John V. Fleming hails from a farm in Baxter County, Arkansas. He graduated from the University of the South (Sewanee) in 1958. He then went for three years as a Rhodes Scholar to Oxford (Arkansas and Jesus College), where he took a honours BA in English. He next spent two years at Princeton getting a Ph.D. (1963), before becoming an Instructor in English at the University of Wisconsin (1963-65).  He returned to Princeton in 1965, where he taught until his retirement in 2006. During his long Princeton career he held numerous administrative positions, including the chairmanship of the English Department and the acting chairmanship of Comparative Literature He is the former Master of Wilson College, and the former Faculty Director of the Program in Freshman Seminars. Jointly appointed in the Department of Comparative Literature, Fleming published very extensively in the fields of medieval English and European literature, medieval art history, and the history of Christian thought and spirituality. He is a winner of the Behrman Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Humanities and the President’s medal for distinguished teaching.  In 2006 he received the Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Award.

From 1995 to 2006, he wrote a weekly opinion column in The Daily Princetonian, entitled "Gladly Lerne, Gladly Teche" which now continues in the blog associated with this site. He served for several years as a Commissioner of Higher Education of Middle States. He is active in numerous learned societies, including the Medieval Academy of America, which he served as its President, and the Guild of Scholars of the Episcopal Church.

He is married to the Rev. Joan Elizabeth Newman Fleming, rector emerita of Christ Church in New Brunswick, NJ. He is the proud father of Richard A. Fleming, Katherine E. Fleming, and Luke O. Fleming, proud father-in-law of Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, and confused grandfather to Sophia, Lulu, and Cora.

Principal Publications:

• The Anti-Communist Manifestos: Four Books That Shaped the Cold War(2009)
• 1492: An Ongoing Voyage (1992, with Ida Altman and John Hebert)
• Classical Imitation and Interpretation in Chaucer's Troilus (1990)
• Reason and the Lover (1984)
• From Bonaventure to Bellini: An Essay in Franciscan Exegesis (1982)
• An Introduction to the Franciscan Literature of the Middle Ages (1977)
• Two Poems Attributed to Joachim of Fiore, with Marjorie Reeves (1977)
• The Roman de la Rose: A Study in Allegory and Iconography (1969)

Some Princeton Links:

• "Princeton Journeys: Chaucer's Canterbury with John Fleming" (Princeton University Alumni Association)
• "Fleming honors 'Class of Destiny' at Baccalaureate" (News@Princeton, June 3, 2007)
• Full text of the 2007 Baccalaureate Address, delivered by Professor Fleming at the Princeton University Chapel on June 3, 2007
• "Dr John Fleming talks about the Middle Ages and the modern world, part 1" (Fausta's blog, March 14, 2007)
• Professor Fleming's bio at the P.U. English Department website
• "A Celebration of John Fleming’s (*63) Scholarship and Teaching in Honor of his Retirement"

Photo: John Fleming delivering the Baccalaureate Address in June 2007 in the Princeton University Chapel.