Carlos Baker (May 5, 1909 – April 18, 1987) was an American writer, biographer and former

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...

Professor of Literature at

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 ...

. Baker was born in 1909 in Biddeford,

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

. He received his A.B. from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

and his M.A. from

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 ...

. He then received his Ph.D. in English from

in 1940 after completing a doctoral dissertation titled "The influence of Spenser on Shelley's major poetry." Baker's published works included several novels and books of poetry and various literary criticisms and essays. In 1969, Baker published the well-regarded scholarly biography of

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...

, ''Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story'', describing him as a "fierce individualist ... who believed that that government is best which governs least". In "Selected Letters of Martha Gellhorn", Hemingway's third wife, Gellhorn criticizes Baker's assertions concerning her affair and marriage to Hemingway, and indicates that Baker was frequently wrong about those matters she experienced personally, and which Baker wrote about. Hemingway never met Baker according to Hemingway's fourth wife, Mary Welsh Hemingway, who also asserts in her 1976 book ''How It Was'' that Hemingway deliberately chose someone who never knew him. Mary does not offer a specific reason for this choice; Baker had published ''Hemingway: The Writer as Artist'' in 1952, which favorably treated Hemingway's work to that date. Baker's other major works included biographies of

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was an English writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame durin ...

and

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...

. Baker's minor work includes ''A Year and A Day, Poems by Carlos Baker''. Baker taught biographer A. Scott Berg while Berg was an undergraduate at Princeton in the late 1960s. Berg recalled that Baker "changed my life", and convinced him to quit acting to concentrate on his thesis, a study of editor Maxwell Perkins.Merritt, J. I.
"Biographer A. Scott Berg '71 confronts the remarkable -- and still controversial -- flier, 'a great lens for observing the American century'"
PAW, 1998-11-18. Retrieved on 2007-10-30. Berg eventually expanded his thesis into the

National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...

-winning biography '' Max Perkins: Editor of Genius'' (1978), which he dedicated in part to Baker. Baker 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 1982. He died in 1987 at

Princeton, New Jersey The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...

, aged 77.

References

External links

''New York Times'' obituary
of Baker {{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Carlos 1909 births 1987 deaths Dartmouth College alumni missing graduation year Harvard University alumni Princeton University alumni People from Biddeford, Maine Princeton University faculty American literary critics 20th-century American non-fiction writers Novelists from Maine Novelists from New Jersey Members of the American Philosophical Society