REDINGER, RUBY VIRGINIA

REDINGER, RUBY VIRGINIA (3 April 1915-9 Feb. 1981) was a Cleveland novelist and college educator whose most famous works were The Golden Net (1948) and George Eliot: The Emergent Self (1975) each of which received critical praise and established Redinger's reputation as an author.

Born in Cleveland to Elber and Maude Redinger, Ruby graduated from John Adams High School in 1932. She received her A.B. from FENN COLLEGE in 1936. She received her M.A. in 1937, and her Ph.D. in 1940 from Western Reserve University (see CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY). She taught English at Cleveland College then joined Fenn as an instructor in 1941.

Her first book The Golden Net, was acclaimed as a superb novel exploring the physical, intellectual, and moral aspects of university life. The Saturday Review of Literature named her one of the year's outstanding new authors.

One of the most popular professors at Fenn College, Redinger became Chairman of the Philosophy Department in 1948. She resigned in 1951 citing administrative indimidation and restricting of faculty free speech. She joined the BALDWIN-WALLACE COLLEGE faculty in 1951 where she taught English until her retirement in 1980.

Redinger's biographical study, George Eliot: The Emergent Self, was critiqued as the most insightful work yet of this literary giant. In 1976 she received the Ohioana Award for biography, and in 1977 the literary award from the Cleveland WOMEN'S CITY CLUB and Women's Art Council. Redinger published numerous shorter works in the American Scholar and Encyclopedia Americana.

Baldwin-Wallace College established the Ruby V. Redinger Memorial Award to recognize outstanding English students. Never married, she is buried in Sunset Memorial Park.


Fenn College President's Papers, CSU Archives.

Redinger, Ruby V. The Golden Net (1948).

—-. George Eliot: The Emergent Self (1975).


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