Alfred Bennett Harbage (July 18, 1901 – May 1976) was an American

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

scholar and crime fiction writer.

Early life and education

Alfred Bennett Harbage was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

and received his undergraduate degree and doctorate from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. He lectured on Shakespeare both there and at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

Career

Harbage was a professor at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, where he taught for many years. He was the General Editor of the

Pelican Books Pelican Books is a non-fiction imprint of Penguin Books founded by Allen Lane and V. K. Krishna Menon. It publishes inexpensive paperbacks of academic topics intended to reach a broader audience. The imprint originally operated from 1937 to 198 ...

edition of the works of Shakespeare. He also wrote a number of well-received books on Shakespeare's works, among them ''Shakespeare's Audience'' (1941), ''As They Liked It'' (1947), ''Shakespeare and the Rival Traditions'' (1952), and ''Shakespeare Without Words'' (1966). Though best known for his work on Shakespeare, Harbage's literary scholarship extended to his successors too; he did important work on a range of seventeenth-century figures. In this area, his books ''Thomas Killigrew, Cavalier Dramatist 1612-1683'' (1930), ''Sir William Davenant, Poet Adventurer 1606-1668'' (1935), and ''Cavalier Drama'' (1936) are noteworthy. For an overview of the field, his ''Annals of English Drama 975-1700'' (1964) is a compedium of original materials and a vital resource for scholarship. He also wrote crime fiction under the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

Thomas Kyd (a reference to the 16th-century English

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

Thomas Kyd Thomas Kyd (baptised 6 November 1558; buried 15 August 1594) was an English playwright, the author of ''The Spanish Tragedy'', and one of the most important figures in the development of Elizabethan drama. Although well known in his own time, ...

), publishing several stories in ''

Ellery Queen Ellery Queen is a pseudonym created in 1928 by the American detective fiction writers Frederic Dannay (1905–1982) and Manfred Bennington Lee (1905–1971). It is also the name of their main fictional detective, a mystery writer in New York City ...

's Mystery Magazine'', as well as four novels: ''Blood is a Beggar'' (1946), ''Blood of Vintage'' (1947), ''Blood on the Bosom Devine'' (1948), and ''Cover His Face'' (1949). The first three are hard-boiled murder mysteries, involving ex-boxer turned police officer Sam Phelan; the last is an academic mystery dealing with a researcher seeking the first published work of

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson ( – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

. One reviewer said of his work that "Harbage treats pomposity with sarcasm, hypocrisy with irony, and failure with gentleness."Bruce Murphy, ''The Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery'', PALGRAVE, New York, NY , 1999 (p.48) Harbage 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 ...

in 1959 and the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) 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, and other ...

in 1960.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harbage, Alfred 1901 births 1976 deaths Harbage, Alfred (Thomas Kyd) Harvard University faculty Shakespearean scholars University of Pennsylvania alumni Columbia University faculty Educators from Philadelphia 20th-century American novelists American male novelists 20th-century American poets English male dramatists and playwrights Writers from Philadelphia Novelists from Pennsylvania Novelists from Massachusetts Novelists from New York (state) 20th-century American male writers Members of the American Philosophical Society