Donald Johnson Greene (November 21, 1914 – May 13, 1997) was a literary critic, English professor, and scholar of
British literature
British literature is literature from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. This article covers British literature in the English language. Anglo-Saxon (Old English) literature is inc ...
, particularly the eighteenth-century period. Known especially for his work on
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...
, he also wrote on later authors such as
Jane Austen
Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...
,
Evelyn Waugh,
Graham Greene, and
Donald Davie
Donald Alfred Davie, FBA (17 July 1922 – 18 September 1995) was an English Movement poet, and literary critic. His poems in general are philosophical and abstract, but often evoke various landscapes.
Biography
Davie was born in Barnsley, ...
.
Early life
Greene was born in
Moose Jaw,
Saskatchewan, Canada. He began teaching in rural
elementary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...
s and was a non-degreed teacher in Saskatchewan and
Alberta. World War II interrupted his academic pursuits; from 1941 to 1945 Greene was a lieutenant and captain in the
Royal Canadian Artillery. Following the war he received a graduate fellowship from the
Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire
The Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (IODE) is a women's charitable organization based in Canada. It provides scholarships, bursaries, book prizes, and awards, and pursues other philanthropic and educational projects in various communities ac ...
, and he received his M.A. in 1948 at the
University College, London. He twice received a
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
, in
1957
1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...
and
1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...
.
Career
Greene had achieved a considerable scholarly contribution even before graduating, with commentary on Samuel Johnson appearing in ''
Notes and Queries'', ''
PMLA'', ''
Modern Language Notes'', and the ''
Review of English Studies
''The Review of English Studies'' is an academic journal published by Oxford University Press covering English literature and the English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earli ...
''. Later, he was the editor of ''
Eighteenth-Century Studies
''Eighteenth-Century Studies'' is an academic journal established in 1966 and the official publication of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. It focuses on all aspects of 18th century history. It is related to the annual ''Studies ...
'' and ''Johnsonian News Letter'', along with holding the position as president of the Johnson Society and served on the board of directors for the Johnson Society of Southern California.
[Green 1989 p. viii]
He taught at the
University of Saskatchewan beginning in 1948 and in 1952 he began Ph.D. studies in
Columbia University's English department, whose faculty included James L. Clifford — another Samuel Johnson specialist — and
Marjorie Hope Nicolson. Greene taught at six other universities, including Brandeis University, the University of California at Riverside, the University of New Mexico, the University of Toronto, and the University of Wisconsin. He ended his career as
Leo S. Bing Professor of English at the
University of Southern California from 1968 to 1984.
Selected works
* ''Johnsonian studies, 1887–1950: a survey and bibliography'' (with James Clifford). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1951.
* ''The politics of Samuel Johnson.'' New Haven, Yale University Press, 1960.
* ''Samuel Johnson: A Collection of Critical Essays'' (Twentieth Century Views series). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1965.
* ''The age of exuberance; backgrounds to eighteenth-century English literature''. New York: Random House, 1970.
* ''Samuel Johnson'' (Twayne's English Authors Series). New York: Twayne Publishers, 1970.
* ''Samuel Johnson; a survey and bibliography of critical studies'' (with James Clifford). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1970.
* ''Samuel Johnson's library : an annotated guide''. Victoria: University of Victoria, 1975.
* ''Political writings'' (Volume 10 of the Yale ''Complete Works of Samuel Johnson'' series). New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977.
* ''Samuel Johnson; a collection of critical essays.'' Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1984.
* ''Greene centennial studies : essays presented to Donald Greene in the centennial year of the University of Southern California'' (with Paul Korshin and Robert Allen). Charlottesville : University Press of Virginia, 1984.
* ''Samuel Johnson'' (Oxford Authors). New York : Oxford University Press, 1984.
* ''A bibliography of Johnsonian studies, 1970–1985'' (with John Vance). Victoria: University of Victoria, 1987.
* ''Samuel Johnson: Updated Edition'' (Twayne's English Authors Series). Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1989.
* ''Samuel Johnson: The major works'' (Oxford World Classics). Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000.
Notes
References
* Greene, Donald Johnson. "About the Author" in ''Samuel Johnson: Updated Edition'' by Donald Greene, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1989.
* Greene, Donald Johnson and John Lawrence Abbott. "Introduction" in
The Selected Essays of Donald Greene'' Bucknell University Press, 2004.
* Greene, R.W. ''Donald Greene, 1914-1997''. Riverside: Inland Printworks, 1998.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greene, Donald
American literary critics
Canadian literary critics
University of Southern California faculty
University of Saskatchewan faculty
1914 births
1997 deaths
People from Moose Jaw
20th-century American non-fiction writers