Arthur Walton Litz Jr. (October 31, 1929, in Nashville, Tennessee – June 4, 2014) was an American literary historian and

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...

who served as professor of

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

from 1956 to 1993. He was the author or editor of over twenty collections of literary criticism, including various editions of

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

Wallace Stevens Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...

, and

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

. Litz graduated with an A.B. in English from

in 1951 after completing a senior thesis titled " Yoknapatawpha: A Study of

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...

's Moral Vision." He then studied at

Merton College Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor ...

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

as a

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international Postgraduate education, postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Esta ...

and received his D.Phil. in 1954. He studied alongside and, at one point, lived with cultural theorist Stuart Hall, who described him as 'extraordinarily smart'. After two years' service in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

, he became the Holmes Professor of Belles-Lettres at Princeton in 1956, where he worked until his retirement in 1994. Litz was also a longtime instructor at the Bread Loaf School of English. He was named to the Eastman Visiting Professorship at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and aro ...

, in 1989. In 1991, he was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

. Litz married Marian Weller in 1958; they had four children. He died of respiratory failure on June 4, 2014, aged 84, at the University Medical Center of Princeton in Plainsboro, New Jersey. He is survived by his four children and six grandchildren.

References

External links

List of A. Walton Litz's academic papers at Princeton University Library; includes a photograph and brief career overview (dated 2003)''Yoknapatawpha: A Study of William Faulkner's Moral Vision''—Princeton University 1951 senior thesis by Arthur Walton Litz, Jr.June 2006 newsletter from Balliol College, Oxford, listing A. Walton Litz among the former George Eastman Professors at the College
1929 births American Rhodes Scholars Princeton University faculty Princeton University alumni Alumni of Merton College, Oxford American literary critics 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 2014 deaths 20th-century American male writers Members of the American Philosophical Society {{US-historian-stub