott Fitzgerald and many others. His mother, Mary McCarthy, was a pioneering novelist, memoirist, and critic. Her bestselling 1963 novel The Group became a cultural phenomenon adapted into a film by Sidney Lumet. Her memoir, Memories of a Catholic Girlhood, about her upbringing and the events surrounding the sudden death of her parents during the Spanish influenza epidemic, is considered a classic of the genre and is dedicated to Reuel.
Reuel's childhood was spent between his parents in New York, Cape Cod, and Rhode Island. As a boy he attended St. Bernard's School in New York, where his cherished stepfather and lifelong friend, Bowden Broadwater, was a well-loved, eccentric mainstay. After attending St. George's School and graduating from Brooks School, he completed his undergraduate studies in Romance languages and literature at Harvard College.
Raised in an environment shaped by engagement with literary traditions of many cultures, Reuel developed an enduring interest in multilingualism that would define his studies, his scholarly career, and larger outlook in life. In the 1960s he continued his studies of Slavic languages and literature in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley. There he studied under, and translated the work of, the Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet Czesław Miłosz. He wrote a doctoral thesis at the University of Chicago on Russian travel literature published as The Literary Travelogue: A Comparative Study with Special Relevance to Russian Literature from Fonvizin to Pushkin. By then, he had become fluent in Russian, Polish, and French; he would later master Spanish, in connection with his love of travel to foreign countries, especially Cuba and Mexico, and his intense curiosity for the contemporary literature emerging from the Spanish-speaking world.
Reuel taught Polish at UCLA for some years before he moved to Canada in 1970, with his first wife, Marcia, and joined the faculty of the Slavic Languages and Literatures department at the University of Western Ontario. There he taught undergraduate and graduate courses in language, in comparative literature, and in Russian and Polish literature (in the original languages). As a professor, he mentored many students, published articles and book reviews, and another book, with Jan Pachonski, Poland's Caribbean Tragedy: A Study of the Polish Legions in the Haitian War of Independence, 1802-1803. It concerns Haiti's war of independence and Napoleon Bonaparte's plan to have his generals conscript the Polish into the war in order to reintroduce slavery into Saint-Domingue, then the wealthiest colony of France.
After retiring in 2002 he published two memoirs: To the Life of the Silver Harbor: Edmund Wilson and Mary McCarthy on Cape Cod (2008), which revisits moments from his childhood and the works of his parents linked to the landscape to which he held a strong attachment; and Holding the Road: Away from Edmund Wilson and Mary McCarthy (2019), where he offers vivid portraits of figures from his past, such as Hannah Arendt, Peggy Guggenheim, and his dear uncle, the actor Kevin McCarthy, best known from his leading role in the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers movie.
Reuel continued to travel widely to foreign countries, to spend time in spring and fall in Wellfleet, Cape Cod, and to take pleasure in his various interests, which included cooking, barbequing in summer, gardening, and reading books, newspapers and journals in various languages. He remained close with former colleagues and friends and enjoyed hosting dinners. Eschewing fuss of any kind, Reuel appreciated the straightforward beauty of simplicity in nature, art, music, and friendship. His dry sense of humor and allergy to convention remained intact. His vivid memory of both historical events and of the details of his own and others' personal pasts never faded. He continued to play squash into his seventies and to enjoy bike-riding, swimming and exploring new places by car and on foot for many years afterward. An adventurous traveler quick to pick up the local dialects and idioms of the languages he came to know, he ventured off the beaten path to places such as Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Russia, Poland, and Portugal before the swell of mass tourism.
FROM THE GUESTBOOK
Reuel had a sly sense of humour, and he had a comprehensive knowledge of literature. He grew up in a household in which John Dos Passos and Vladimir Nabokov came to dinner often. I loved the way he often seemed to be mildly amused by life. Thank you, Reuel, for being my colleague.
Laurence de Looze
June 22, 2026
So sad. Reuel was a lovely man. He had a profound knowledge of world literature and a keen interest in sharing it with students and colleagues. I smile when I think of him riding all over London on his bike and surviving some tumbles. We had a brief visit last year and I was looking forward to seeing him again this summer. My condolences to Natsuko and his children.\
Marjorie Ratcliffe
June 22, 2026
Reuel was a wonderful colleague who welcomed me when I joined the Russian studies section of the Dept. of Modern Languages in 1991. We saw each other a lot in the 1990s, and he always wanted to speak to me in Russian, which he did very well. He was an impressive polyglot whose repertoire included Polish and Spanish, as well as French. We had many conversations in his office and saw each other off campus frequently. Reuel was extremely well-read and had a wide range of interests. I will always fondly remember our friendship. Sincere condolences to Natsuko and Sophie.
Vladimir Tumanov
June 23, 2026
I first encountered Reuel's work through the world of Polish studies; we even had the same Polish professor (though in different decades). I was a great admirer of Reuel's splendid book on "Poland's Caribbean Tragedy." When I met him I was of course impressed by his wisdom, erudition, and wonderful amiability. Condolences to Natsuko, Sophia, and the whole family.
Larry Wolff
June 24, 2026
Reuel was a great colleague, full of kindness and humour. I remember being invited to his home and Natsuko made the most wonderful Suchi.
Reuel continued his research after he retired, and after he retired he used to come by for me to sign the forms so he could have a table in the library. I always looked forward to his visits. He is missed.
Joyce Bruhn de Garavito
June 22, 2026
Post Script:
Over the years, I have often mentioned Western in my blog and some of the people I knew while working there, including Reuel. Most recently, his mother is mentioned in my post about Hannah Arendt. His father wrote many books, including one about Canada, see "OH! Canada?". His father's papers are in Tulsa, along with those of Bob Dylan.
