Howard Madison Parshley (1884, Hallowell, Maine

Hallowell, Maine

Hallowell is a city in Kennebec County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,467 at the 2000 census.-History:The city is named for Benjamin Hallowell, a Boston merchant and one of the Kennebec Proprietors, holders of land originally granted to the Plymouth Company by the British monarchy in...

 – 19 May 1953) was an American zoologist, a specialist on the Heteroptera

Heteroptera

Heteroptera is a group of about 40,000 species of insects in the Hemiptera. Sometimes called "true bugs", that name more commonly refers to Hemiptera as a whole, and "typical bugs" might be used as a more unequivocal alternative since among the Hemiptera the heteropterans are most consistently and...

 who also wrote more broadly on genetics

Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....

, reproduction and human sexuality

Human sexuality

Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...

. He was responsible for translating The Second Sex

The Second Sex

The Second Sex is one of the best-known works of the French existentialist Simone de Beauvoir. It is a work on the treatment of women throughout history and often regarded as a major work of feminist literature and the starting point of second-wave feminism. Beauvoir researched and wrote the book...

into English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

.

Life

The son of a Baptist minister, Parshley was educated at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

. From 1911 to 1914 he taught zoology at the University of Maine

University of Maine

The University of Maine is a public research university located in Orono, Maine, United States. The university was established in 1865 as a land grant college and is referred to as the flagship university of the University of Maine System...

. In 1917, Parshley became assistant professor of zoology at Smith College

Smith College

Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...

, where he would stay until 1952. In 1949 he was asked to translate Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir

Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir , was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and...

's Le Deuxième Sexe. Despite a minor heart attack in 1952, Parshley completed this task: his translation, published in 1953, has subsequently been criticised for inaccuracies and excisions.

Works

• A bibliography of the North American Hemiptera-Heteroptera, 1925
• (ed.) General catalogue of the Hemiptera, 1927
• Science and Good Behavior, 1928
• The Science of Human Reproduction: Biological aspects of Sex, 1933
• Biology, 1940
• (transl.) The Second Sex, 1953

External links