Edward Alexander (December 28, 1936 – August 22, 2020) was an American literary scholar, critic, and essayist born in Brooklyn, New York, to Harry and Sadie Alexander, the oldest of three brothers. Growing up in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, he attended Hebrew school on 500 Herzl Street, idolized Jackie Robinson and David Ben-Gurion as a youth, and developed an early passion for writing as a sportswriter for Samuel J. Tilden High School. He earned an A.B. from Columbia College in 1957, where Lionel Trilling was an early mentor, followed by an A.M. in 1959 and Ph.D. in 1963 from the University of Minnesota in English, focusing on Victorian literature. He married Leah on July 3, 1958; their daughter Rebecca was born in 1960, and son David during a sabbatical in London. Alexander joined the University of Washington English Department as an instructor in 1960, advancing to full professor in 1969 and retiring as professor emeritus in 2004 after 44 years. In 1974, he co-founded and chaired (1974-1981) the UW Jewish Studies Program, and served as visiting professor at Tufts, Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, and Memphis State University. A prolific scholar and essayist on Jewish affairs and antisemitism, Alexander authored or edited over 20 books bridging Victorian literary figures like John Stuart Mill, Matthew Arnold, John Ruskin, John Morley, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Lionel Trilling, Irving Howe, and Robert B. Heilman with Jewish themes including Holocaust literature, Zionism, antisemitism, Jewish liberalism, and criticisms of anti-Israel Jewish intellectuals. Notable works include Matthew Arnold and John Stuart Mill (1965), The Resonance of Dust (1979), The Jewish Idea and Its Enemies (1988), The Holocaust and the War of Ideas (1994), Classical Liberalism and the Jewish Tradition (2002), and Jews Against Themselves (2015). He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1974 for literary criticism and remained active in retirement, contributing to organizations like the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers and National Association of Scholars. Known for his fierce sense of justice, commitment to free argumentation, and unabashed Zionism, he was a lifelong baseball fan, from the Brooklyn Dodgers to the Seattle Mariners. Alexander underwent cancer surgeries in 2009-2010 and, after his wife Leah's death in 2017, was cared for by companion Sylvia Stern. He passed away peacefully in his sleep in Seattle following surgery, survived by brothers Arthur and Morton, children Rebecca (Carlo) and David (Priscylla), grandsons Philip and George, great-granddaughter Adalynn, and extended family.