R. W. B. Lewis
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Richard Warrington Baldwin Lewis (November 1, 1917 - June 13, 2002) was an American literary scholar and critic. He gained a wider reputation when he won a 1976
He was the Neil Gray Professor of English and American Studies at
Lewis is generally considered one of the founders of the academic field of American Studies. His interests ranged from criticism of American and European writers to biography and artistic criticism. He is associated with John William Ward.
Lewis' career as critic involved him in the lives of many influential American and European thinkers and writers. Lewis received his doctoral degree from the University of Chicago, where he studied under Norman Maclean, author of the novel A River Runs Through It and Other Stories. He and his wife and sometime co-author Nancy later became close friends with Southern writer Robert Penn Warren.
Lewis' first major work The American Adam: Innocence, Tragedy, and Tradition in the Nineteenth Century (1955) explored
Life and career
Lewis was born in
After returning from the war Lewis pursued his fascination with world literature, which was already awakened by his Harvard teachers. He also developed a lifelong fascination and love for Italy after visiting as a child, and serving there in the war. He and his wife Nancy visited there regularly for much of their lives, and Lewis later wrote a book on the city of Florence.
Lewis taught at
Honors
Lewis received numerous honors for his research and contributions, including a grant for literary achievement from the
While teaching at Yale, Lewis lived in a house in
Bookshelves lined the walls of Lewis' office, with each section containing works from Lewis' various areas of research: the James' family, Edith Wharton,
In 2006 the Yale College Writing Center was endowed with a directorship in Lewis' name.[5]
"This position in Dick Lewis’ name will serve as a permanent tribute to a writer who made every subject he engaged in memorable and to a memorable teacher who made every student mindful of great writing,” said Yale President
Personal life
Lewis married Nancy Lindau in 1950. They had three children: Nathaniel (born 1960), who is also a literary historian at Saint Michael's College; Sophie (born 1965), a health expert with the government of Massachusetts; and Emma (born 1967), an environmental lawyer. Lewis also had a son by the Danish writer Elsa Gress, the historian David Gress.
Lewis died in Bethany, Connecticut.[6]
Works written
- The American Adam: Innocence, Tragedy, and Tradition in the Nineteenth Century (1955)
- The Picaresque Saint. Representative Figures in Contemporary Fiction (1959)
- Herman Melville (1962)
- Trials of the Word: Essays in American Literature and the Humanistic Tradition (1965)
- The Poetry of Hart Crane: A Critical Study (1967)
- American Literature: The Makers and the Making: Book C / 1861 to 1914 (1974, with Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren)
- Edith Wharton: A Biography (1975)
- The Jameses: A Family Narrative (1991)
- Literary Reflections : A Shoring of Images 1960-1993 (1993)
- The City of Florence: Historical Vistas and Personal Sightings (1995)
- American Characters: Selections from the National Portrait Gallery, Accompanied by Literary Portraits (1999, with Nancy Lewis)
- Dante (2001)
Works edited
- Presence of Walt Whitman (1962)
- Malraux: A Collection of Critical Essays (1964)
- The Letters of Edith Wharton (1989, with Nancy Lewis)
- The Selected Short Stories of Edith Wharton (1991)
References
- ^ Michael Anderson, "R. W. B. Lewis, Biographer and Critic, Is Dead at 84", The New York Times, June 15, 2002.
- ^ "Lewis, R(ichard) W(arrington) B(aldwin) 1917- | Encyclopedia.com".
- ^ www.yale.edu Archived 2009-04-18 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ www.yale.edu Archived 2009-04-18 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ writing.yalecollege.yale.edu
- ^ www.britannica.com
Further reading
- Ward, John William 1955. Andrew Jackson, Symbol for an Age. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Ward, John William. 1969 Red, White, and Blue: Men, Books, and Ideas in American Culture . New York: Oxford University Press
- Marx, Leo. 1964. The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Ward, David C. 2004 Charles Willson Peale: Art and Selfhood in the Early Republic Berkeley, California : University of California Press
- Smith, Henry Nash. 1950. Virgin Land; the American West as Symbol and Myth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
- Matthiessen, F. O. 1949. American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman. Harvard, Boston
- Meyers, Marvin 1957 The Jacksonian Persuasion: Politics and Belief Stanford Press, California
- Hofstadter, Richard. 1955. The Age of Reform: from Bryan to F.D.R.
External links
- Eric Homberger, "RWB Lewis" (obituary), The Guardian, June 19, 2002.