Gordon Ray, Noted Literary Scholar, Dies

Gordon Norton Ray, a scholar and collector of the works of William Makepeace Thackeray and H. G. Wells and until last year head of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, is dead.

He was 71 and died Monday of an apparent heart attack in his New York City home.

His interest in Thackeray and other Victorian authors began with his doctoral thesis at Harvard. The University of Illinois turned over Wells’ papers to him in 1954, and Ray published two extensive volumes of his writing and letters.

He was a three-time Guggenheim Fellow and joined the foundation in 1960, becoming president three years later.

Through the foundation he was a fierce advocate of scholarly research and regularly toured libraries and universities to keep apprised of projects and needs. During his tenure the Guggenheim supported many scholars at Pasadena’s Huntington Library in the fields of bibliographical projects and literary history and theory.

There are no immediate survivors.