Meyer Howard Abrams (July 23, 1912 – April 21, 2015), usually cited as M. H. Abrams, was an American

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 ...

, 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.

Early life

Born in

Long Branch, New Jersey Long Branch is a beachside City (New Jersey), city in Monmouth County, New Jersey, Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States census, 2010 U.S. census, the city's population was 30,719,< ...

, Abrams was the son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants. 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." After earning his bachelor's degree in 1934, Abrams won a Henry Fellowship to Magdalene College, Cambridge, where his tutor was

I. A. Richards Ivor Armstrong Richards CH (26 February 1893 – 7 September 1979), known as I. A. Richards, was an English educator, literary critic, poet, and rhetorician. His work contributed to the foundations of the New Criticism, a formalist movement ...

. He returned to Harvard for graduate school in 1935 and received a master's degree in 1937 and a Ph.D. in 1940.

Career

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. 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. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1963 and a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1973. As of March 4, 2008, he was Class of 1916 Professor of English Emeritus there.

Personal life

His wife of 71 years, Ruth, predeceased him in 2008. He turned 100 in July 2012. Abrams died on April 21, 2015, in Ithaca, New York, at the age of 102.

''The Mirror and the Lamp''

Abrams offers evidence 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. In 1998,

Modern Library The Modern Library is an American book publishing imprint and formerly the parent company of Random House. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, Modern Library became an ...

ranked ''The Mirror and the Lamp'' one of the 100 greatest English-language nonfiction books of the 20th century.

''The Norton Anthology of English Literature''

Abrams was the general editor of ''The Norton Anthology'', and the editor of ''The Romantic Period (1798–1832)'' in that anthology, and he evaluated writers and their reputations. In his introduction to Lord Byron, he emphasized how

Byronism George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...

relates to Nietzsche's idea of the superman. In the introduction to

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achie ...

, 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."

Classification of literary theories

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

* ''The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition'' (1953) * ''The Poetry of Pope: a selection'' (1954) * ''Literature and Belief: English Institute essays'', 1957. (1957) editor * ''A Glossary of Literary Terms'' ( Geoffrey Harpham, 1957; 9th ed. 2009) * ''English Romantic Poets: modern essays in criticism'' (1960) * '' 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) * ''Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature'' (1971) * ''The Correspondent Breeze: essays on English Romanticism'' (1984) * ''Doing Things with Texts: essays in criticism and critical theory'' (1989) * ''The Fourth Dimension of a Poem and Other Essays'' (2012)

References

Bibliography

* Lawrence Lipking, editor (1981) ''High Romantic Argument: Essays For M.H. Abrams''

External links

"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
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abrams, Mh 1912 births 2015 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American academics of English literature American literary critics American literary theorists American male non-fiction writers American centenarians Cornell University faculty Literary critics of English Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Jewish American academics People from Long Branch, New Jersey Harvard College alumni Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences National Humanities Medal recipients Men centenarians 21st-century American male writers Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy 21st-century American Jews Members of the American Philosophical Society