Richard Warrington Baldwin Lewis (November 1, 1917 - June 13, 2002) was an American literary scholar and critic. He gained a wider reputation when he won a 1976
Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography
The Pulitzer Prize for Biography is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished biography, autobiography or memoir by an American author o ...
, the first
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".[Bancroft Prize
The Bancroft Prize is awarded each year by the trustees of Columbia University for books about diplomacy or the history of the Americas.
It was established in 1948, with a bequest from Frederic Bancroft, in his memory and that of his brother, ...]
for his biography of
Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton (; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and interior designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray ...
. ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' called the book "a beautifully wrought, rounded portrait of the whole woman, including the part of her that remained in shade during her life" and said that the "expansive, elegant biography ... can stand as literature, if nothing else."
He was the Neil Gray Professor of English and American Studies at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
, where he taught from 1959 until his retirement in 1988; from 1966 to 1972, he was master of Yale's
Calhoun College
John C. Calhoun (1782–1850) was the 7th vice president of the United States.
Calhoun can also refer to:
Surname
* Calhoun (surname)
Inhabited places in the United States
*Calhoun, Georgia
*Calhoun, Illinois
*Calhoun, Kansas
*Calhoun, Kentucky ...
. From 1954 to 1959 he taught at
Rutgers–Newark. In 1988 Lewis received a Litt.D. from
Bates College
Bates College () is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian Houses as some of the dormitories. It maintains of nature p ...
. A member of the
American Academy of Arts & Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States of America, United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bow ...
, Lewis received its Gold Medal for Biography in 2000.
Lewis is generally considered one of the founders of the academic field of
American Studies
American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, history, society, and culture. It traditionally incorporates literary criticism, historiography and critical theory.
Sch ...
. His interests ranged from criticism of American and European writers to biography and artistic criticism. He is associated with
John William Ward.
Lewis' career as critic involved him in the lives of many influential American and European thinkers and writers.
Lewis received his doctoral degree from the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
, where he studied under
Norman Maclean
Norman Fitzroy Maclean (December 23, 1902August 2, 1990) was a Scottish-American professor at the University of Chicago who became, following his retirement, a major figure in American literature. Maclean is best known for his collection of no ...
, author of the novel ''
A River Runs Through It and Other Stories''. He and his wife and sometime co-author Nancy later became close friends with Southern writer
Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15, 1989) was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the liter ...
.
Lewis' first major work ''The American Adam: Innocence, Tragedy, and Tradition in the Nineteenth Century'' (1955) explored
De Crèvecoeur's idea of the American as a "new man" - an innocent Adam in a bright new world dissociating himself from the historic past. Lewis portrayed this preoccupation as a pervasive, transforming ingredient of the American mind that shaped the consciousness of lesser thinkers as fully as it shaped the giants of the age. The book traces the Adamic theme in the writings of
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 ...
,
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalism, transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural su ...
,
Hawthorne
Hawthorne often refers to the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Hawthorne may also refer to:
Places
Australia
*Hawthorne, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane
Canada
* Hawthorne Village, Ontario, a suburb of Milton, Ontario
United States
* Hawt ...
,
Herman Melville
Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American people, American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his bes ...
,
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 ...
and others, and in his epilogue Lewis exposes its continuing spirit in the works of
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
,
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 of ...
,
Ralph Ellison
Ralph Waldo Ellison (March 1, 1913 – April 16, 1994) was an American writer, literary critic, and scholar best known for his novel ''Invisible Man'', which won the National Book Award in 1953. He also wrote ''Shadow and Act'' (1964), a collecti ...
,
J. D. Salinger
Jerome David Salinger (; January 1, 1919 January 27, 2010) was an American author best known for his 1951 novel ''The Catcher in the Rye''. Salinger got his start in 1940, before serving in World War II, by publishing several short stories in '' ...
, and
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; 10 July 1915 – 5 April 2005) was a Canadian-born American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only wr ...
.
Life and career
Lewis was born in
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
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, coordinates =
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, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
, the son of Beatrix Elizabeth (Baldwin) and Leicester Crosby Lewis, an Episcopal minister. After preparing at Episcopal Academy and
Phillips Exeter Academy
(not for oneself) la, Finis Origine Pendet (The End Depends Upon the Beginning) gr, Χάριτι Θεοῦ (By the Grace of God)
, location = 20 Main Street
, city = Exeter, New Hampshire
, zipcode ...
, he earned his B.A. in 1939 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 ...
and his M.A. in 1941 at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
, where he also received a Ph.D. degree in 1954. In the meantime he volunteered for war service in 1942, enlisting as a private in the U.S. Air Force and becoming a second lieutenant, serving in the Middle East, North Africa, and Italy, commanding a unit in
Tuscany, Italy
Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze'').
Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...
,serving in the British-U.S. intelligence service known as "M.I. X" and receiving the
Legion of Merit Award in 1944 for service behind enemy lines, After the war, he continued as a commanding officer of the
Northern Italy War Crimes Investigation Team and was discharged from service in 1946 with the rank of major.
After returning from the war Lewis pursued his fascination with world literature, which was already awakened by his Harvard teachers. He also developed a lifelong fascination and love for Italy after visiting as a child, and serving there in the war. He and his wife Nancy visited there regularly for much of their lives, and Lewis later wrote a book on the city of
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
.
Lewis taught at
Bennington College
Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont. Founded in 1932 as a women's college, it became co-educational in 1969. It claims to be the first college to include visual and performing arts as an equal partner in ...
1948-1950, and was dean of studies at the
Salzburg Seminar
Salzburg Global Seminar is a non-profit organization that challenges current and future leaders to shape a better world. It convenes programs on health care, education, culture, finance, technology, public policy, media, human rights, corporate g ...
in Austria 1950-1951. He was a visiting lecturer at
Smith College
Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...
1951-1952 and a resident fellow at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
in 1952-1954, then joined the faculty at
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
as a professor of English until his
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
appointment in 1959. In 1977 he was appointed the
Neil Gray, Jr. Professor of English and American Studies, reflecting his abiding interest in American literature and American cultural life.
Honors
Lewis received numerous honors for his research and contributions, including a grant for literary achievement from the
National Institute of Arts and Letters
The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...
, an
American Council of Learned Societies
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 ...
Fellowship, plus honorary degrees from several universities. He was invited to serve on both the
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors.
The Nat ...
jury for fiction, on which he was charged with selecting the best novel of 1964, and on the 1977 jury for biography and autobiography. In 1988 he was one of 14 scholars chosen to advise 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 ...
on the state of American culture.
While teaching at Yale, Lewis lived in a house in
Bethany, Connecticut
Bethany is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 5,297 at the 2020 census.
History
Bethany was first settled in 1717, but it was not until May 1832 that Bethany separated from Woodbridge to become incorporate ...
. He worked in an octagonally-shaped writing studio situated in a ravine about 30 feet from his house. A railed walkway connected the house to the studio, which was built by Nancy Lewis' brother-in-law
Isham McConnell, who studied under the American architect
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
. Lewis continued to write his books on a typewriter into his later years.
Bookshelves lined the walls of Lewis' office, with each section containing works from Lewis' various areas of research: the James' family, Edith Wharton,
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
and Italy,
American literature
American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also inc ...
, etc.
In 2006 the
Yale College Writing Center was endowed with a directorship in Lewis' name.
"This position in Dick Lewis’ name will serve as a permanent tribute to a writer who made every subject he engaged in memorable and to a memorable teacher who made every student mindful of great writing,” said Yale President
Richard C. Levin
Richard Charles Levin (born April 7, 1947) is an American economist and academic administrator. From 1993 to 2013, he was the 22nd President of Yale University. From March 2014 to June 2017, he was Chief Executive Officer of Coursera.
Early lif ...
in a University press release.
Personal life
Lewis married Nancy Lindau in 1950. They had three children: Nathaniel (born 1960), who is also a literary historian at
Saint Michael's College
Saint Michael's College (St. Mikes or Saint Michael's) is a private Roman Catholic college in Colchester, Vermont. Saint Michael's was founded in 1904 by the Society of Saint Edmund. It grants Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees i ...
; Sophie (born 1965), a health expert with the government of Massachusetts; and Emma (born 1967), an environmental lawyer. Lewis also had a son by the Danish writer
Elsa Gress, the historian
David Gress
David Richard Gress (born 29 January 1953) is a Denmark, Danish historian, known for his 1998 survey ''From Plato to Nato'' on Western identity and grand narratives.
Life
He was born in Copenhagen, the son of R. W. B. Lewis, an American literary ...
.
Lewis died in
Bethany, Connecticut
Bethany is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 5,297 at the 2020 census.
History
Bethany was first settled in 1717, but it was not until May 1832 that Bethany separated from Woodbridge to become incorporate ...
.
www.britannica.com
/ref>
Works written
* ''The American Adam: Innocence, Tragedy, and Tradition in the Nineteenth Century'' (1955)
* ''The Picaresque Saint. Representative Figures in Contemporary Fiction'' (1959)
* ''Herman Melville'' (1962)
* ''Trials of the Word: Essays in American Literature and the Humanistic Tradition'' (1965)
* ''The Poetry of Hart Crane
Harold Hart Crane (July 21, 1899 – April 27, 1932) was an American poet. Provoked and inspired by T. S. Eliot, Crane wrote modernist poetry that was difficult, highly stylized, and ambitious in its scope. In his most ambitious work, '' The Brid ...
: A Critical Study'' (1967)
* ''American Literature: The Makers and the Making: Book C / 1861 to 1914'' (1974, with Cleanth Brooks
Cleanth Brooks ( ; October 16, 1906 – May 10, 1994) was an American literary critic and professor. He is best known for his contributions to New Criticism in the mid-20th century and for revolutionizing the teaching of poetry in American higher ...
and Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15, 1989) was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the liter ...
)
* ''Edith Wharton: A Biography'' (1975)
* ''The Jameses: A Family Narrative'' (1991)
* ''Literary Reflections : A Shoring of Images 1960-1993'' (1993)
* ''The City of Florence: Historical Vistas and Personal Sightings'' (1995)
* ''American Characters: Selections from the National Portrait Gallery, Accompanied by Literary Portraits'' (1999, with Nancy Lewis)
* ''Dante'' (2001)
Works edited
* ''Presence of Walt Whitman'' (1962)
* ''Malraux: A Collection of Critical Essays'' (1964)
* ''The Letters of Edith Wharton'' (1989, with Nancy Lewis)
* ''The Selected Short Stories of Edith Wharton'' (1991)
References
Further reading
* Ward, John William 1955. ''Andrew Jackson, Symbol for an Age''. New York: Oxford University Press.
* Ward, John William. 1969 ''Red, White, and Blue: Men, Books, and Ideas in American Culture'' . New York: Oxford University Press
* Marx, Leo. 1964. ''The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America''. New York: Oxford University Press.
* Ward, David C. 2004 ''Charles Willson Peale: Art and Selfhood in the Early Republic'' Berkley, California : University of California Press
* Smith, Henry Nash. 1950. ''Virgin Land; the American West as Symbol and Myth.'' Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
* Matthiessen, F. O. 1949. ''American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman''. Harvard, Boston
* Meyers, Marvin 1957 ''The Jacksonian Persuasion: Politics and Belief'' Stanford Press, California
* Hofstadter, Richard. 1955. ''The Age of Reform: from Bryan to F.D.R.''
External links
* Eric Homberger
"RWB Lewis" (obituary)
''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', June 19, 2002.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Rwb
1917 births
2002 deaths
20th-century American biographers
American literary critics
Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners
Yale University faculty
Harvard University alumni
Episcopal Academy alumni
People from Bethany, Connecticut
University of Chicago alumni
Bancroft Prize winners
Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters