Maria Tatar

Maria Tatar
Maria Tatar in 2018
Born (1945-05-13) May 13, 1945 (age 81)
Pressath, Germany
CitizenshipUS (naturalized 1956)
Known forBooks on mythology and folklore
Spouse
Stephen A. Schuker
​
(div. 1989)​
Children
  • Lauren Schuker (daughter)
  • Daniel Schuker (son)
Academic background
Education
  • Denison University (B.A. 1967)
  • Princeton University (PhD 1971)
Academic work
DisciplinePhilology
Sub-discipline
  • Children's literature
  • German literature
  • Folklore
InstitutionsHarvard University

Maria Magdalene Tatar (born May 13, 1945) is an American academic whose expertise lies in children's literature, German literature, and folklore. She is the John L. Loeb Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, and Chair of the Committee on Degrees in Folklore and Mythology at Harvard University.

Louis-Léopold Boilly's And the Ogre Ate Him Up!, used in Maria Tatar's Enchanted Hunters: The Power of Stories in Childhood

Biography

Maria Tatar was born in Pressath, Germany. Her family emigrated from Hungary to the United States in the 1950s when she was a child.

She grew up in Highland Park, Illinois and graduated from Highland Park High School in 1963.

Tatar earned a bachelor's degree from Denison University and a doctorate from Princeton University. In 1971, after finishing her doctorate at Princeton University, Tatar joined the faculty of Harvard University, where she received tenure in 1978. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Selected works