M. H. Abrams - Wikipedia M. H. Abrams From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search M. H. Abrams Born Meyer Howard Abrams (1912-07-23)July 23, 1912 Long Branch, New Jersey, U.S. Died April 21, 2015(2015-04-21) (aged 102) Ithaca, New York, U.S. Nationality American Other names Mike Abrams Education Harvard University Magdalene College, Cambridge Alma mater Harvard University Occupation Literary critic Known for The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Mirror and the Lamp Meyer Howard "Mike" Abrams (July 23, 1912 – April 21, 2015), usually cited as M. H. Abrams, was an American literary critic, known for works on romanticism, in particular his book The Mirror and the Lamp. Under Abrams's editorship, The Norton Anthology of English Literature became the standard text for undergraduate survey courses across the U.S. and a major trendsetter in literary canon formation. Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 The Mirror and the Lamp 5 The Norton Anthology of English Literature 5.1 Classification of literary theories 6 Works 7 Notes 8 References 9 External links Early life[edit] Abrams was the son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants in Long Branch, New Jersey.[1] The son of a house painter and the first in his family to go to college, he entered Harvard University as an undergraduate in 1930. He went into English because, he says, "there weren't jobs in any other profession..., so I thought I might as well enjoy starving, instead of starving while doing something I didn't enjoy."[2] After earning his bachelor's degree in 1934, Abrams won a Henry Fellowship to Magdalene College, Cambridge, where his tutor was I.A. Richards. He returned to Harvard for graduate school in 1935 and received a master's degree in 1937 and a Ph.D. in 1940.[3] Career[edit] During World War II, he served at the Psycho-Acoustics Laboratory at Harvard. He describes his work as solving the problem of voice communications in a noisy military environment by establishing military codes that are highly audible and inventing selection tests for personnel who had a superior ability to recognize sound in a noisy background.[citation needed] In 1945, Abrams became a professor at Cornell University. The literary critics Harold Bloom, Gayatri Spivak and E.D. Hirsch, and the novelists William H. Gass and Thomas Pynchon were among his students.[1][4] He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1963.[5] As of March 4, 2008, he was Class of 1916 Professor of English Emeritus there.[6] Personal life[edit] His wife of 71 years, Ruth, predeceased him in 2008.[7] He turned 100 in July 2012.[8] Abrams died on April 21, 2015 in Ithaca, New York, at the age of 102.[9][10] The Mirror and the Lamp[edit] Abrams shows that until the Romantics, literature was typically understood as a mirror reflecting the real world in some kind of mimesis; whereas for the Romantics, writing was more like a lamp: the light of the writer's inner soul spilled out to illuminate the world.[citation needed] In 1998, Modern Library ranked The Mirror and the Lamp one of the 100 greatest English-language nonfiction books of the 20th century.[11] The Norton Anthology of English Literature[edit] Abrams was the general editor of The Norton Anthology, and the editor of The Romantic Period (1798–1832) in that anthology,[12] and he evaluated writers and their reputations. In his introduction to Lord Byron, he emphasized how Byronism relates to Nietzsche's idea of the superman.[13] In the introduction to Percy Bysshe Shelley, Abrams said, "The tragedy of Shelley's short life was that intending always the best, he brought disaster and suffering upon himself and those he loved."[14] Classification of literary theories[edit] The classification used by Abrams Literary theories, Abrams argues, can be divided into four main groups: Mimetic Theories (interested in the relationship between the Work and the Universe) Pragmatic Theories (interested in the relationship between the Work and the Audience) Expressive Theories (interested in the relationship between the Work and the Artist) Objective Theories (interested in close reading of the Work) Works[edit] The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition (1953) ISBN 978-0-19-501471-6 The Poetry of Pope: a selection (1954) ISBN 978-0-88295-067-9 Literature and Belief: English Institute essays, 1957. (1957) editor ISBN 978-0-231-02278-1 A Glossary of Literary Terms (Geoffrey Harpham, 1957; 9th ed. 2009) ISBN 978-1-4130-3390-8 English Romantic Poets: modern essays in criticism (1960) ISBN 978-0-19-501946-9 The Norton Anthology of English Literature (1962) founding editor, many later editions The Milk of Paradise: the effect of opium visions on the works of DeQuincey, Crabbe, Francis Thompson, and Coleridge (1970) ISBN 978-0-374-90028-1 Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature (1971) ISBN 978-0-393-00609-4 The Correspondent Breeze: essays on English Romanticism (1984) ISBN 978-0-393-30340-7 Doing Things with Texts: essays in criticism and critical theory (1989) ISBN 978-0-393-02713-6 The Fourth Dimension of a Poem and Other Essays (2012) ISBN 978-0-393-05830-7 Notes[edit] ^ a b "Adam Kirsch Pays a 100th Birthday Visit to M. H. Abrams, the Romanticist and Norton Anthology Editor". Tablet Magazine. Archived from the original on 23 November 2015. Retrieved 23 April 2015. ^ Crawford, Franklin (September 2012). "A Literary Century: English Professor Mike Abrams Fêted at 100th Birthday Bash". Cornell Alumni Magazine. Cornell University. Retrieved 11 February 2016. ^ Grimes, William (22 April 2015). "M.H. Abrams, 102, Dies; Shaped Romantic Criticism and Literary 'Bible'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 11 February 2016. ^ "M.H. Abrams continues his labors (of love)". News.cornell.edu. Archived from the original on 2012-02-28. Retrieved 2011-07-26. ^ "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 May 2011. Retrieved 20 March 2011. ^ See article Archived 2008-07-04 at the Wayback Machine in the Cornell Chronicle. ^ "Ruth Abrams". Ithaca Journal. Archived from the original on 2 June 2015. Retrieved 23 April 2015. ^ Seely, Hart (2012-07-23). "The man behind the Norton Anthology of English Literature is turning 100 today". The Post-Standard. Advance Publications. Archived from the original on 2012-07-25. Retrieved 2012-07-23. ^ Grimes, William (22 April 2015). "M.H. Abrams, 102, Dies; Shaped Romantic Criticism and Literary 'Bible'". Archived from the original on 22 July 2017. Retrieved 29 May 2017 – via NYTimes.com. ^ Jeff Stein (22 April 2015). "One of the greatest professors in Cornell history has died". The Ithaca Voice. Retrieved 23 April 2015. ^ "100 Best Nonfiction". Modern Library. 1998. Archived from the original on 2012-08-25. Retrieved 2015-03-05. ^ M. H. Abrams (1962), ed., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, New York: Norton, back cover. ^ M. H. Abrams (1962), ed., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, New York: Norton, p. 253. ^ M. H. Abrams (1962), ed., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, New York: Norton, p. 415. References[edit] Lawrence Lipking, editor (1981) High Romantic Argument: Essays For M.H. Abrams ISBN 978-0-8014-1307-0 External links[edit] Wikiquote has quotations related to: M. H. Abrams "The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism" entry Short informative text on him. M.H. Abrams reads poetry aloud at the National Humanities Center Authority control BIBSYS: 90062283 BNE: XX1724023 BNF: cb12179690p (data) CANTIC: a10035588 CiNii: DA00664940 GND: 122365461 ISNI: 0000 0001 0859 7532 LCCN: n79061116 LNB: 000001537 NDL: 00430915 NKC: jn19990000013 NLA: 35000511 NLI: 000420281 NLK: KAC2018N7308 NSK: 000118110 NTA: 069176353 PLWABN: 9810697362605606 SELIBR: 31350 SNAC: w66m5rj2 SUDOC: 030367255 Trove: 784566 VIAF: 108449655 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n79061116 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=M._H._Abrams&oldid=982228762" Categories: 1912 births 2015 deaths American literary critics American academics of English literature Cornell University faculty American literary theorists Literary critics of English Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Jewish American academics People from Long Branch, New Jersey Harvard University alumni Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences American centenarians 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers National Humanities Medal recipients 20th-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers Hidden categories: Webarchive template wayback links Articles with hCards All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from November 2015 Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNE identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers Wikipedia articles with CINII identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with LNB identifiers Wikipedia articles with NDL identifiers Wikipedia articles with NKC identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLA identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLI identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLK identifiers Wikipedia articles with NSK identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikiquote Languages العربية Български Čeština Deutsch فارسی Français Հայերեն Italiano مصرى Polski Русский Simple English Suomi Edit links This page was last edited on 6 October 2020, at 21:54 (UTC). 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