F. O. Matthiessen
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Francis Otto Matthiessen (February 19, 1902 – April 1, 1950) was an educator, scholar and literary critic influential in the fields of American literature and
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. Schol ...
. His best known work, ''American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman'', celebrated the achievements of several 19th-century American authors and had a profound impact on a generation of scholars. It also established
American Renaissance The American Renaissance was a period of American architecture and the arts from 1876 to 1917, characterized by renewed national self-confidence and a feeling that the United States was the heir to Greek democracy, Roman law, and Renaissance ...
as the common term to refer to American literature of the mid-nineteenth century. Matthiessen was known for his support of liberal causes and progressive politics. His contributions to the
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 ...
community have been memorialized in several ways, including an endowed visiting professorship.


Early life and education

Francis Otto Matthiessen was born in Pasadena, California on February 19, 1902. He was the fourth of four children born to Frederick William Matthiessen (1868–1948) and Lucy Orne Pratt (1866). His grandfather, Frederick William Matthiessen, was an industrial leader in zinc production and a successful manufacturer of clocks and machine tools; and also served as mayor of LaSalle,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...
for ten years. Francis' three older siblings were Frederick William (born 1894), George Dwight (born 1897) and Lucy Orne (born 1898). In Pasadena Francis was a student at
Polytechnic School Polytechnic School, often referred to simply as Poly, is a college preparatory private day school located in Pasadena, California with approximately 850 students enrolled in grades Kindergarten through 12. The school is a former member of the ...
. Following the separation of his parents, he relocated with his mother to his paternal grandparents' home in LaSalle. He completed his secondary education at
Hackley School Hackley School is a private college preparatory school located in Tarrytown, New York, and is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League. Founded in 1899 by a wealthy philanthropist, Frances Hackley, Hackley was intended to be a Unitarian al ...
, in
Tarrytown, New York Tarrytown is a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, approximately north of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by a stop on the Metro-North ...
. In 1923, he graduated from
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
, where he was managing editor of the '' Yale Daily News'', editor of the ''
Yale Literary Magazine The ''Yale Literary Magazine'', founded in 1836, is the oldest student literary magazine in the United States and publishes poetry, fiction, and visual art by Yale undergraduates twice per academic year. Notable alumni featured in the magazine whi ...
'' and a member of
Skull and Bones Skull and Bones, also known as The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death, is an undergraduate senior secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The oldest senior class society at the university, Skull and Bone ...
. As the recipient of the university's DeForest Prize, he titled his oration, "Servants of the Devil", in which he proclaimed Yale's administration to be an "autocracy, ruled by a Corporation out of touch with college life and allied with big business". In his final year as a Yale undergraduate, he received the
Alpheus Henry Snow Alpheus Henry Snow (November 8, 1859 – August 19, 1920) was an American lawyer and scholarly investigator in the field of international law. Biography Snow was born in Claremont, New Hampshire, where he was a student at the Stevens High School ...
Prize, awarded to the senior "who through the combination of intellectual achievement, character and personality, shall be adjudged by the faculty to have done the most for Yale by inspiring in classmates an admiration and love for the best traditions of high scholarship". He studied at
Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...
as a Rhodes Scholar, earning a B.Litt. in 1925. At Harvard University, he quickly completed his M.A. in 1926 and Ph.D. degree in 1927. He then returned to Yale to teach for two years, before beginning a distinguished teaching career at Harvard.


Scholarly work

Matthiessen was an American studies scholar and literary critic at Harvard University, and chaired its undergraduate program in history and literature. He wrote and edited landmark works of scholarship on T. S. Eliot,
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 ...
, the James family (
Alice James Alice James (August 7, 1848 – March 6, 1892) was an American diarist, sister of novelist Henry James and philosopher and psychologist William James. Her relationship with William was unusually close, and she seems to have been badly affec ...
,
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 ...
, Henry James Sr., and
William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...
),
Sarah Orne Jewett Theodora Sarah Orne Jewett (September 3, 1849 – June 24, 1909) was an American novelist, short story writer and poet, best known for her local color works set along or near the southern coast of Maine. Jewett is recognized as an important ...
,
Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was ...
,
Herman Melville Herman Melville ( born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are ''Moby-Dick'' (1851); ''Typee'' (1846), a rom ...
, Henry David Thoreau, 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 ...
. His best-known book, ''American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman'' (1941), discusses the flowering of literary culture in the middle of the American 19th century, with Emerson, Thoreau, Melville, Whitman and
Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...
. Its focus was the period roughly from 1850 to 1855 in which all these writers but Emerson published what would, by Matthiessen's time, come to be thought of as their masterpieces: Melville's ''
Moby-Dick ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship ''Pequod'', for revenge against Moby Dick, the giant whi ...
'', multiple editions of Whitman's ''
Leaves of Grass ''Leaves of Grass'' is a poetry collection by American poet Walt Whitman. Though it was first published in 1855, Whitman spent most of his professional life writing and rewriting ''Leaves of Grass'', revising it multiple times until his death. T ...
'', Hawthorne's ''
The Scarlet Letter ''The Scarlet Letter: A Romance'' is a work of historical fiction by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850. Set in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649, the novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, ...
'' and ''
The House of the Seven Gables ''The House of the Seven Gables: A Romance'' is a Gothic novel written beginning in mid-1850 by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne and published in April 1851 by Ticknor and Fields of Boston. The novel follows a New England family and their anc ...
'', and Thoreau's ''
Walden ''Walden'' (; first published in 1854 as ''Walden; or, Life in the Woods'') is a book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part ...
''. The mid-19th century in American literature is commonly called the
American Renaissance The American Renaissance was a period of American architecture and the arts from 1876 to 1917, characterized by renewed national self-confidence and a feeling that the United States was the heir to Greek democracy, Roman law, and Renaissance ...
because of the influence of this work on later literary history and criticism. In 2003 ''
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'' said that the book "virtually created the field of American literature." Originally Matthiessen planned to include
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...
in the book, but found that Poe did not fit in the scheme of the book. He wrote the chapter on Poe for the ''Literary History of the United States'' (''LHUS'', 1948), but "some of the editors missed the usual Matthiessen touch of brilliance and subtlety." Kermit Vanderbilt suggests that because Matthiessen was "not able to pull together the related strands" between Poe and the writers of ''American Renaissance'', the chapter is "markedly old-fashioned." Matthiessen edited ''The Oxford Book of American Verse'', published in 1950, an anthology of American poetry of major importance which contributed significantly to the propagation of American modernist poetry in the 1950s and 1960s. Matthiessen was one of earliest scholars associated with the
Salzburg Global 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 July 1947, he gave the inaugural lecture, stating:
Our age has had no escape from an awareness of history. Much of that history has been hard and full of suffering. But now we have the luxury of an historical awareness of another sort, of an occasion not of anxiety but of promise. We may speak without exaggeration of this occasion as historic, since we have come here to enact anew the chief function of culture and humanism, to bring man again into communication with man.
Along with John Crowe Ransom and Lionel Trilling, in 1948, Matthiessen was one of the founders of the Kenyon School of English.


Politics

Matthiessen's politics were
left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
and
socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
. Already financially secure, he donated an inheritance he received in the late 1940s to his friend, Marxist economist
Paul Sweezy Paul Marlor Sweezy (April 10, 1910 – February 27, 2004) was a Marxist economist, political activist, publisher, and founding editor of the long-running magazine ''Monthly Review''. He is best remembered for his contributions to economic theory ...
. Sweezy used the money, totalling almost $15,000, to found a new journal, which became the '' Monthly Review''. On the Harvard campus, Matthiessen was a visible and active supporter of progressive causes. In May 1940 he was elected president of the Harvard Teachers Union, an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor. ''
The Harvard Crimson ''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper of Harvard University and was founded in 1873. Run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, it served for many years as the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beginning in the f ...
'' reported his inaugural address in which Matthiessen quoted the campus union's constitution: "In affiliating with the organized labor movement, we express our desire to contribute to and receive support from this powerful progressive force; to reduce the segregation of teachers from the rest of the workers ...and increase thereby the sense of common purpose among them; and in particular to cooperate in this field in the advancement of education and resistance to all reaction." Matthiessen seconded the nomination of the
Progressive Party Progressive Party may refer to: Active parties * Progressive Party, Brazil * Progressive Party (Chile) * Progressive Party of Working People, Cyprus * Dominica Progressive Party * Progressive Party (Iceland) * Progressive Party (Sardinia), Ita ...
presidential candidate, Henry Wallace, at the party's convention in Philadelphia in 1948. Reflective of the emerging McCarthyism surveillance of left-wing university academics, he was mentioned as an activist in Boston area so-called "Communist front groups" by
Herbert Philbrick Herbert Arthur Philbrick (May 11, 1915 – August 16, 1993) was a Boston-area advertising executive who was encouraged by the FBI to infiltrate the Communist Party USA between 1940 and 1949. His autobiography was the basis for the 1950s television ...
.


Personal life

Matthiessen was known to his friends as "Matty". As a gay man in the 1930s and 1940s, he chose to remain in
the closet ''Closeted'' and ''in the closet'' are metaphors for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and other (LGBTQ+) people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and human ...
throughout his professional career, if not in his personal life – although traces of
homoerotic Homoeroticism is sexual attraction between members of the same sex, either male–male or female–female. The concept differs from the concept of homosexuality: it refers specifically to the desire itself, which can be temporary, whereas "homose ...
concern are apparent in his writings. In 2009, a statement from Harvard University said that Matthiessen "stands out as an unusual example of a gay man who lived his sexuality as an 'open secret' in the mid-20th century." He had a two-decade-long romantic relationship with the painter
Russell Cheney Russell Cheney (October 16, 1881 – July 12, 1945) was an American Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and New England regionalist painter. Early life and education The youngest of eleven children, Cheney was born in Manchester, Connecticut, ...
, twenty years his senior. Like Matthiessen's family, Cheney's was prominent in business, being among America's leading silk producers. In a 1925 letter to Cheney, Matthiessen wrote about trusting friends with the knowledge of their relationship, rather than the world at large; in planning to spend his life with Cheney, Matthiessen went as far as asking his cohort in the Yale secret society Skull and Bones to approve of their partnership.Levin, Harry.
The Private Life of F. O. Matthiessen
"
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25:12 (July 20, 1978), pp. 42–46 (abstract online; full text for subscribers only).
With Cheney having encouraged Matthiessen's interest in Whitman, it has been argued that ''American Renaissance'' was "the ultimate expression of Matthiessen's love for Cheney and a secret celebration of the gay artist." Throughout his teaching career at Harvard, Matthiessen maintained a residence in either Cambridge or Boston. However, the couple often retreated to their shared cottage in
Kittery, Maine Kittery is a town in York County, Maine, United States. Home to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island, Kittery includes Badger's Island, the seaside district of Kittery Point, and part of the Isles of Shoals. The southernmost town i ...
. Russell Cheney died in July 1945.


Death

Matthiessen committed suicide in 1950 by jumping from a 12th floor window of the
Hotel Manger The Hotel Manger (pronounced Mang-er as in hangar), renamed the Hotel Madison in 1959, was a hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, that operated from 1930 to 1976. It was attached to North Station and the Boston Garden. In 1983, the buil ...
in Boston. He had been hospitalized once for a nervous breakdown in 1938–39. He also continued to be deeply affected by Russell Cheney's death. He spent the evening before his death at the home of his friend and colleague, Kenneth Murdock, Harvard's Higginson Professor of English Literature. In a note left in the hotel room, Matthiessen wrote, "I am depressed over world conditions. I am a Christian and a Socialist. I am against any order which interferes with that objective." Commentators have speculated on the impact of the escalating Red Scare on his state of mind. He was being targeted by anti-communist forces that would soon be exploited by
Senator Joseph McCarthy Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visi ...
, and inquiries by the House Un-American Activities Committee into his politics may have been a contributing factor in his suicide. In an article subsection titled "Dupes and Fellow Travelers Dress Up Communist Fronts" in the April 4, 1949 edition of ''
Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...
'' magazine, he had been pictured among fifty prominent academics, scientists, clergy and writers, who also included
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
,
Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are ''All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...
,
Lillian Hellman Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright, prose writer, memoirist and screenwriter known for her success on Broadway, as well as her communist sympathies and political activism. She was blacklisted aft ...
, Langston Hughes, Norman Mailer and fellow Harvard professors, Kirtley Mather,
Corliss Lamont Corliss Lamont (March 28, 1902 – April 26, 1995) was an American socialist and humanist philosopher and advocate of various left-wing and civil liberties causes. As a part of his political activities, he was the Chairman of National Council ...
and Ralph Barton Perry. Writing in 1958, Eric Jacobsen referred to Matthiessen's death as "hastened by forces whose activities earned for themselves the sobriquet un-American which they sought so assiduously to fasten on others". However, in 1978,
Harry Levin Harry Tuchman Levin (July 18, 1912 – May 29, 1994) was an American literary critic and scholar of both modernism and comparative literature. Life and career Levin was born in Minneapolis, the son of Beatrice Hirshler (née Tuchman) and Isado ...
was more skeptical, saying only that "spokesmen for the
Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
, to which he had never belonged, loudly signalized his suicide as a political gesture". Matthiessen was buried at Springfield Cemetery in Springfield, Massachusetts.


Legacy

Matthiessen's contribution to the critical celebration of 19th-century American literature is considered formative and enduring. Along with several other scholars, he is regarded as a contributor to the creation of American studies as a recognized academic discipline. His personal story, academic contributions, political activism and early death had a lasting impact on a circle of scholars and writers. Their sense of loss and struggle to understand his suicide can be found in two novels with central figures inspired by Matthiessen,
May Sarton May Sarton was the pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton (May 3, 1912 – July 16, 1995), a Belgian-American poet, novelist and memoirist. Although her best work is strongly personalised with erotic female imagery, she resisted the label of ‘lesb ...
's ''Faithful are the Wounds'' (1955) and
Mark Merlis Mark Merlis (March 9, 1950 – August 15, 2017John William Ward was his student. His stature and legacy as a member of the Harvard community has been memorialized in several ways by the university. He was the first Senior Tutor at
Eliot House Eliot House is one of twelve undergraduate residential Houses at Harvard University. It is one of the seven original houses at the college. Opened in 1931, the house was named after Charles William Eliot, who served as president of the universi ...
, one of
Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
's undergraduate residential houses. Approaching seventy years after his death, Matthiessen's suite at Eliot House remains preserved as the ''F. O. Matthiessen Room'', housing personal manuscripts and 1700 volumes of his library available for scholarly research by permission. Eliot House also hosts an annual Matthiessen Dinner with a guest speaker. In 2009, Harvard established an endowed chair in
LGBT studies Queer studies, sexual diversity studies, or LGBT studies is the education of topics relating to sexual orientation and gender identity usually focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender dysphoria, asexual, queer, questioning, ...
called the F. O. Matthiessen Visiting Professorship of Gender and Sexuality. Believing the post to be "the first professorship of its kind in the country", Harvard President
Drew Faust Catharine Drew Gilpin Faust (born September 18, 1947) is an American historian and was the 28th president of Harvard University, the first woman to serve in that role. She was Harvard's first president since 1672 without an undergraduate or gradu ...
called it "an important milestone". It is funded by a $1.5 million gift from the members and supporters of the Harvard Gender and Sexuality Caucus. Holders of the chair have included: *2013: Henry D. Abelove *2014:
Gayle Rubin Gayle S. Rubin (born January 1, 1949 in South Carolina) is an American cultural anthropologist best known as an activist and theorist of sex and gender politics. She has written on a range of subjects including feminism, sadomasochism, prostitu ...
*2016: Robert Reid-Pharr * 2018: Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley *2020:
Mel Y. Chen Mel Y. Chen is an academic whose scholarship intersects many fields, including queer theory, gender studies, animal studies, critical race theory, Asian American studies, disability studies, science studies, and critical linguistics. Chen (who us ...
Several generations after Matthiessen's death, this visiting professorship reaffirms the university's appreciation for his continuing legacy as a storied scholar and teacher.


Bibliography

* ''Sarah Orne Jewett'', , Peter Smith, (1929) * ''Translation: An Elizabethan Art'', , (January 1931) * ''The Achievement of T. S. Eliot: An Essay on the Nature of Poetry'', Oxford University Press (1935) * ''American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman'', , Oxford University Press (1941) (also available in many other editions) * ''Herman Melville: Selected Poems'', edited, New Directions (1944) * ''Henry James: The Major Phase'', , Oxford University Press (June 1944) * ''Russell Cheney, 1881–1945: A Record of His Work'', Oxford University Press (1947) * ''The
Notebooks of Henry James The ''Notebooks of Henry James'' are private notes made by the American-British novelist and critic. Usually the notes are of a professional nature and concern ideas for possible or ongoing fictions, but there are a number of personal notes ...
'', edited by F. O. Matthiessen and Kenneth B. Murdock, (first edition 1947) , University of Chicago Press (1981) * ''From the Heart of Europe'', Oxford University Press (1948) * ''The Education of a Socialist'', Monthly Review, Vol 2 No 6, October 1950 (posthumous) * ''Of Crime and Punishment'', Monthly Review, Vol 2 No 6, October 1950 (posthumous) * ''The Oxford Book of American Verse'', , Oxford University Press (December 1950) * ''Responsibilities of the Critic'', , Oxford University Press (posthumous - 1952) * ''The James Family: A Group Biography'', , Alfred A. Knopf (1947, posthumous - 1961) * ''To the Memory of Phelps Putnam'', essay in ''The Collected Poems of H. Phelps Putnam'', , Farrar, Straus, and Giroux (posthumous - 1971)


Footnotes


Further reading

* Monthly Review, Vol 2 No 6, October 1950, entire edition dedicated to FOM with two essays by FOM and essays and statements by friends and scholars including Leo Marx, Paul Sweezy, Alfred Kazin, Corliss Lamont, Kenneth Murdock, May Sarton and Richard Wilbur * Arac, Jonathan. "F. O. Matthiessen: Authorizing an American Renaissance." ''The American Renaissance Reconsidered''. Eds. Walter Benn Michaels and Donald Pease. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1985. * Hyde, Louis, ed. ''Rat and the Devil: Journal Letters of F. O. Matthiessen and Russell Cheney''. Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books, 1978. ; . * Leverenz, L. David. ''Manhood and the American Renaissance''. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1989. * Levin, Harry.
The Private Life of F. O. Matthiessen
"
New York Review of Books New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...
25:12 (July 20, 1978), pp. 42–46 (abstract online; full text for subscribers only). * Marcus, Greil. ''The Old Weird America'' New York: Henry Holt (Picador), pp. 90, 124 * * Reynolds, David. ''Beneath the American Renaissance: The Subversive Imagination in the Age of Emerson and Melville''. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1988. * Spark, Clare, YDS: The Clare Spark Blog, December 29, 2010 * Stern, Frederick C., ''F. O. Matthiessen - Christian Socialist as Critic''. Chapel Hill, North Carolina : University of North Carolina Press, 1981. * Sundquist, Eric J. ''To Wake the Nations: Race and the Making of American Literature''. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1993. * Toibin, Colm. "Love in a Dark Time". New York, Scribner, 2004. * Ward, John William 1955.''Andrew Jackson, Symbol for an Age''. 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, John William 1969 ''Red, White, and Blue: Men, Books, and Ideas in American Culture'' . New York: Oxford University Press


External links

*
Gayle Rubin's faculty page at the University of Michigan's website
Retrieved November 25, 2013
Henry Abelove's faculty page at Wesleyan University's website
Retrieved April 4, 2012 *, ''reflections on Matthiessen from 11:48 through 19:10 minutes'', YouTube, Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Retrieved March 22, 2013 * F. O. Matthiessen Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Matthiessen, F. O. 1902 births 1950 suicides 20th-century American historians American Christian socialists American literary critics American literary historians American Rhodes Scholars Burials in Massachusetts American gay writers Harvard University alumni Harvard University faculty Historians of the United States Journalists from Illinois LGBT Christians LGBT historians LGBT people from California LGBT people from Illinois LGBT people from Massachusetts LGBT people from New York (state) LGBT studies academics People from LaSalle, Illinois People from Tarrytown, New York Suicides by jumping in the United States Suicides in Massachusetts Writers from Boston Writers from Pasadena, California Yale University alumni 20th-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers Historians from Massachusetts Historians from New York (state) Historians from Illinois Hackley School alumni Gay academics American studies scholars 20th-century American journalists American male journalists Historians from California