![Stuart Sherman woodcut](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Stuart_Sherman_woodcut.jpg)
Stuart Pratt Sherman (1881–1926) 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 ...
, educator and journalist known for his philosophical "feud" with
H. L. Mencken
Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...
. The two men were very close in age, and their career paths have sometimes been compared, but Mencken outlived Sherman by three decades.
Background, education, and academic career
Sherman, who was distantly related to
William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman ( ; February 8, 1820February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865), achieving recognition for his com ...
, was born to New Englanders John and Ada Martha (Pratt) Sherman on October 1, 1881, in
Anita, Iowa
Anita is a city in Cass County, Iowa, United States, platted in 1869 and incorporated in 1875. The population was 963 at the 2020 census. Lake Anita State Park is located just outside the town.
History
A violent F5 tornado occurred just east o ...
. The family later relocated to
Rolfe, Iowa
Rolfe is a city in Pocahontas County, Iowa, United States. The population was 509 at the time of the 2020 census.
This city was named after the Englishman John Rolfe, who married Pocahontas in Jamestown, Virginia.
History
Rolfe was platted in 1 ...
, and finally, in 1887, to
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
. His father, a druggist and lover of music and poetry, had moved to California in search of a more healthful climate, but he died when Sherman was just 11. The family subsequently returned to New England.
Sherman entered
Williams College
Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...
in 1900, and he won prizes there in Latin, French and German, as well as becoming editor of the “Williams Literary Monthly.” He graduated with a Ph.D. in 1906 after writing his thesis on the 17th-century dramatist
John Ford
John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...
.
Upon graduation, Sherman became an instructor at
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
for one year before moving to the
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...
(UIUC). In 1908 he was offered a position of the staff of ''
The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...
'', to which he was a frequent contributor, but declined when UIUC made him an associate professor. He became a full professor in 1911 and permanent chairman of the UIUC English Department in 1914 where he built the department into one of the strongest in the Midwest. He was a natural teacher, noted for his sound scholarship, especially on the works of
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the celebrated headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, lite ...
, and for his passion for the living values of literature.
In April 1924, Sherman became editor of “Books,” the literary supplement to the
New York Herald Tribune
The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
, which became under his editorship the leading American critical journal of the day.
Sherman was initially an advocate of the "
Nativist" movement in American literature. The "Nativist" movement defended traditional modes of American literature (which it identified with
Anglo-Americans
Anglo-Americans are people who are English-speaking inhabitants of Anglo-America. It typically refers to the nations and ethnic groups in the Americas that speak English as a native language, making up the majority of people in the world who spe ...
) against
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 ...
, (which it identified with immigrants). Sherman's supporters in the "Nativist" controversy included
Brander Matthews
James Brander Matthews (February 21, 1852 – March 31, 1929) was an American academic, writer and literary critic. He was the first full-time professor of dramatic literature at Columbia University in New York and played a significant role in est ...
,
Gertrude Atherton
Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton (October 30, 1857 – June 14, 1948) was an American author. Paterson, Isabel, "Gertrude Atherton: A Personality"
The Bookman'', New York, February 1924, (pgs. 632-636) Many of her novels are set in her home sta ...
and John Farrar. Sherman was initially critical of the work of
Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm mora ...
, and argued Dreiser's
German-American
German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...
background hindered his ability to express "spiritual values".
[Newlin, Keith, ''A Theodore Dreiser Encyclopedia''. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2003. (p. 333)]
Controversy
With the entry of the United States into the
Great War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Sherman expressed what some deemed a chauvinistic patriotism in an address before the
National Council of Teachers of English
The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is a United States professional organization dedicated to "improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education. Since 1911, NCTE has provided a forum ...
on 1 December 1917, denouncing both the philosophy of
Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, Prose poetry, prose poet, cultural critic, Philology, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philo ...
and his American apologist,
Henry Louis Mencken
Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...
. This began a decade long, erudite, and witty feud between these literary titans. The next salvo from Sherman was an article in the October 1920 issue of ''
Bookman'', “Is There Anything to be Said for Literary Traditions?” where he attacked literary modernism. Interpreting the challenge to conventional morals by younger literary figures as moral relativism, Sherman defended traditional values, nationalism, and even Puritanism, a popular scapegoat of the time. As the decade of the 1920s unfolded, however, many argue that Sherman moved perceptibly to the left, eventually embracing modernism and confessing that he had erred in trying to make men good instead of happy. Sherman also changed his mind about the merits of Dreiser's work, and praised ''
An American Tragedy
''An American Tragedy'' is a 1925 novel by American writer Theodore Dreiser. He began the manuscript in the summer of 1920, but a year later abandoned most of that text. It was based on the notorious murder of Grace Brown in 1906 and the trial of ...
'' for what he regarded as its "masterly exhaustiveness" of character development.
Personal life
In 1906, Sherman married Ruth Bartlet Mears, daughter of a chemistry professor at Williams, and the couple had a son. Sherman was on vacation with his wife on
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...
when he suffered a fatal heart attack after an accident overturned his canoe. He died on August 21, 1926, at age 44. He is buried in Manchester, Vermont.
Published works
English Readings for Schools.
"A Book of Short Stories"
Stuart P. Sherman Professor of English in the University of Illinois.
General Editor Wilbur Lucius Cross Professor of English in Yale Univsrsity.
Henry Holt and Company New York 1914.
*Introduction to an edition of
John Ford (dramatist)
John Ford (1586c. 1639) was an English playwright and poet of the Jacobean and Caroline eras born in Ilsington in Devon, England. His plays deal mainly with the conflict between passion and conscience. Although remembered primarily as a playw ...
’s “
'Tis Pity She's a Whore
''Tis Pity She's a Whore'' (original spelling: ''Tis Pitty Shee's a Who'' 'ore'') is a tragedy written by John Ford. It was first performed or between 1629 and 1633, by Queen Henrietta's Men at the Cockpit Theatre. The play was first publis ...
” / “
The Broken Heart
''The Broken Heart'' is a Caroline era tragedy written by John Ford, and first published in 1633. "The play has long vied with Tis Pity She's a Whore'' as Ford's greatest work...the supreme reach of his genius...." The date of the play's authorshi ...
.” Boston, London, D.C. Heath & Co., 1915
*"
Matthew Arnold: How to Know Him,” 1917.
*"
On Contemporary Literature," New York, Holt, 1917.
*"
Americans
Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many Multi ...
,” New York, C. Scribner’s sons, 1922.
*"
The Genius of America,” New York, London, C. Scribner’s sons, 1923.
*"Points of View,” New York, Scribner’s, 1924.
*"
Joyous things: or, Forty and upwards: an essay," New York: Hampden Hills Press, 1925.
*"
Critical Woodcuts," illustrated with portraits engraved on wood by Bertrand Zadig, New York, London, C. Scribner’s Sons, 1926.
*"The Emotional Discovery of America and Other Essays," New York, Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1932.
References
* George E. DeMille, "Stuart P. Sherman: The Illinois Arnold," ''The Sewanee Review'', Vol. 35, No., 1 (January 1927), 78–93.
* Jacob Zeitlin and Homer Woodbridge, ''Life and Letters of Stuart P. Sherman''. 2 Volumes. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1929.
* “Stuart Pratt Sherman” in ''
Dictionary of American Biography
The ''Dictionary of American Biography'' was published in New York City by Charles Scribner's Sons under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).
History
The dictionary was first proposed to the Council in 1920 by h ...
'', Charles Scribner’s Sons, N.Y.C., 1936, article by Earnest Southerland Bates.
External links
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*
*
Stuart Sherman papers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherman, Stuart
American literary critics
Williams College alumni
1881 births
1926 deaths
Northwestern University faculty
University of Illinois faculty
New York Herald Tribune people
People from Cass County, Iowa