CHARLES A. BRADY DIES; CANISIUS PROF, AUTHOR, LITERARY CRITIC FOR NEWS WAS 83

A professor, poet, novelist, critic and caricaturist, Brady had used both pen and wit to illuminate even the darkest recesses of literature for three generations of Western New Yorkers. He was 83.

Brady, who was born April 15, 1912, often pointed out that he was born "the day, the hour and the moment that the Titanic sank."

It was that coincidence, he said, that gave him his "bent for epic things."

For more than 50 years, Brady served as an intellectual beacon to students and residents of the Buffalo area and beyond, contributing to and interpreting the literary scene both here and abroad.

A man of enormous enthusiasm and dauntless energy, Brady since childhood defied a serious heart condition and pursued an active life, often from his bedside at home, or in the hospital.

Brady wrote four novels. One of them, "Stage of Fools: A Novel of Sir Thomas More," outsold any book published by E. P. Dutton in 1953. It was translated into Dutch and Spanish and printed in paperback as well as hard cover.

In 1968, the Poetry Society of America gave first prize to Brady's "Keeper of the Western Gate" and, in 1970, its Cecil Hemley Memorial Award for the best poem on a philosophical theme, "Ecce Homo Ludens."

C.S. Lewis, the eminent British author, once called Brady's critique of his work the best published in Great Britain and the United States.

Brady's literary output was voluminous -- from novels, short stories, poems, children's stories, holiday "fantasies," to critical essays and book reviews. Throughout his work ran the deep vein of history.

Son of Andrew J. Brady Sr., a former lumberman who owned freighters on the Great Lakes, and Belinda Dowd of Black Rock, Brady's commitment to literature began at Canisius College, which he attended after graduating from Canisius High School in 1929. He received his bachelor of arts degree from Canisius in 1933.

During those years, he also played championship tennis and, in the spring of 1987, was named to the Canisius College All Sports Hall of Fame for his undergraduate tennis prowess.

He received a master of arts degree in English from Harvard University and then returned to Canisius at age 23 as an associate professor of English.

A year later, he was promoted to professor and chairman of the English Department, a position he held until 1959, when he continued his professorship until retirement in 1977.

In his more than 40 years at the college, he touched and helped mold the tastes and lives of thousands of students and graduate students, many from other colleges or universities, who also attended his courses or sought his counsel.

The AZUWUR, the Canisius College yearbook, was dedicated to Brady in 1956 and again in 1976.

From 1938 to 1941, Brady directed Canisius College's graduate division, and during World War II, in addition to his English classes, he taught the classics, French, military geography and Renaissance history.

Academically, Brady probably was best known for his lectures and critical studies of Cooper, Marquand, Sigrid Undset, Charles Williams, the Volsunga Saga, John Le Carre and C.S. Lewis. His studies on J.R.R. Tolkien and, more especially, Lewis, have been cited as "definitive in this country."

Copies of Lewis' original letters to Brady, embracing a correspondence that the British author initiated and that continued over a number of years, are in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.

In addition to "Stage of Fools," Brady's works include "Viking Summer," which combined Norse legend with a present-day Niagara Frontier setting; "This Land Fulfilled" and "Crown of Grass," both historical novels; "Wings Over Patmos," a book of verse; and "A Catholic Reader," a personalized anthology.

For children, he wrote "Cat Royal," "The Elephant Who Wanted to Pray," "The Church Mouse of St. Nicholas" and "Sir Thomas More of London Town." For older children, he wrote "Sword of Clontarf" and "The King's Thane."

A short story, "The Foot That Went Too Far," which he had written as an undergraduate, was the origin of the griffin as the Canisius College mascot.

The capstone of his career at Canisius was writing the college's centenary history, "Canisius College: The First Hundred Years." Written over almost five years, the book, unlike most school histories, was done in an impressionistic style, capturing the spirit of the college as well as that of the Niagara Frontier.

Brady wrote for national and international journals, and reviewed books for other major publications, such as The New York Times, the old Herald Tribune, America, Commonweal and the Catholic World.

A man of many talents, including some musical composition, Brady enjoyed drawing line caricatures of authors, many of which were used to illustrate his critical essays and book reviews for The News. His last book review and drawing for The News was printed March 12.

In September 1986, the Burchfield Center at Buffalo State College exhibited his literary caricatures in a one-man show.

A familiar figure on the lecture platform, Brady held the Candlemas Lectureship at Boston College and gave Notre Dame's Summer Lectures in the humanities.

The News named him "an outstanding citizen" in 1970.

He was the recipient of the Canisius College LaSalle Medal, the highest honor awarded to an alumnus. In 1970, the Canisius Alumni Association presented him with its Peter Canisius Medal for his "scholarly brilliance and teaching excellence that inspired and informed legions of Canisius students."

A longtime resident of the Town of Tonawanda, he moved to Buffalo's Delaware District in the early 1990s.

Brady is survived by his wife of 57 years, the former Mary Eileen Larson; four daughters, Karen Brady Borland and Moira Brady Roberts, both of Buffalo, Sheila Brady Nair of New Bethlehem, Pa., and Kristin M. of London, Ont.; two sons, Erik L. of Arlington, Va., and Kevin C. of Buffalo; and 17 grandchildren.

Prayers at 11 a.m. Monday in the George J. Roberts & Sons Funeral Home, 2400 Main St., will precede a Mass of Christian Burial at 11:30 a.m. in Christ the King Chapel at Canisius College, 2001 Main St. Burial will be in Mount Olivet Cemetery in the Town of Tonawanda.

[Katrein].