author
O. B. (Ovando Byron) Super
1848–1935
A longtime Dickinson College professor who helped generations of students into French and German, he wrote practical readers and textbooks that made language study feel approachable. His work sits at the crossroads of teaching, translation, and the everyday classroom life of the late nineteenth century.
1 Audiobook
Histoire de France Tirée de Ducoudray
by O. B. (Ovando Byron) Super, Gustave Ducoudray
About the author
Born on March 2, 1848, in Juniata Township, Pennsylvania, Ovando Byron Super largely prepared himself for college before entering Dickinson College in 1871. He graduated near the top of his class in 1873, an early sign of the discipline that shaped his later career.
Super went on to become a professor of Romance languages at Dickinson. He is best remembered today for school and college texts such as Preparatory French Reader, Readings from French History, and Elementary German Reader, books designed to help students build language skills through guided reading rather than abstract theory alone.
That combination of scholarship and practicality gives his work a lasting interest. Even now, his books offer a glimpse of how French and German were taught to English-speaking students in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and they reflect the patient, instructional style of a teacher writing directly for learners.