Harry Tuchman Levin (July 18, 1912 – May 29, 1994) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

and

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...

of both

modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

and

comparative literature Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...

Life and career

Levin was born in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

, the son of Beatrice Hirshler (née Tuchman) and Isadore Henry Levin. His family was

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. Levin was educated at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

(where he was a contemporary of

M. H. Abrams Meyer Howard 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 An ...

). According to a biographical memoir by

Walter Jackson Bate 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 (1978) and John Keats (1964).

After graduating ''summa cum laude'' in 1933, he was appointed Junior Fellow in then-new Harvard University Society of Fellows, the university's highest honour bestowed upon graduate students, where he pursued in depth what were to become his three major interests: Shakespeare and the English Renaissance; modern literature generally; and the relation of English and American to other literatures, from Greek and Latin antiquity to the present, all of which are reflected in his early publications, giving him a perspective lacking in the ordinary specialist and scarcely matched in his later years by more than three or four scholars here or abroad. In the 1930s, junior fellows did not normally take a Ph. D., so that Harry, like his noted predecessor, George Lyman Kittredge, remained an A.B., though he was in time to receive six honorary degrees, including ones from Oxford and the Sorbonne, and though he was, over the years, to supervise over ninety doctoral theses.

Levin began teaching at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1939 and that same year he married Elena Zarudnaya. He was named ''

Irving Babbitt Irving Babbitt (August 2, 1865 – July 15, 1933) was an American academic and literary critic, noted for his founding role in a movement that became known as the New Humanism, a significant influence on literary discussion and conservative tho ...

Professor of Comparative Literature'' at Harvard in 1960 and retired in 1983. He continued to live near campus in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

, until his death in 1994. He was survived by his widow Elena and their daughter Marina. Levin was an elected member of both the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) 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 ...

and 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 ...

. Levin's course in "Comedy on the Stage" inspired

Leonard Lehrman Leonard Jordan Lehrman is an American composer who was born in Kansas, on August 20, 1949, and grew up in Roslyn, New York. Since August 3, 1999, he has resided in Valley Stream, New York. His teachers included Lenore Anhalt, Elie Siegmeister, Ol ...

to write the paper, "The Threepenny Cradle," comparing the

Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

- Weill '' Threepenny Opera'' to Marc Blitzstein's ''

The Cradle Will Rock ''The Cradle Will Rock'' is a 1937 play in music by Marc Blitzstein. Originally a part of the Federal Theatre Project, it was directed by Orson Welles and produced by John Houseman. A Brechtian allegory of corruption and corporate greed, it ...

''. In the fall of 1969, in a production of ''Cradle'' directed by Lehrman, Levin was the sole patron. In 1970-1971 he encouraged, advised, and became a patron for two other Harvard productions by Lehrman: the U.S. premiere of Brecht's ''

The Days of the Commune ''The Days of the Commune'' is a play by the twentieth-century German dramatist Bertolt Brecht. It dramatises the rise and fall of the Paris Commune in 1871. The play is an adaptation of the 1937 play ''The Defeat'' by the Norwegian poet and drama ...

'', and a triple-bill in memory of Blitzstein, which was attended by

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

. It was at that production that Levin invited Bernstein to become Norton Lecturer at Harvard, which he did, a year later. In 1985, the American Comparative Literature Association began awarding the ''Harry Levin Prize'' for books on literary history or criticism and in 1997, Harvard University endowed the new chair (position) of ''Harry Levin Professor of Literature''.

Works

*''The Broken Column'' (1931), Harvard undergraduate essay published by Cambridge UP *''Ben Jonson, Selected Works'' (1938) editor *''James Joyce: A Critical Introduction'' (1941) *''Toward Stendhal'' (1945) *''The Portable James Joyce'' (1947) editor *''Toward Balzac'' (1947) *''Perspectives of Criticism'' (1950) editor *''The overreacher, a study of Christopher Marlowe'' (1952) *''Symbolism and Fiction'' (1956) *''Contexts of Criticism'' (1957) *''The Power of Blackness: Hawthorne, Poe, Melville'' (1958) *''The Question of Hamlet'' (1959) *''Irving Babbitt and the Teaching of Literature'' (1960) Inaugural Lecture *''The Scarlet Letter and other Tales of the Puritans by Nathaniel Hawthorne'' (1961) editor *''The Gates of Horn: A Study of Five French Realists'' (1963) *''The Comedy of Errors'' (1965) editor *''Refractions: Essays in Comparative Literature'' (1966) *''The Myth of the Golden Age in the Renaissance'' (1969) *''Playboys and Killjoys: An Essay on the Theory and Practice of Comedy'' (1988)

References

External links

* A
Harvard University
*
Guide to the Papers of Harry Levin
(with biography) * At th
American Comparative Literature Association
*

(given in alternate years) {{DEFAULTSORT:Levin, Harry 1912 births 1994 deaths 20th-century American academics 20th-century American biographers 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American historians 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century educators 20th-century scholars Academics from Massachusetts Academics from Minnesota American academics American academics of English literature American cultural critics American educators American literary critics American literary historians American literary theorists American male essayists American male non-fiction writers Comparative literature academics Harvard University alumni Harvard University faculty Historians from Massachusetts Historians from Minnesota Historians of English literature Humor researchers Irony theorists Jewish American academics Jewish American historians Jewish American non-fiction writers Jewish American writers Literacy and society theorists Modernist writers Trope theorists Members of the American Philosophical Society