Quentin Anderson (July 21, 1912 – February 18, 2003) was an American literary critic and cultural historian at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. His research focused on 19th-century American authors, especially

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

, and

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among t ...

, and their attempts to define American identity as both connected to and differentiated from European precedents.

Early life and education

Anderson was born in

Minnewaukan, North Dakota Minnewaukan is a city in Benson County, North Dakota. It serves as the county seat and is fourth largest city in the county, after Fort Totten, Leeds, and Maddock. The population was 199 at the 2020 census. Minnewaukan was founded in 1884. Et ...

. The son of playwright

Maxwell Anderson James Maxwell Anderson (December 15, 1888 – February 28, 1959) was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist, and lyricist. Background Anderson was born on December 15, 1888, in Atlantic, Pennsylvania, the second of eight children to ...

, he moved with his father to

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

and then

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

after the latter was dismissed from his high school teaching job for his pacifist views. The family then moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where Quentin spent his formative years. During the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, he worked as a mechanic, a grave digger, and as a stage extra on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

. Quentin thereafter began his long career in academia. He studied with

Jacques Barzun Jacques Martin Barzun (; November 30, 1907 – October 25, 2012) was a French-American historian known for his studies of the history of ideas and cultural history. He wrote about a wide range of subjects, including baseball, mystery novels, and ...

and

Lionel Trilling Lionel Mordecai Trilling (July 4, 1905 – November 5, 1975) was an American literary critic, short story writer, essayist, and teacher. He was one of the leading U.S. critics of the 20th century who analyzed the contemporary cultural, social, ...

, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1937. He earned his Master of Arts from

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 ...

in 1945 before returning to Columbia to complete his PhD in 1953.

Career

Anderson in the civilian defense corps in

Rockland County, New York Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. It is about from the Bronx at their closest points. The county's population, as of t ...

. He was named a full professor at the Columbia University English Department in 1961 and he chaired a disciplinary committee following the

protests of 1968 The protests of 1968 comprised a worldwide escalation of social conflicts, predominantly characterized by popular rebellions against state militaries and the bureaucracies. In the United States, these protests marked a turning point for the ci ...

. In 1978, he was named the

Julian Clarence Levi Julian Clarence Levi (December 8, 1874 – August 23, 1971) was an American architect, watercolor painter, and philanthropist. Biography Levi was born on December 8, 1874, on West 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan. His father, Albert Augustus ...

Professor in the Humanities and was granted a senior fellowship by the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

in 1973 and 1974. From 1979 to 1980 he was a fellow at the

National Humanities Center The National Humanities Center (NHC) is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. The NHC operates as a privately incorporated nonprofit and is not part of any university or federal agency. The center was planned under the auspi ...

. His book ''The Imperial Self'' (1971) was a widely heralded and debated account of the shaping of American identity as revealed by nineteenth-century American literature.

Personal life

Anderson married Thelma Ehrlich in 1947. He had two sons (

Maxwell L. Anderson Maxwell L. Anderson (born May 1, 1956) is an American art historian, museum director, author, and non-profit executive, who currently serves as President of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation. Anderson served as director of the Indianapolis Museum o ...

and Abraham Anderson) and a daughter by his first marriage (Martha Haskett Anderson). At the time of his death, he had one grandson, Chase Quentin Anderson. Anderson lived on

Claremont Avenue Claremont Avenue is a short avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It begins at 116th Street and runs north for a length of eleven blocks until it ends at Tiemann Place (the western segment of 127th Street) ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. He died of heart failure at his

Morningside Heights, Manhattan Morningside Heights is a neighborhood on the West Side of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Morningside Drive to the east, 125th Street to the north, 110th Street to the south, and Riverside Drive to the west. Morningside H ...

home in 2003.

Major works

*''Making Americans'' (1992) *''The Imperial Self'' (1971) *''The American Henry James'' (1957) ISBN B0006AUYTQ

External links

Columbia University obituaryOfficial websiteFinding aid to Quentin Anderson papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Quentin 1912 births 2003 deaths Columbia College (New York) alumni Columbia University faculty Harvard University alumni People from Benson County, North Dakota Writers from North Dakota