The New International Encyclopædia/Thomas, Calvin

THOMAS, (1854&mdash;). An American educator, born near Lapeer, Mich. He graduated at the University of Michigan in 1874, and studied philology for a time at the University of Leipzig. In 1878 he became instructor in German at his alma mater, where in 1881 he was made assistant professor and in 1886 professor of Germanic languages and literature. In 1896 he accepted the same chair at Columbia University. His publications include A Practical German Grammar (1895) and Goethe and the Conduct of Life (1886). In addition he edited, among other German works, Goethe's Faust (first part, 1892; second part, 1897); Hermann und Dorothea (1891); and Torquato Tasso (1888).