Erving Goffman: A Biography

June 11, 1922 was a day that would change the world of sociology forever. This was the day that Erving Manual Goffman, czar of human interaction, was born. Goffman grew up in Dauphin, Alberta, Canada near Winnipeg (Manning 1998). He was the child of Max Goffman, a shopkeeper, and his wife Anna, a homemaker. His parents were two of some 200,000 Ukrainians who immigrated to Canada sometime between 1897 and 1914 (Manning 1998). Goffman attended the University of Manitoba in 1939 with an initial interest in chemistry. However, in 1934 and 1935 Goffman worked at the National Film Board in Ottawa where he met Dennis Wrong, a prominent sociologist at the time (Manning 1998). …