Europe's distinguished scholar, author, and soldier, Philippe-Jules-Fernand Baldensperger, professor of Modern Comparative Literature at the University of Paris, has been elected professor of Comparative Literature for five years beginning next September.

Professor Baldensperger, who has built up a reputation as one of the most eminent scholars in Europe, has also been on the faculties of the Universities of Nancy, Lyons, and Strassburg. He was visiting Professor from France here in 1913-14, and has been visiting Professor at Columbia.

He received his education at the University of Paris and in several German universities. The author of many works, he is most famous for such books as "Gottfried Keller," Goethe en France," "Etudes d'histoire litteraire," "Myza Voca," "En Marge de la Vie," and "Contes et recits Vosgiens."

The War saw him as an officer and interpreter in the Allied forces, in which capacities he was sent by France on missions to the United States and Scandinavia. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre and is a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

Professor Baldensperger has not announced yet the specific subjects on which he will lecture, but they will be in the field of comparative French or German literature.