Thomas Middleton Raysor (March 9, 1895–September 8, 1974) was an American literary scholar.

Life

Raysor was born at

Chapel Hill Chapel Hill or Chapelhill may refer to: Places Antarctica *Chapel Hill (Antarctica) Australia * Chapel Hill, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane * Chapel Hill, South Australia, in the Mount Barker council area Canada *Chapel Hill, Ottawa, a neighbo ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, the son of Paul Montgomery Raysor and his wife Mary Matthews. He was

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

in 1914, and he received a B.A. degree 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 high ...

in 1917, followed by an M.A. 1920 and a Ph.D. in 1922.

Bernard DeVoto Bernard Augustine DeVoto (January 11, 1897 – November 13, 1955) was an American historian, conservationist, essayist, columnist, teacher, editor, and reviewer. He was the author of a series of Pulitzer-Prize-winning popular histories of the Ame ...

was a friend from his time at Harvard. Raysor joined the Army in 1918. In Europe for a year, he studied S. T. Coleridge, returning to a position at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

. Then at the

State College of Washington Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant univer ...

from 1924, he held a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

, awarded in 1926. From 1930 Raysor was Chairman of the English Department at the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

. His scholarly views led him to value solely textual research on major authors, and he clashed with

Louise Pound Louise Pound (June 30, 1872 – June 28, 1958) was an American folklorist, linguist, and college professor at the University of Nebraska. In 1955, Pound was the first woman elected president of the Modern Language Association, and in the same y ...

of the university over a study of

Helen Hunt Jackson Helen Hunt Jackson (pen name, H.H.; born Helen Maria Fiske; October 15, 1830 – August 12, 1885) was an American poet and writer who became an activist on behalf of improved treatment of Native Americans by the United States government. She de ...

, by Ruth Odell. Regarded as an

Anglophile An Anglophile is a person who admires or loves England, its people, its culture, its language, and/or its various accents. Etymology The word is derived from the Latin word '' Anglii'' and Ancient Greek word φίλος ''philos'', meaning "frie ...

, he attacked in 1941 the isolationism of the

America First Committee The America First Committee (AFC) was the foremost United States isolationist pressure group against American entry into World War II. Launched in September 1940, it surpassed 800,000 members in 450 chapters at its peak. The AFC principally supp ...

, and with others petitioned the federal government on assistance for the United Kingdom.

Legacy

Raysor's papers are held by the library of the

University of California Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the Un ...

Works

*''Coleridge's Shakespearean Criticism'' (1930) editor *''Coleridge's Miscellaneous Criticism'' (1936) editor *''The English Romantic Poets: a Review of Research'' (1950) editor *''Selected Critical Essays of Wordsworth and Coleridge''

Family

Raysor married Ellen Devereux Koopman, at

Cohasset, Massachusetts Cohasset is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was 8,381. History Cohasset was inhabited for thousands of years by Native Americans prior to European colonization, from whom English c ...

on July 5, 1923; they had two daughters. In later life they moved to

Goleta, California Goleta (; ; Spanish for "Schooner") is a city in southern Santa Barbara County, California, United States. It was incorporated as a city in 2002, after a long period as the largest unincorporated populated area in the county. As of the 2000 ce ...

Notes

External links

Biography on freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.comOnline Books page
1895 births 1974 deaths Harvard University alumni University of Minnesota faculty Shakespearean scholars University of Nebraska–Lincoln faculty Washington State University faculty {{US-English-academic-bio-stub