Meyer Howard Abrams (July 23, 1912 – April 21, 2015), usually cited as M. H. Abrams, was an American
literary critic, known for works on
romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
, in particular his book ''The Mirror and the Lamp''. Under Abrams's editorship, ''
The Norton Anthology of English Literature
''The Norton Anthology of English Literature'' is an anthology of English literature published by W. W. Norton & Company, one of several such compendiums. First published in 1962, it has gone through ten editions; as of 2006 there are over eigh ...
'' became the standard text for undergraduate survey courses across the U.S. and a major trendsetter in literary canon formation.
Early life
Born in
Long Branch, New Jersey, Abrams was the son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants.
The son of a house painter and the first in his family to go to college, he entered
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
as an undergraduate in 1930. He went into
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
because, he says, "there weren't jobs in any other profession..., so I thought I might as well enjoy starving, instead of starving while doing something I didn't enjoy." After earning his bachelor's degree in 1934, Abrams won a Henry Fellowship to
Magdalene College
Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mar ...
,
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
, where his tutor was
I. A. Richards. He returned to Harvard for graduate school in 1935 and received a master's degree in 1937 and a Ph.D. in 1940.
Career
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, he served at the Psycho-Acoustics Laboratory at Harvard. He describes his work as solving the problem of voice communications in a noisy military environment by establishing military codes that are highly audible and inventing selection tests for personnel who had a superior ability to recognize sound in a noisy background.
In 1945, Abrams became a professor at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
. The literary critics
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was described as "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking worl ...
,
Gayatri Spivak
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born 24 February 1942) is an Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic. She is a University Professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative Lite ...
and
E. D. Hirsch, and the novelists
William H. Gass and
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, genres and themes, including history, music, scie ...
were among his students.
He was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
in 1963
and a member of the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
in 1973. As of March 4, 2008, he was Class of 1916 Professor of English Emeritus there.
Personal life
His wife of 71 years, Ruth, predeceased him in 2008. He turned 100 in July 2012.
Abrams died on April 21, 2015, in Ithaca, New York, at the age of 102.
''The Mirror and the Lamp''
Abrams offers evidence that until the Romantics, literature was typically understood as a mirror reflecting the real world in some kind of mimesis; whereas for the Romantics, writing was more like a lamp: the light of the writer's inner soul spilled out to illuminate the world. In 1998,
Modern Library ranked ''The Mirror and the Lamp'' one of the 100 greatest English-language nonfiction books of the 20th century.
''The Norton Anthology of English Literature''
Abrams was the general editor of ''The Norton Anthology'', and the editor of ''The Romantic Period (1798–1832)'' in that anthology, and he evaluated writers and their reputations. In his introduction to
Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...
, he emphasized how
Byronism relates to
Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his car ...
's idea of the superman. In the introduction to
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Abrams said, "The tragedy of Shelley's short life was that intending always the best, he brought disaster and suffering upon himself and those he loved."
Classification of literary theories
Literary theories, Abrams argues, can be divided into four main groups:
* Mimetic Theories (interested in the relationship between the Work and the Universe)
* Pragmatic Theories (interested in the relationship between the Work and the Audience)
* Expressive Theories (interested in the relationship between the Work and the Artist)
* Objective Theories (interested in close reading of the Work)
Works
* ''The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition'' (1953)
* ''The Poetry of Pope: a selection'' (1954)
* ''Literature and Belief: English Institute essays'', 1957. (1957) editor
* ''A Glossary of Literary Terms'' (
Geoffrey Harpham, 1957; 9th ed. 2009)
* ''English Romantic Poets: modern essays in criticism'' (1960)
* ''
The Norton Anthology of English Literature
''The Norton Anthology of English Literature'' is an anthology of English literature published by W. W. Norton & Company, one of several such compendiums. First published in 1962, it has gone through ten editions; as of 2006 there are over eigh ...
'' (1962) founding editor, many later editions
*
''The Milk of Paradise: the effect of opium visions on the works of DeQuincey, Crabbe, Francis Thompson, and Coleridge'' (1970)
* ''Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature'' (1971)
* ''The Correspondent Breeze: essays on English Romanticism'' (1984)
* ''Doing Things with Texts: essays in criticism and critical theory'' (1989)
* ''The Fourth Dimension of a Poem and Other Essays'' (2012)
References
Bibliography
* Lawrence Lipking, editor (1981) ''High Romantic Argument: Essays For M.H. Abrams''
External links
"The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism" entryShort informative text on him.
M.H. Abrams reads poetry aloud at the National Humanities Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abrams, Mh
1912 births
2015 deaths
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American academics of English literature
American literary critics
American literary theorists
American male non-fiction writers
American centenarians
Cornell University faculty
Literary critics of English
Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
Jewish American academics
People from Long Branch, New Jersey
Harvard College alumni
Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
National Humanities Medal recipients
Men centenarians
21st-century American male writers
Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy
21st-century American Jews
Members of the American Philosophical Society