Subdivision
| • | 402. Criticism: Arts and Letters | [X] |
| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Meyer Howard Abrams | | | Institution: | Cornell University | | | Year Elected: | 1973 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 402. Criticism: Arts and Letters | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1912 | | | Death Date: | April 21, 2015 | | | | | | |
Among America's most highly respected literary scholars, Meyer Howard (Mike) Abrams was best known for his analysis of the Romantic period in English literature. Born in Long Branch, New Jersey in 1912, Dr. Abrams received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1940. He joined the faculty of Cornell University in 1945, becoming a full professor in 1953, Whiton Professor of English in 1960 and professor emeritus in 1983. His two greatest books, The Mirror and the Lamp and Natural Supernaturalism, are recognized as outstanding achievements. The former book ranked 25th in the Modern Library's list of the 100 best nonfiction books written in English during the past 100 years, and for the latter Dr. Abrams was awarded the James Russell Lowell Prize by the Modern Language Association. In 1962, he conceived and edited The Norton Anthology of English Literature, and he continued as general editor through its seventh edition. Dr. Abrams was the recipient of the Award in Humanistic Studies from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Keats-Shelley Society and the Award for Literature by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. His book The Fourth Dimension of a Poem and Other Essays (2012) was released slightly before his 100th birthday. In 2014 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal. Dr. Abrams died April 21, 2015, at age 102, in Ithaca, New York. | |
| 2 | Name: | Dr. Paul Alpers | | | Institution: | University of California, Berkeley; Smith College | | | Year Elected: | 2004 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 402. Criticism: Arts and Letters | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1932 | | | Death Date: | May 19, 2013 | | | | | | |
Paul Alpers was a distinguished literary historian and classicist, a master of the English, European and classical traditions, and an academic of the first rank. In his first book, The Poetry of the Faerie Queene, he showed himself to be "a learned and sensitive reader of Elizabethan poetry." He developed an original reading of Spenser's rhetorical modes, to which he returned in an important series of articles on narration. He next, as an extension of his work on Spenser, began to study the pastoral traditions. This resulted in an analysis and translation of Virgil's Eclogues and then What is Pastoral?, winner of the Christian Gauss Award. As Dr. Alpers traces the evolution of pastoral poetry from Theocritus and Virgil, through its great incarnations in the Renaissance, to its flowerings in modern literature, he has written what is arguably the definitive study of the subject, a work of exhaustive scholarship and literary intelligence. Dr. Alpers taught at the University of California, Berkeley beginning in 1961 and became Class of 1942 Professor of English Emeritus in 2000. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2004. Paul Alpers died May 19, 2013, at the age of 80 in Northampton, Massachusetts. | |
| 3 | Name: | Dr. Walter J. Bate | | | Institution: | Harvard University | | | Year Elected: | 1966 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 402. Criticism: Arts and Letters | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1918 | | | Death Date: | 7/26/99 | | | | |
| 4 | Name: | Dr. David M. Bevington | | | Institution: | University of Chicago | | | Year Elected: | 1986 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 402. Criticism: Arts and Letters | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1931 | | | Death Date: | August 2, 2019 | | | | | | |
A Shakespeare scholar and medievalist, David M. Bevington became professor of English at the University of Chicago in 1967. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1959, where he also worked as an instructor before going on to teach at the University of Virginia and the University of Chicago. He authored a number of books on Shakespeare and medieval drama, including From Mankind to Marlowe, Tudor Drama and Politics, and Action is Eloquence: Shakespeare's Language of Gesture. He was the editor of Medieval Drama and The Complete Works of Shakespeare, one of the three standard one-volume study editions. Later in life, he updated the 29-volume paperback edition of the Shakespeare canon that he first published in 1988 as well as co-editing The Cambridge Edition of The Works of Ben Jonson. In addition to courses on Shakespeare, Renaissance drama, and medieval drama, he co-taught a course on the history and theory of drama from the 5th century B.C. to the present day and in 2018 was still teaching courses on education. David Bevington died on August 2, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois at the age of 88. | |
| 5 | Name: | Dr. Peter Heinrich von Blanckenhagen | | | Institution: | New York University | | | Year Elected: | 1985 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 402. Criticism: Arts and Letters | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1909 | | | Death Date: | 3/6/90 | | | | |
| 6 | Name: | Dr. Wayne Clayson Booth | | | Institution: | University of Chicago | | | Year Elected: | 1992 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 402. Criticism: Arts and Letters | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1921 | | | Death Date: | October 10, 2005 | | | | |
| 7 | Name: | Dr. Germaine Brée | | | Institution: | Wake Forest University | | | Year Elected: | 1965 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 402. Criticism: Arts and Letters | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1907 | | | Death Date: | September 22, 2001 | | | | |
| 8 | Name: | Dr. Cleanth Brooks | | | Institution: | Yale University | | | Year Elected: | 1973 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 402. Criticism: Arts and Letters | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1906 | | | Death Date: | 5/10/94 | | | | |
| 9 | Name: | Dr. Ross Chambers | | | Institution: | University of Michigan | | | Year Elected: | 2005 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 402. Criticism: Arts and Letters | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1934 | | | Death Date: | October 18, 2017 | | | | | | |
Born in Australia and educated in large part in France, Ross Chambers first established himself as among the world's leading Nerval and Baudelaire scholars, then later became one of this country's most eminent theorists of narratology and the historical place of literature. Over his many years of teaching at the University of Michigan, where he was Melvin Felheim Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, Dr. Chambers became legendary for his role as mentor to younger generations of scholars. His generosity and critical acuity made him universally liked and respected. His work was known and cited in both the U.S. and France - he published regularly in both languages - and after his retirement from active teaching in 2002, he was more active than ever in the profession. To highlight a few of his many books: Meaning and Meaningfulness carefully investigates the way texts create and readers activate meanings; Story and Situation contributes importantly to the study of narrative, and particularly the communicative situations activated by narrative; Mélancolie et Opposition explores the beginnings of modernism in France in the wake of the Revolution of 1848, stressing the importance of textual context on the production of meaning; and Room for Maneuver posits reading as an "oppositional practice productive of change"; it demonstrates how literature simultaneously draws upon and opposes the authoritative texts upon which it depends. Ross Chambers died October 18, 2017, at the age of 84. | |
| 10 | Name: | Prof. Edward Toner Cone | | | Institution: | Princeton University | | | Year Elected: | 1991 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 402. Criticism: Arts and Letters | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1917 | | | Death Date: | October 23, 2004 | | | | |
| 11 | Name: | Dr. Emil W. Haury | | | Institution: | University of Arizona | | | Year Elected: | 1969 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 402. Criticism: Arts and Letters | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1904 | | | Death Date: | 12/5/92 | | | | |
| 12 | Name: | Dr. Bernard M. W. Knox | | | Institution: | Center for Hellenic Studies | | | Year Elected: | 1985 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 402. Criticism: Arts and Letters | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1914 | | | Death Date: | July 22, 2010 | | | | | | |
Bernard M. W. Knox was born and raised in England. His early focus on languages won him a scholarship to study at St. John's College in Cambridge. He received his degree in 1936, then left for Spain to fight with the International Brigade against Franco. Seriously wounded, he returned to England, then moved to the United States to marry his American wife in 1939. Two years later, he joined the army and was commissioned as a defense officer on an American air base in England. His ability with languages and desire to be involved led to his deployment to France, where he parachuted in and took an active part in the operations of the Maquis in support of the invading forces. He was later transferred to the Italian front. He received the Croix de Guerre à l'ordre de l'armée (avec palmes) and the Bronze Star with cluster. In 1945 he returned to the United States and took up graduate studies at Yale University. He received his Ph.D. in 1948 and stayed at Yale as a professor of Greek until 1961 when he became the first director of the newly opened Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C., a post he held for 24 years before retiring and being named Director Emeritus. He was the author of Oedipus at Thebes (1957), Oedipus the King (1959), The Heroic Temper (1964), Word and Action (1979), and Essays Ancient and Modern (1989). In 2004 he was awarded the American Philosophical Society’s Thomas Jefferson Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Arts, Humanities, or Social Sciences. The prize certificate citation reads, "In recognition of the role this brilliant classicist has played on an international stage by presenting, in his writings, his teaching and the power of his example, the civilizations of Greece and Rome; as a man of words and a man of action too - he has offered a lucid reminder of where we come from and an inspiring vision of what we may become." Dr. Knox had been a member of the American Philosophical Society since 1985. He died July 22, 2010, at the age of 95. | |
| 13 | Name: | Dr. Harry Levin | | | Institution: | Harvard University | | | Year Elected: | 1961 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 402. Criticism: Arts and Letters | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1912 | | | Death Date: | 5/29/94 | | | | |
| 14 | Name: | Dr. A. Walton Litz | | | Institution: | Princeton University | | | Year Elected: | 1991 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 402. Criticism: Arts and Letters | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1929 | | | Death Date: | June 4, 2014 | | | | | | |
Arthur Walton Litz was Holmes Professor of English Emeritus at Princeton University, on whose faculty he served since 1958. One of the foremost scholars and critics of modern English and American literature, especially the novels and poems of James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens and Jane Austen, Dr. Litz authored a number of essays, articles and books, including The Art of James Joyce (1961), Modern Literary Criticism (1972) and Introspective Voyager: The Poetic Development of Wallace Stevens (1972). He held a D. Phil. degree from Oxford University and also taught at Bryn Mawr College, Swarthmore College, Temple University and Bread Loaf School. A Rhodes Scholar and Guggenheim Fellow, Dr. Litz also served as associate editor of the 63-volume Joyce Archive as well as on the editorial boards of the Princeton University Press and Oxford University Press. He was honored with awards including the Harbison Award for Gifted Teaching (1972) and Princeton's Behrman Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Humanities (1981). He died June 4, 2014, at the age of 84 in Princeton. | |
| 15 | Name: | Dr. Benjamin D. Meritt | | | Institution: | Institute for Advanced Study & University of Texas | | | Year Elected: | 1938 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 402. Criticism: Arts and Letters | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1899 | | | Death Date: | 7/7/89 | | | | |
| 16 | Name: | Dr. J. Hillis Miller | | | Institution: | University of California, Irvine | | | Year Elected: | 2004 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 402. Criticism: Arts and Letters | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1928 | | | Death Date: | February 9, 2021 | | | | | | |
J. Hillis Miller taught for many years at the Johns Hopkins University and then at Yale University before moving in 1986 to the University of California, Irvine, where he was UCI Distinguished Research Professor of English and Comparative Literature Emeritus. He was the author of many books and essays on nineteenth and twentieth-century English, European, and American literature, and on literary theory. His most recent books are Others (2001), Speech Acts in Literature (2002), On Literature (2002), and Zero Plus One (2003). His recent work includes a book on speech acts in the novels and stories of Henry James. A J. Hillis Miller Reader has also recently appeared from Edinburgh University Press and Stanford University Press. He died on February 9, 2021. | |
| 17 | Name: | Dr. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick | | | Institution: | City University of New York Graduate Center | | | Year Elected: | 2006 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 402. Criticism: Arts and Letters | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1950 | | | Death Date: | April 12, 2009 | | | | | | |
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick was one of the most influential figures in gender studies, and more specifically in the burgeoning area of queer theory; indeed, she was a major founder of the field. Her first book, Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire, has been extensively cited and used by feminist critics and queer theorists alike. Not long after, her second crucial work, Epistemology of the Closet, had a similarly powerful impact on the increasingly complex field of gender studies and earned an honorable mention from the committee awarding the MLA's James Russell Lowell Prize. Tendencies, a collection of essays, further extended both the literary and the cultural insights that Dr. Sedgwick brilliantly formulated in her first two books, while Dialogue on Love, published in the same year, is an ambitiously introspective memoir recounting the author's struggle with breast cancer along with her quest to comprehend her own sexuality in contexts she herself has significantly investigated in her key contributions to cultural studies. A poet as well as a critic, Dr. Sedgwick also published a volume of verse, Fat Art, Thin Art, and most recently Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity, a series of essays expanding her work on queer theory and her analyses of the experience of illness into discussions of current theoretical perspectives on pedagogy and performativity. Dr. Sedgwick also edited several collections of essays, including Shame and Its Sisters: A Silvan Tomkins Reader (coedited with Adam Frank, 1995), a selection of key works by the radical psychologist Silvan Tomkins, and Novel Gazing: Queer Readings in Fiction (1997), a series of works reexamining the history of the novel using the framework of queer theory that she has herself so powerfully established. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick was Distinguished Professor of English at the City University of New York. She also taught at Hamilton College, Boston University, Amherst College, Dartmouth College and Duke University. She earned her Ph.D. from Yale University in 1975. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick died on April 12, 2009, in New York, NY, at the age of 58. | |
| 18 | Name: | Dr. Margaret Thompson | | | Institution: | Museum of American Numismatic Society | | | Year Elected: | 1972 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 402. Criticism: Arts and Letters | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1911 | | | Death Date: | 2/29/92 | | | | |
| 19 | Name: | Dr. James Thorpe | | | Institution: | Huntington Library, Art Gallery, & Botanical Gardens | | | Year Elected: | 1982 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 402. Criticism: Arts and Letters | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1915 | | | Death Date: | January 4, 2009 | | | | | | |
James Thorpe is a distinguished scholar and former director of the Huntington Library, Art Gallery, and Botanical Gardens, which he led from 1966-83. Throughout his tenure he balanced leadership responsibilities with distinguished contributions to literary-historical methodology and to textual criticism. A professor of English at Princeton University for many years, Dr. Thorpe has written numerous lively works on authors from Chaucer to Milton to Wallace Stevens and has edited publications such as Relations of Literary Study and Principles of Textual Criticism. He served as Senior Research Associate at the Huntington from 1983-99 and is now Director Emeritus. | |
| 20 | Name: | Dr. Kurt Weitzmann | | | Institution: | Princeton University & Institute for Advanced Study | | | Year Elected: | 1964 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 402. Criticism: Arts and Letters | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1904 | | | Death Date: | 6/7/93 | | | | |
| |