Arthur Walton Litz, Jr. (October 31, 1929, in Nashville, Tennessee
– June 4, 2014) was an American literary historian and
critic who served as professor of
English Literature at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
from 1956 to 1993. He was the author or editor of over twenty collections of literary criticism, including various editions of
Ezra Pound,
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius 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 influential and important writers of ...
,
Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...
, and
T. S. Eliot.
Litz graduated with an A.B. in English from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
in 1951 after completing a senior thesis titled "
Yoknapatawpha: A Study of
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...
's Moral Vision." He then studied at
Merton College,
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
as a
Rhodes Scholar and received his
D.Phil.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in 1954.
He studied alongside and at one point lived with cultural theorist
Stuart Hall, who described him as 'extraordinarily smart'. After two years' service in the
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
,
he became the Holmes Professor of Belles-Lettres at Princeton in 1956, where he worked until his retirement in 1994.
Litz was also a longtime instructor at the
Bread Loaf School of English
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all 5 ...
. He was named to the Eastman Visiting Professorship at
Balliol College, Oxford in 1989. In 1991, he was elected to the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
.
Litz married Marian Weller in 1958; they had four children.
He died of respiratory failure on June 4, 2014, aged 84, at
University Medical Center of Princeton in Plainsboro, New Jersey. He is survived by his four children and six grandchildren.
References
External links
List of A. Walton Litz's academic papers at Princeton University Library; includes a photograph and brief career overview (dated 2003)''Yoknapatawpha: A Study of William Faulkner's Moral Vision''—Princeton University 1951 senior thesis by Arthur Walton Litz, Jr.June 2006 newsletter from Balliol College, Oxford, listing A. Walton Litz among the former George Eastman Professors at the College
1929 births
American Rhodes Scholars
Princeton University faculty
Princeton University alumni
Alumni of Merton College, Oxford
American literary critics
20th-century American historians
American male non-fiction writers
2014 deaths
20th-century American male writers
Members of the American Philosophical Society
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