Walter Jackson Bate (May 23, 1918 – July 26, 1999) was an American literary critic and biographer. He is known for Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography-winning biographies 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 ...

(1978) and

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tub ...

(1964)."Biography or Autobiography"
''Past winners and finalists by category''. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2012-03-17. ''Samuel Johnson'' also won the 1978 U.S.

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. ...

in Biography."National Book Awards – 1978"
National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-17.

Biography

Bate was born in

Mankato, Minnesota Mankato ( ) is a city in Blue Earth County, Minnesota, Blue Earth, Nicollet County, Minnesota, Nicollet, and Le Sueur County, Minnesota, Le Sueur counties in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is the county seat of Blue Earth County, Minnesota. The ...

. He studied under Douglas Bush and later taught 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 ...

. His critical work, especially ''The Burden of the Past and the English Poet'', responds to and anticipates some aspects of the work of

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 called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world". Af ...

. His biographies of Keats and Johnson have enjoyed extraordinary reputations both as scholarly resources and as works of literature in their own right. He was elected a Fellow of 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 1957 and a member of 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 1966. Bate retired from teaching at Harvard in 1986, and died on July 26, 1999, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, aged 81. A brief memoir of Bate by Robert D. Richardson appeared in 2013.Robert D. Richardson, ''Splendor of Heart: Walter Jackson Bate and the Teaching of Literature; with an interview by John Paul Russo'' (Boston: Godine, 2014).

Major works

*''Negative Capability: The Intuitive Approach in Keats'' (1939; reprinted 1976, 2012). *''From Classic to Romantic: Premises of Taste in Eighteenth-Century England'' (1946; reprinted in 1961). *''Criticism: The Major Texts'' edited by (1952). *''The Achievement of Samuel Johnson'' (1955). *''The Stylistic Development of Keats'' (1958). *''Prefaces to Criticism'' (1959). *''John Keats'' (1963). *''Keats: A Collection of Critical Essays'' (1964). * ''Coleridge'' (1968). *''The Burden of the Past and the English Poet'' (1970). *''Samuel Johnson'' (1977).

References

External links

Extensive biography from the Harvard University Gazette.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bate, Walter Jackson 1918 births 1999 deaths 20th-century American biographers American male biographers American literary critics Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences National Book Award winners Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners Harvard University faculty People from Mankato, Minnesota 20th-century American non-fiction writers Harvard University alumni 20th-century American male writers Members of the American Philosophical Society