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William Hugh Kenner (January 7, 1923 – November 24, 2003) was a Canadian literary scholar, critic and professor. His studies on
Modernist literature Modernist literature originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is characterised by a self-conscious separation from traditional ways of writing in both poetry and prose fiction writing. Modernism experimented with literary form a ...
often analyzed the work of
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 ...
,
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 ...
, and
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...
. His major study of the period, '' The Pound Era'', argued for Pound as the central figure of
Modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
, and is considered one of the most important works on the topic.


Biography


Early years and education

Kenner was born in
Peterborough, Ontario Peterborough ( ) is a city on the Otonabee River in Ontario, Canada, about 125 kilometres (78 miles) northeast of Toronto. According to the 2021 Census, the population of the City of Peterborough was 83,651. The population of the Peterborough ...
, on January 7, 1923. His father H. R. H. Kenner taught
classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...
and his mother Mary (Williams) Kenner taught French and German at Peterborough Collegiate Institute. Kenner attributed his interest in literature to his poor hearing, caused by a bout of influenza during his childhood. Attending the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...
, Kenner studied under
Marshall McLuhan Herbert Marshall McLuhan (, ; July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media studies, media theory. Raised in Winnipeg, McLuhan studied at the University of Manitoba a ...
, who wrote the introduction to Kenner's first book ''Paradox in Chesterton'', about G. K. Chesterton's works. Kenner's second book, ''The Poetry of Ezra Pound'' (1951) was dedicated to McLuhan, who had introduced Kenner to Pound on June 4, 1948, during Pound's incarceration at St. Elizabeths Hospital,
Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...
, where Kenner and McLuhan had driven as a detour from their trip from
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
to
New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...
. (Pound, who became a friend of Kenner's, had suggested the book be titled ''The Rose in the Steel Dust''.) Later, Kenner said of McLuhan, "I had the advantage of being exposed to Marshall when he was at his most creative, and then of getting to the far end of the continent shortly afterward, when he couldn't get me on the phone all the time. He could be awfully controlling." Later, when McLuhan wrote that the development of cartography during the Renaissance created a geographical sense that had never previously existed, Kenner sent him a postcard reading in full: " Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, Yours, Hugh." In 1950, Kenner earned a PhD from
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
, with a dissertation on
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 ...
, written under the supervision of
Cleanth Brooks Cleanth Brooks ( ; October 16, 1906 – May 10, 1994) was an American literary critic and professor. He is best known for his contributions to New Criticism in the mid-20th century and for revolutionizing the teaching of poetry in American higher ...
. This work, which won the John Addison Porter Prize at Yale, became ''Dublin's Joyce'' in 1956.


Academic career

Kenner's first teaching post was at the
University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...
(1951 to 1973); he then taught at
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
(from 1973 to 1990) and the
University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...
(from 1990 to 1999). Kenner played an influential role in raising Ezra Pound's profile among critics and other readers of poetry. The publication of ''The Poetry of Ezra Pound'' in 1951 "was the beginning, and the catalyst, for a change in attitude toward Pound on the American literary and educational scenes." '' The Pound Era'', the product of years of scholarship and considered by many to be Kenner's masterpiece, was published in 1971. This work was responsible for enshrining Pound's reputation (damaged by his wartime sympathy for fascism) as one of the greatest Modernists. Though best known for his work on
modernist literature Modernist literature originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is characterised by a self-conscious separation from traditional ways of writing in both poetry and prose fiction writing. Modernism experimented with literary form a ...
, Kenner's range of interests was wide. His books include an appreciation of
Chuck Jones Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, painter, voice actor and filmmaker, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He ...
, an introduction to
geodesic In geometry, a geodesic () is a curve representing in some sense the locally shortest path ( arc) between two points in a surface, or more generally in a Riemannian manifold. The term also has meaning in any differentiable manifold with a conn ...
math, and a user's guide for the Heathkit H100/ Zenith Z-100 computer; in his later years he was a columnist for both '' Art & Antiques'' and ''
Byte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable un ...
'' magazine. Kenner was a friend of William F. Buckley, Jr., to whom Kenner introduced word processing, and a contributor to ''
National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief is Rich L ...
''. He also shared a close correspondence with Guy Davenport, the noted scholar, fiction writer, and artist.


Personal life

Kenner was married twice: his first wife, Mary Waite, died in 1964; the couple had three daughters and two sons. His second wife, whom he married in 1965, was Mary-Anne Bittner; they had a son and a daughter.


Death

Hugh Kenner died at his home in
Athens, Georgia Athens is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Downtown Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta. The University of Georgia, the state's flagship public university and an Research I university, ...
, on November 24, 2003.


Selected bibliography

* ''Paradox in Chesterton'' (1947) * ''The Poetry of Ezra Pound'' (New Directions,
1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the Uni ...
) * ''
Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''Blast (British magazine), Blast'', the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His ...
: A Critical Guidebook'' (
1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...
) * ''Dublin's Joyce'' (
Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes ...
, 1956; rpt., Columbia University Press, 1987) * ''Gnomon: Essays in Contemporary Literature'' (1959) * ''The Art of Poetry'' (
1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...
) * ''The Invisible Poet: T. S. Eliot'' (
1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...
; rev. ed, 1969) * ''
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...
: A Critical Study'' (Grove Press, 1961; rev. ed., 1968) * ''T. S. Eliot: A Collection of Critical Essays'' (editor) (Prentice-Hall,
1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...
) * ''The Stoic Comedians: Flaubert, Joyce, and Beckett'' (1962) (illustrated by Guy Davenport) * ''Seventeenth Century Poetry: The Schools of Donne & Jonson'' (editor) (
1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...
) * ''Studies in Change: A Book of the Short Story'' (editor) (1965) * ''The Counterfeiters: An Historical Comedy'' (Indiana University Press, 1968; The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985) (illustrated by Guy Davenport) * '' The Pound Era'' (University of California Press,
1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...
) * ''Bucky: A Guided Tour of Buckminster Fuller'' (William Morrow, 1973) * ''A Reader's Guide to Samuel Beckett'' (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1973) * ''A Homemade World: The American Modernist Writers'' (Alfred A. Knopf, 1975) * ''
Geodesic In geometry, a geodesic () is a curve representing in some sense the locally shortest path ( arc) between two points in a surface, or more generally in a Riemannian manifold. The term also has meaning in any differentiable manifold with a conn ...
Math and How to Use It'' (1976) * ''Joyce's Voices'' (University of California Press, 1978) * ''Ulysses'' (George Allen & Unwin, 1980; rev. ed., The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987) * ''A Colder Eye: The Modern Irish Writers'' (Alfred A. Knopf, 1983) * ''The Mechanic Muse'' (Oxford University Press, 1987) * ''A Sinking Island: The Modern English Writers'' (1988) * ''Mazes: Essays'' (North Point Press, 1989) * ''Historical Fictions: Essays'' (University of Georgia Press, 1995) * ''
Chuck Jones Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, painter, voice actor and filmmaker, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He ...
: A Flurry of Drawings'' (1994) * ''The Elsewhere Community'', CBC Massey Lectures (1998) * '' A Passion for Joyce: The Letters of Hugh Kenner and Adaline Glasheen'' ed. Edward M. Burns (University College Dublin Press, 2008) * ''Questioning Minds: The Letters of Guy Davenport and Hugh Kenner'', ed. Edward M. Burns (Counterpoint Press, 2018)


References


External links


Inventory of Kenner's Papers
at the
Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center, known as the Humanities Research Center until 1983, is an archive, library, and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe ...
, Austin. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kenner, Hugh 1923 births 2003 deaths Canadian literary critics University of Toronto alumni Yale University alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty University of Georgia faculty University of California, Santa Barbara faculty People from Peterborough, Ontario Canadian people of German descent James Joyce scholars American academics of English literature Canadian expatriates in the United States