Joseph Wood Krutch (; November 25, 1893 – May 22, 1970) was an American author, critic, and naturalist who wrote nature books on the American Southwest. He is known for developing a

pantheistic Pantheism is the belief that reality, the universe and the cosmos are identical with divinity and a supreme supernatural being or entity, pointing to the universe as being an immanent creator deity still expanding and creating, which has ...

philosophy.

Biography

Born in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the stat ...

, he was educated at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th sta ...

and received a Ph.D. in English literature from

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 ...

. After serving in the

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

in 1918, he traveled in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

for a year with his friend,

Mark Van Doren Mark Van Doren (June 13, 1894 – December 10, 1972) was an American poet, writer and critic. He was a scholar and a professor of English at Columbia University for nearly 40 years, where he inspired a generation of influential writers and thi ...

. Following World War I, he taught English composition at

Brooklyn Polytechnic The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United Sta ...

.Joseph Wood Krutch, ''More Lives than One''. New York: William Sloane Associates, 1962. In 1924, Krutch became the theater critic for ''

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 t ...

,'' a position he held until 1952. As an author, Krutch first achieved prominence when he published ''The Modern Temper'' in 1929. There he challenged then-fashionable notions of scientific progress and optimism, arguing that science leads logically to a bleak view of the human condition. In the 1940s he wrote widely read biographies of

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

and

Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and h ...

and—largely inspired by Thoreau—published his first nature book, ''The Twelve Seasons'' (1949). From 1937 to 1952, he served as a professor of English at

, where he was a popular lecturer. In 1955, Krutch won the National Book Award for ''The Measure of Man'' (1954). In that work, he partially retreated from the gloomy pessimism of his early years and argued that there are aspects of human beings, such as reason, consciousness, free will, and moral judgment, that cannot be explained by mechanistic, deterministic science. After moving to

Tucson , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

in 1952, partly for reasons of health, Krutch wrote several books about natural issues of

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...

, the southwestern desert environment, and the natural history of the

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a m ...

, winning renown as a naturalist, nature writer, and an early conservationist. Like

Aldo Leopold Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 – April 21, 1948) was an American writer, philosopher, naturalist, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his ...

, who greatly influenced him, Krutch believed that human beings must move beyond purely human centered conceptions of "

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and manageme ...

" and learn to value nature for its own sake. In ''The Great Chain of Life'' that he published in 1956, was a chapter entitled "The Vandal and the Sportsman". In that chapter he wrote, ''"When a man wantonly destroys one of the works of Man we call him Vandal. When he wantonly destroys one of the works of God we call him Sportsman"''. Krutch developed a pantheistic philosophy. Historian

Donald Worster Donald Worster (born 1941) is an American environmental historian who was, until his retirement, the Hall Distinguished Professor of American History at the University of Kansas. He is one of the founders of, and leading figures in, the field of ...

commented that Krutch "became a kind of pantheist or ethical mystic, caught up in the joy of belonging to something greater than one's self."

Notable family members

His brother,

Charles Krutch Charles Krutch (1887 – October 27, 1981) was a photographer in Tennessee. He was nicknamed the Corot of the South (Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot) for his soft color work. His work is in a collection at the Museum of Modern Art. Krutch was born in ...

, was the renowned Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) photographer. His uncle,

Charles Christopher Krutch Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

, was a painter known for his depiction of Smoky Mountain scenes.

Death

At the age of 76, Krutch died from

colon cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowe ...

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

on May 22, 1970. One of the last interviews with Krutch before his death was conducted by

Edward Abbey Edward Paul Abbey (January 29, 1927 – March 14, 1989) was an American author, essayist, and environmental activist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues and criticism of public land policies. His best-known works include '' Desert S ...

and appears in Abbey's 1988 book, ''One Life at a Time, Please'' ().

Legacy

Many of Krutch's manuscripts and typescripts are held by the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first ...

, where the Joseph Wood Krutch Cactus Garden was named in his honor in 1980. Upon his death, ''The New York Times'' lauded Krutch in an editorial, declaring that concern for the environment by many young Americans "should turn a generation unfamiliar with Joseph Wood Krutch to a reading of his books with delight to themselves and profit to the world."

Selected works

* ''Edgar Allan Poe: A Study in Genius'' (1926) * ''The Modern Temper'' (1929) * ''Experience and Art: Some Aspects of the Esthetics of Literature'' (1932) * ''The American Drama Since 1918: An Informal History'' (1939) * ''Samuel Johnson: A Biography'' (1944) * ''Henry David Thoreau'' (1948) * ''The Twelve Seasons'' (1949) * ''A Kind of Pantheism'' '' The Saturday Review'' (10 June 1950) 33: 7–8, 30–34 * ''The Desert Year'' (1951) * ''The Best of Two Worlds'' (1953) * ''The Measure of Man'' (1954) * ''The Voice of the Desert'' (1954) * ''The Great Chain of Life'' (1956) * ''The Grand Canyon: Today and All Its Yesterdays'' (1957) * ''The Sportsman or the Predator? A Damnable Pleasure'' '' The Saturday Review'' (August 17, 1957): pp. 8–10, 39–40. Concerning "killing for sport"Article title detail at JSTOR.
Found at Google search "a damnable pleasure krutch." * ''Human Nature and the Human Condition'' (1959) * ''The Forgotten Peninsula'' (1961) * ''The World of Animals; A treasury of lore and literature by great writers and naturalists from the 5th century B.C. to the present'' (1961) * ''More Lives Than One'' (1962) * ''And Even If You Do; Essays on Man, Manners, and Machines'' (1967) * ''The Best Nature Writing of Joseph Wood Krutch'' (anthology, University of Utah Press, 1995; )

References

External links

* *
Finding aid to Joseph Wood Krutch papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krutch, Joseph Wood 1893 births 1970 deaths 20th-century American biographers 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers American environmentalists American male non-fiction writers American nature writers American naturalists American technology writers American theater critics Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Columbia University faculty Deaths from cancer in Arizona Grand Canyon history John Burroughs Medal recipients National Book Award winners Pantheists People from Knoxville, Tennessee Polytechnic Institute of New York University faculty University of Tennessee alumni Writers from Tucson, Arizona 20th-century naturalists Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters