Wallace Fowlie (1908—1998) was, from 1964, the James B. Duke Professor of French Literature at Duke University. Fowlie was noted for his translations of the poet Arthur Rimbaud, his critical studies of French poetry and drama, and his late study of rock-poet Jim Morrison. Perhaps his most enduring legacy, however, is the product of six decades of teaching at universities in the United States, including Yale, Bennington, Holy Cross, U. Colorado-Boulder, and Duke. Devoted to teaching, particularly undergraduate courses in French, Italian, and modernist literature, Fowlie left an indelible imprint on several generations of American college students.
Fowlie received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship in 1947.
Fowlie corresponded with literary figures such as Henry Miller, René Char, Jean Cocteau, André Gide, Alexis Léger (Saint-John Perse), Marianne Moore, and Anaïs Nin. His translations of Rimbaud were appreciated by a younger generation that included Jim Morrison and Patti Smith. In 1990, Fowlie consulted with director Oliver Stone on the film The Doors.