Mac Linscott Ricketts with Mircea Eliade at the University of Chicago (1981)

Mac Linscott Ricketts (1930-2022) is considered to be Mircea Eliade’s most important biographer. He held a Master’s in Theology degree from Emory University (1954), a Master’s in Divinity from the University of Chicago (1962), and a Doctorate in Philosophy from Chicago (1964). He taught at Milikin University (1964-1965), Duke University (1965-1970) and Louisburg College (1971-1995). In 1971 he decided to learn Romanian to study Eliade’s works and in 1981 he got a Fulbright scholarship to study Eliade’s work in Romania. Ricketts’ contribution on Eliade include: Mircea Eliade: The Romanian Roots. 1907-1945 (1988), numerous articles and translations of his works. He also co-edited Former Friends and Forgotten Facts (Criterion, 2003), which gathers Eliade’s youth political writings.

In 2019, professor Linscott Ricketts donated most of his archive to the New Europe College. The documents include:  Ricketts’ writings on Eliade, his correspondence, research notes, copies of the manuscripts in Mircea Eliade Papers fund (University of Chicago Library), materials from other public archives as well as original documents from personal archives, the collection of publications on Eliade, compiled by Ricketts, and a collection of writing on Eliade-related topics.

The documents are ordered in 42 boxes comprising a varied range of topics – mainly history of religions-related – in various languages (English, Romanian, German, Italian, Spanish, etc.).