AMERICAN TO RECEIVE FRANCE'S HIGHEST HONOR 
IN UNUSUAL ROTUNDA CEREMONY

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Oct. 13 -- The highest civilian and
military honor that France bestows, the Legion of Honor, will be
given to Douglas W. Alden, a University of Virginia professor
emeritus, during a 3 p.m. ceremony on Friday, Oct. 20, in the
Rotunda's Dome Room. 	 	
	A former chairman of the department of romance languages at
U.Va., the 83-year-old scholar will receive the medal from French
Senator Andr Maman, a former Princeton University colleague and his
co author of "Grammaire et Style," a French grammar text published
in 1967.  
	Also at the ceremony will be Ren Joyeuse, M.D., a former
French army captain who represents the Sussex group of
parachutists.  Alden, originally an intelligence officer with the
Eighth Air Force during World War II, was later a briefing officer
in the Sussex operation of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS),
which parachuted 120 French officers into France to report on German
positions in connection with the D-Day landings.  Alden has not seen
Dr. Joyeuse for more than 50 years.
	As a military intelligence officer during the war, Alden
briefed officers of the Free French Army who parachuted into areas
being invaded. For his military contributions he received the
American Bronze Star and the French Croix de Guerre.
	Internationally recognized as a scholar of modern French
literature, Alden founded in 1949 the "French XX Bibliography" and
served as editor of the three 20th-century volumes of the "Critical
Bibliography of French Literature."  He maintains an office in
Cabell Hall, where he continues to work daily on "French XX," an
annual volume containing nearly 14,000 critical and biographical
references for the study of French literature.
	"It is extraordinary that the French government's highest
honor is being given to an American," said Mary B. McKinley, chair
of U.Va.'s department of French language and literature.
	Alden, who chaired U.Va.'s departments of modern languages
and romance languages from 1964 to 1971 and created distinct
departments for French, German and Spanish, is author of numerous
books, including "Marcel Proust and his French Critics,"
"Introduction to French Masterpieces," "Premier Manuel," "Jacques de
Lacretelle, an Intellectual Itinerary," and "Marcel Proust's Grasset
Proofs." 
	In 1969 the French government presented Alden with the
decoration of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Palmes Acadmique in
recognition of his research in 20th century French literature, his
publications and his contributions to French cultural
exchange. 	
	In 1975 Alden was promoted to "officier" in the same
academic order in acknowledgement of his support of French culture
in the United States.  The honor was bestowed on him in recognition
of his five year presidency of the American Association of Teachers
of French (AATF), which had 11,000 members at the time.  While AATF
president, Alden founded the Joint National Committee for Languages,
which brought together for the first time presidents of all national
language associations.
	After joining the U.Va. faculty in 1964, Alden started an
exchange program for University and French graduate students. In
1982 he was honored by Sweet Briar College for his contributions to
its Junior Year in France program.  Alden, who served on the
college's national advisory committee for more than 30 years, began
his association with the Junior Year in France program in 1931 as a
student.  Attending the ceremony next week will be a member of the
French family with whom he resided that year.  Alden, who retired
from U.Va. in 1983, holds an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth
College and master's and Ph.D. degrees from Brown University.
Before joining U.Va., he taught at Brown, Texas Technological
College (now Texas Tech University), Amherst College and Princeton
University and was head of the foreign language department at the
University of Maryland.
###
October 12, 1995