Meyer H. Abrams;
(July 23, 1912 – April 21, 2015)
Meyer Howard Abrams, Ph.D. 102, of 378 Savage Farm Drive, Ithaca, County, New York died Tuesday April 21, 2015 at Kendal at Ithaca. Arrangements are pending and will be announced.
Ithaca, N.Y. — We learn sad news today: M.H. Abrams, one of the most distinguished professors in the history of Cornell, has died. He was 102 years old.
He is usually cited as M. H. Abrams, was an American literary critic, known for works on Romanticism, in particular his book The Mirror and the Lamp. Under Abrams' editorship, the Norton Anthology of English Literature became and is the standard text for undergraduate survey courses across the U.S. and a major trendsetter in worldwide literary canon formation.
1953, “The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition” was greeted as an instant classic. With fluid ease, Professor Abrams distilled the arguments of philosophers and critics from ancient Greece onward as he delineated a radical shift in aesthetics in the early 19th century, set in motion by poets like Wordsworth and Coleridge.
“The Mirror and the Lamp” won the Christian Gauss Award, awarded by Phi Beta Kappa, in 1954. In 1957, 25o critics and scholars surveyed by Columbia University voted it one of the five books of the previous 30 years that had contributed most to the understanding of literature. The other four were “The Great Chain of Being,” by Arthur Lovejoy, “The Allegory of Love,” by C. S. Lewis, “American Renaissance,” by F. O. Matthiessen, and the collected essays of T. S. Eliot.
Abrams taught English at Cornell for 67 years, founded the Norton Anthology of English Literature and was honored in July 2014 at the White House.
“As a scholar, writer and critic, Dr. Abrams has expanded our perception of the romantic tradition and explored the modern concept of artistic self-expression in Western culture, influencing and inspiring generations of students,” President Barack Hussein Obama , Junior said.
He attended Harvard, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English in 1934. His senior thesis, devoted to the Romantics, was published the same year by Harvard University Press as “The Milk of Paradise: The Effect of Opium Visions on the Works of De Quincey, Crabbe, Francis Thompson and Coleridge.”
After studying at Cambridge, England with the literary critic I. A. Richards, Professor Abrams returned to Harvard, where he received a master’s degree in 1937 and a Ph.D. in 1940.
In 1937 he married Ruth Gaynes, who died in 2008.
In World War Two, he worked at the psychoacoustics laboratory at Harvard, developing military codes that could be easily understood against a background noise of engines and gunfire. He was offered a teaching position at Cornell in 1945 and remained there until his retirement in 1983. His notable students included the novelist Thomas Pynchon and the critic and educational theorist E. D. Hirsch Junior.
Although he considered “Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature” (1971) his most important book, it was published in a very different critical climate than “The Mirror and the Lamp” was. Using key texts by Wordsworth as his starting point, Professor Abrams examined the works of German philosophers and English poets to document the transformation of traditional Judeo-Christian religious ideas into poetic theory in the Romantic period, when art was called upon to perform many of the spiritual functions of religion.
The champions of poststructuralism, which was gaining ground rapidly in the academy, regarded Professor Abrams as almost painfully old-fashioned, and he found himself squaring off against critics, notably J. Hillis Miller, who disputed the very premises upon which he approached the history of ideas. The book nevertheless remains a seminal text on the Romantic movement.
In addition to “A Glossary of Literary Terms” (1957), a standard work for undergraduates that has gone through many editions, Professor Abrams wrote “The Correspondent Breeze: Essays on English Romanticism” (1984) and “Doing Things With Texts: Essays in Criticism and Critical Theory” (1989). He edited “The Poetry of Pope” (1954), “Literature and Belief” (1957) “English Romantic Poets: Modern Essays in Criticism” (1960) and “Wordsworth: A Collection of Critical Essays” (1972).
In 2012, his one hundredth year, Norton published his essay collection “The Fourth Dimension of a Poem.”
The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded Professor Abrams the National Humanities Medal in 2013 “for expanding our perceptions of the Romantic tradition and broadening the study of literature.”
....
...
..
.
Bio;
By Jonathan Robert De Mallie, Historian∼M.H. "Mike" Abrams, Age 103, Professor emeritus of English at Cornell University, died April 21, 2015 at Kendal (Senior Living Community) at Ithaca, New York.
Abrams was born July 23, 1912 in Long Branch, New Jersey. He was the son of Jewish immigrants from western Russia and Poland. His father was a housepainter who became a contractor and then opened a paint and wallpaper store. The family lived across the street from the local library. Abrams love of literature started in early childhood when he would cross the street each day to take out three library books which he finished by the end of that day. He continued to read several books a week up to the age of 100. He remembered in remarkable detail books that he had read throughout his life.
Long Branch had an excellent school system and Abrams was encouraged by a high school teacher to apply to Harvard. He was always a brilliant student and did not lack self esteem. After completing his freshman year at Harvard he offered his services as a tutor with a business card that read "MH Abrams, Harvard University Tutoring in all Subjects." He went on to earn his A.B, Master's and PhD degrees from Harvard, teaching there & at Radcliffe College until coming to Cornell in 1945.
In 1937 he married Ruth Claire Gaynes, whom he had met in Long Branch during World War II. Mike and Ruth both worked at the Psychoacoustics Lab. at Harvard where they helped develop the joint Army-Navy phonetic alphabet, better known as the "Able Baker Charlie" code, which was used to improve military communications during combat.
He and Ruth moved to Ithaca in 1945 when he accepted a professorship apt at Cornell. He spent the rest of his career at the university where he taught generations of students, many of whom became influential writers and scholars. He was renowned world-wide as the founding general editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature and continued to serve as both the general editor and a contributor through the first 7 editions. His other best known works include "The Mirror and The Lamp (1953), which won numerous awards and was named No. 25 on the Modern Library's list of the top 100 works of non-fiction in the 20th century. Natural Supernaturalism Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature (1971); and multiple editions of the invaluable A Glossary of Literary Terms. His most recent book The Fourth Dimension of a Poem was published in honor of his 100th birthday in 2012.
While at Cornell Abrams was instrumental in founding the AD White Center for the Humanities, now The Society for The Humanities, as well as acquiring Wm. Wordsworth's Poetical Works & works by James Joyce & others for the Cornell Library.
Abrams received numerous awards during his lifetime including the National Humanities Medal presented by President Obama in a ceremony at the White House on July 28, 2014, 5 days after Abram's 102nd birthday.
In 1935, he traveled alone to Italy where he witnessed a speech by Mussolini and to Germany where he managed to smuggle diamonds back to the US to reach Jewish students whose parents were unable to leave Germany.
Abrams inspired people worldwide with his indomitable spirit. He will be missed immensely for his sunny optimism & good spirits, his wit and his humility.
Abrams was predeceased by his wife Ruth after 71 years of marriage.
There will be a memorial service at Kendal on Saturday, May 30th at 3:00 pm.
Published in Ithaca Journal on May 2, 2015
(July 23, 1912 – April 21, 2015)
Meyer Howard Abrams, Ph.D. 102, of 378 Savage Farm Drive, Ithaca, County, New York died Tuesday April 21, 2015 at Kendal at Ithaca. Arrangements are pending and will be announced.
Ithaca, N.Y. — We learn sad news today: M.H. Abrams, one of the most distinguished professors in the history of Cornell, has died. He was 102 years old.
He is usually cited as M. H. Abrams, was an American literary critic, known for works on Romanticism, in particular his book The Mirror and the Lamp. Under Abrams' editorship, the Norton Anthology of English Literature became and is the standard text for undergraduate survey courses across the U.S. and a major trendsetter in worldwide literary canon formation.
1953, “The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition” was greeted as an instant classic. With fluid ease, Professor Abrams distilled the arguments of philosophers and critics from ancient Greece onward as he delineated a radical shift in aesthetics in the early 19th century, set in motion by poets like Wordsworth and Coleridge.
“The Mirror and the Lamp” won the Christian Gauss Award, awarded by Phi Beta Kappa, in 1954. In 1957, 25o critics and scholars surveyed by Columbia University voted it one of the five books of the previous 30 years that had contributed most to the understanding of literature. The other four were “The Great Chain of Being,” by Arthur Lovejoy, “The Allegory of Love,” by C. S. Lewis, “American Renaissance,” by F. O. Matthiessen, and the collected essays of T. S. Eliot.
Abrams taught English at Cornell for 67 years, founded the Norton Anthology of English Literature and was honored in July 2014 at the White House.
“As a scholar, writer and critic, Dr. Abrams has expanded our perception of the romantic tradition and explored the modern concept of artistic self-expression in Western culture, influencing and inspiring generations of students,” President Barack Hussein Obama , Junior said.
He attended Harvard, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English in 1934. His senior thesis, devoted to the Romantics, was published the same year by Harvard University Press as “The Milk of Paradise: The Effect of Opium Visions on the Works of De Quincey, Crabbe, Francis Thompson and Coleridge.”
After studying at Cambridge, England with the literary critic I. A. Richards, Professor Abrams returned to Harvard, where he received a master’s degree in 1937 and a Ph.D. in 1940.
In 1937 he married Ruth Gaynes, who died in 2008.
In World War Two, he worked at the psychoacoustics laboratory at Harvard, developing military codes that could be easily understood against a background noise of engines and gunfire. He was offered a teaching position at Cornell in 1945 and remained there until his retirement in 1983. His notable students included the novelist Thomas Pynchon and the critic and educational theorist E. D. Hirsch Junior.
Although he considered “Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature” (1971) his most important book, it was published in a very different critical climate than “The Mirror and the Lamp” was. Using key texts by Wordsworth as his starting point, Professor Abrams examined the works of German philosophers and English poets to document the transformation of traditional Judeo-Christian religious ideas into poetic theory in the Romantic period, when art was called upon to perform many of the spiritual functions of religion.
The champions of poststructuralism, which was gaining ground rapidly in the academy, regarded Professor Abrams as almost painfully old-fashioned, and he found himself squaring off against critics, notably J. Hillis Miller, who disputed the very premises upon which he approached the history of ideas. The book nevertheless remains a seminal text on the Romantic movement.
In addition to “A Glossary of Literary Terms” (1957), a standard work for undergraduates that has gone through many editions, Professor Abrams wrote “The Correspondent Breeze: Essays on English Romanticism” (1984) and “Doing Things With Texts: Essays in Criticism and Critical Theory” (1989). He edited “The Poetry of Pope” (1954), “Literature and Belief” (1957) “English Romantic Poets: Modern Essays in Criticism” (1960) and “Wordsworth: A Collection of Critical Essays” (1972).
In 2012, his one hundredth year, Norton published his essay collection “The Fourth Dimension of a Poem.”
The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded Professor Abrams the National Humanities Medal in 2013 “for expanding our perceptions of the Romantic tradition and broadening the study of literature.”
....
...
..
.
Bio;
By Jonathan Robert De Mallie, Historian∼M.H. "Mike" Abrams, Age 103, Professor emeritus of English at Cornell University, died April 21, 2015 at Kendal (Senior Living Community) at Ithaca, New York.
Abrams was born July 23, 1912 in Long Branch, New Jersey. He was the son of Jewish immigrants from western Russia and Poland. His father was a housepainter who became a contractor and then opened a paint and wallpaper store. The family lived across the street from the local library. Abrams love of literature started in early childhood when he would cross the street each day to take out three library books which he finished by the end of that day. He continued to read several books a week up to the age of 100. He remembered in remarkable detail books that he had read throughout his life.
Long Branch had an excellent school system and Abrams was encouraged by a high school teacher to apply to Harvard. He was always a brilliant student and did not lack self esteem. After completing his freshman year at Harvard he offered his services as a tutor with a business card that read "MH Abrams, Harvard University Tutoring in all Subjects." He went on to earn his A.B, Master's and PhD degrees from Harvard, teaching there & at Radcliffe College until coming to Cornell in 1945.
In 1937 he married Ruth Claire Gaynes, whom he had met in Long Branch during World War II. Mike and Ruth both worked at the Psychoacoustics Lab. at Harvard where they helped develop the joint Army-Navy phonetic alphabet, better known as the "Able Baker Charlie" code, which was used to improve military communications during combat.
He and Ruth moved to Ithaca in 1945 when he accepted a professorship apt at Cornell. He spent the rest of his career at the university where he taught generations of students, many of whom became influential writers and scholars. He was renowned world-wide as the founding general editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature and continued to serve as both the general editor and a contributor through the first 7 editions. His other best known works include "The Mirror and The Lamp (1953), which won numerous awards and was named No. 25 on the Modern Library's list of the top 100 works of non-fiction in the 20th century. Natural Supernaturalism Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature (1971); and multiple editions of the invaluable A Glossary of Literary Terms. His most recent book The Fourth Dimension of a Poem was published in honor of his 100th birthday in 2012.
While at Cornell Abrams was instrumental in founding the AD White Center for the Humanities, now The Society for The Humanities, as well as acquiring Wm. Wordsworth's Poetical Works & works by James Joyce & others for the Cornell Library.
Abrams received numerous awards during his lifetime including the National Humanities Medal presented by President Obama in a ceremony at the White House on July 28, 2014, 5 days after Abram's 102nd birthday.
In 1935, he traveled alone to Italy where he witnessed a speech by Mussolini and to Germany where he managed to smuggle diamonds back to the US to reach Jewish students whose parents were unable to leave Germany.
Abrams inspired people worldwide with his indomitable spirit. He will be missed immensely for his sunny optimism & good spirits, his wit and his humility.
Abrams was predeceased by his wife Ruth after 71 years of marriage.
There will be a memorial service at Kendal on Saturday, May 30th at 3:00 pm.
Published in Ithaca Journal on May 2, 2015
Meyer H. Abrams;
(July 23, 1912 – April 21, 2015)
Meyer Howard Abrams, Ph.D. 102, of 378 Savage Farm Drive, Ithaca, County, New York died Tuesday April 21, 2015 at Kendal at Ithaca. Arrangements are pending and will be announced.
Ithaca, N.Y. — We learn sad news today: M.H. Abrams, one of the most distinguished professors in the history of Cornell, has died. He was 102 years old.
He is usually cited as M. H. Abrams, was an American literary critic, known for works on Romanticism, in particular his book The Mirror and the Lamp. Under Abrams' editorship, the Norton Anthology of English Literature became and is the standard text for undergraduate survey courses across the U.S. and a major trendsetter in worldwide literary canon formation.
1953, “The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition” was greeted as an instant classic. With fluid ease, Professor Abrams distilled the arguments of philosophers and critics from ancient Greece onward as he delineated a radical shift in aesthetics in the early 19th century, set in motion by poets like Wordsworth and Coleridge.
“The Mirror and the Lamp” won the Christian Gauss Award, awarded by Phi Beta Kappa, in 1954. In 1957, 25o critics and scholars surveyed by Columbia University voted it one of the five books of the previous 30 years that had contributed most to the understanding of literature. The other four were “The Great Chain of Being,” by Arthur Lovejoy, “The Allegory of Love,” by C. S. Lewis, “American Renaissance,” by F. O. Matthiessen, and the collected essays of T. S. Eliot.
Abrams taught English at Cornell for 67 years, founded the Norton Anthology of English Literature and was honored in July 2014 at the White House.
“As a scholar, writer and critic, Dr. Abrams has expanded our perception of the romantic tradition and explored the modern concept of artistic self-expression in Western culture, influencing and inspiring generations of students,” President Barack Hussein Obama , Junior said.
He attended Harvard, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English in 1934. His senior thesis, devoted to the Romantics, was published the same year by Harvard University Press as “The Milk of Paradise: The Effect of Opium Visions on the Works of De Quincey, Crabbe, Francis Thompson and Coleridge.”
After studying at Cambridge, England with the literary critic I. A. Richards, Professor Abrams returned to Harvard, where he received a master’s degree in 1937 and a Ph.D. in 1940.
In 1937 he married Ruth Gaynes, who died in 2008.
In World War Two, he worked at the psychoacoustics laboratory at Harvard, developing military codes that could be easily understood against a background noise of engines and gunfire. He was offered a teaching position at Cornell in 1945 and remained there until his retirement in 1983. His notable students included the novelist Thomas Pynchon and the critic and educational theorist E. D. Hirsch Junior.
Although he considered “Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature” (1971) his most important book, it was published in a very different critical climate than “The Mirror and the Lamp” was. Using key texts by Wordsworth as his starting point, Professor Abrams examined the works of German philosophers and English poets to document the transformation of traditional Judeo-Christian religious ideas into poetic theory in the Romantic period, when art was called upon to perform many of the spiritual functions of religion.
The champions of poststructuralism, which was gaining ground rapidly in the academy, regarded Professor Abrams as almost painfully old-fashioned, and he found himself squaring off against critics, notably J. Hillis Miller, who disputed the very premises upon which he approached the history of ideas. The book nevertheless remains a seminal text on the Romantic movement.
In addition to “A Glossary of Literary Terms” (1957), a standard work for undergraduates that has gone through many editions, Professor Abrams wrote “The Correspondent Breeze: Essays on English Romanticism” (1984) and “Doing Things With Texts: Essays in Criticism and Critical Theory” (1989). He edited “The Poetry of Pope” (1954), “Literature and Belief” (1957) “English Romantic Poets: Modern Essays in Criticism” (1960) and “Wordsworth: A Collection of Critical Essays” (1972).
In 2012, his one hundredth year, Norton published his essay collection “The Fourth Dimension of a Poem.”
The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded Professor Abrams the National Humanities Medal in 2013 “for expanding our perceptions of the Romantic tradition and broadening the study of literature.”
....
...
..
.
Bio;
By Jonathan Robert De Mallie, Historian∼M.H. "Mike" Abrams, Age 103, Professor emeritus of English at Cornell University, died April 21, 2015 at Kendal (Senior Living Community) at Ithaca, New York.
Abrams was born July 23, 1912 in Long Branch, New Jersey. He was the son of Jewish immigrants from western Russia and Poland. His father was a housepainter who became a contractor and then opened a paint and wallpaper store. The family lived across the street from the local library. Abrams love of literature started in early childhood when he would cross the street each day to take out three library books which he finished by the end of that day. He continued to read several books a week up to the age of 100. He remembered in remarkable detail books that he had read throughout his life.
Long Branch had an excellent school system and Abrams was encouraged by a high school teacher to apply to Harvard. He was always a brilliant student and did not lack self esteem. After completing his freshman year at Harvard he offered his services as a tutor with a business card that read "MH Abrams, Harvard University Tutoring in all Subjects." He went on to earn his A.B, Master's and PhD degrees from Harvard, teaching there & at Radcliffe College until coming to Cornell in 1945.
In 1937 he married Ruth Claire Gaynes, whom he had met in Long Branch during World War II. Mike and Ruth both worked at the Psychoacoustics Lab. at Harvard where they helped develop the joint Army-Navy phonetic alphabet, better known as the "Able Baker Charlie" code, which was used to improve military communications during combat.
He and Ruth moved to Ithaca in 1945 when he accepted a professorship apt at Cornell. He spent the rest of his career at the university where he taught generations of students, many of whom became influential writers and scholars. He was renowned world-wide as the founding general editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature and continued to serve as both the general editor and a contributor through the first 7 editions. His other best known works include "The Mirror and The Lamp (1953), which won numerous awards and was named No. 25 on the Modern Library's list of the top 100 works of non-fiction in the 20th century. Natural Supernaturalism Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature (1971); and multiple editions of the invaluable A Glossary of Literary Terms. His most recent book The Fourth Dimension of a Poem was published in honor of his 100th birthday in 2012.
While at Cornell Abrams was instrumental in founding the AD White Center for the Humanities, now The Society for The Humanities, as well as acquiring Wm. Wordsworth's Poetical Works & works by James Joyce & others for the Cornell Library.
Abrams received numerous awards during his lifetime including the National Humanities Medal presented by President Obama in a ceremony at the White House on July 28, 2014, 5 days after Abram's 102nd birthday.
In 1935, he traveled alone to Italy where he witnessed a speech by Mussolini and to Germany where he managed to smuggle diamonds back to the US to reach Jewish students whose parents were unable to leave Germany.
Abrams inspired people worldwide with his indomitable spirit. He will be missed immensely for his sunny optimism & good spirits, his wit and his humility.
Abrams was predeceased by his wife Ruth after 71 years of marriage.
There will be a memorial service at Kendal on Saturday, May 30th at 3:00 pm.
Published in Ithaca Journal on May 2, 2015
(July 23, 1912 – April 21, 2015)
Meyer Howard Abrams, Ph.D. 102, of 378 Savage Farm Drive, Ithaca, County, New York died Tuesday April 21, 2015 at Kendal at Ithaca. Arrangements are pending and will be announced.
Ithaca, N.Y. — We learn sad news today: M.H. Abrams, one of the most distinguished professors in the history of Cornell, has died. He was 102 years old.
He is usually cited as M. H. Abrams, was an American literary critic, known for works on Romanticism, in particular his book The Mirror and the Lamp. Under Abrams' editorship, the Norton Anthology of English Literature became and is the standard text for undergraduate survey courses across the U.S. and a major trendsetter in worldwide literary canon formation.
1953, “The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition” was greeted as an instant classic. With fluid ease, Professor Abrams distilled the arguments of philosophers and critics from ancient Greece onward as he delineated a radical shift in aesthetics in the early 19th century, set in motion by poets like Wordsworth and Coleridge.
“The Mirror and the Lamp” won the Christian Gauss Award, awarded by Phi Beta Kappa, in 1954. In 1957, 25o critics and scholars surveyed by Columbia University voted it one of the five books of the previous 30 years that had contributed most to the understanding of literature. The other four were “The Great Chain of Being,” by Arthur Lovejoy, “The Allegory of Love,” by C. S. Lewis, “American Renaissance,” by F. O. Matthiessen, and the collected essays of T. S. Eliot.
Abrams taught English at Cornell for 67 years, founded the Norton Anthology of English Literature and was honored in July 2014 at the White House.
“As a scholar, writer and critic, Dr. Abrams has expanded our perception of the romantic tradition and explored the modern concept of artistic self-expression in Western culture, influencing and inspiring generations of students,” President Barack Hussein Obama , Junior said.
He attended Harvard, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English in 1934. His senior thesis, devoted to the Romantics, was published the same year by Harvard University Press as “The Milk of Paradise: The Effect of Opium Visions on the Works of De Quincey, Crabbe, Francis Thompson and Coleridge.”
After studying at Cambridge, England with the literary critic I. A. Richards, Professor Abrams returned to Harvard, where he received a master’s degree in 1937 and a Ph.D. in 1940.
In 1937 he married Ruth Gaynes, who died in 2008.
In World War Two, he worked at the psychoacoustics laboratory at Harvard, developing military codes that could be easily understood against a background noise of engines and gunfire. He was offered a teaching position at Cornell in 1945 and remained there until his retirement in 1983. His notable students included the novelist Thomas Pynchon and the critic and educational theorist E. D. Hirsch Junior.
Although he considered “Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature” (1971) his most important book, it was published in a very different critical climate than “The Mirror and the Lamp” was. Using key texts by Wordsworth as his starting point, Professor Abrams examined the works of German philosophers and English poets to document the transformation of traditional Judeo-Christian religious ideas into poetic theory in the Romantic period, when art was called upon to perform many of the spiritual functions of religion.
The champions of poststructuralism, which was gaining ground rapidly in the academy, regarded Professor Abrams as almost painfully old-fashioned, and he found himself squaring off against critics, notably J. Hillis Miller, who disputed the very premises upon which he approached the history of ideas. The book nevertheless remains a seminal text on the Romantic movement.
In addition to “A Glossary of Literary Terms” (1957), a standard work for undergraduates that has gone through many editions, Professor Abrams wrote “The Correspondent Breeze: Essays on English Romanticism” (1984) and “Doing Things With Texts: Essays in Criticism and Critical Theory” (1989). He edited “The Poetry of Pope” (1954), “Literature and Belief” (1957) “English Romantic Poets: Modern Essays in Criticism” (1960) and “Wordsworth: A Collection of Critical Essays” (1972).
In 2012, his one hundredth year, Norton published his essay collection “The Fourth Dimension of a Poem.”
The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded Professor Abrams the National Humanities Medal in 2013 “for expanding our perceptions of the Romantic tradition and broadening the study of literature.”
....
...
..
.
Bio;
By Jonathan Robert De Mallie, Historian∼M.H. "Mike" Abrams, Age 103, Professor emeritus of English at Cornell University, died April 21, 2015 at Kendal (Senior Living Community) at Ithaca, New York.
Abrams was born July 23, 1912 in Long Branch, New Jersey. He was the son of Jewish immigrants from western Russia and Poland. His father was a housepainter who became a contractor and then opened a paint and wallpaper store. The family lived across the street from the local library. Abrams love of literature started in early childhood when he would cross the street each day to take out three library books which he finished by the end of that day. He continued to read several books a week up to the age of 100. He remembered in remarkable detail books that he had read throughout his life.
Long Branch had an excellent school system and Abrams was encouraged by a high school teacher to apply to Harvard. He was always a brilliant student and did not lack self esteem. After completing his freshman year at Harvard he offered his services as a tutor with a business card that read "MH Abrams, Harvard University Tutoring in all Subjects." He went on to earn his A.B, Master's and PhD degrees from Harvard, teaching there & at Radcliffe College until coming to Cornell in 1945.
In 1937 he married Ruth Claire Gaynes, whom he had met in Long Branch during World War II. Mike and Ruth both worked at the Psychoacoustics Lab. at Harvard where they helped develop the joint Army-Navy phonetic alphabet, better known as the "Able Baker Charlie" code, which was used to improve military communications during combat.
He and Ruth moved to Ithaca in 1945 when he accepted a professorship apt at Cornell. He spent the rest of his career at the university where he taught generations of students, many of whom became influential writers and scholars. He was renowned world-wide as the founding general editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature and continued to serve as both the general editor and a contributor through the first 7 editions. His other best known works include "The Mirror and The Lamp (1953), which won numerous awards and was named No. 25 on the Modern Library's list of the top 100 works of non-fiction in the 20th century. Natural Supernaturalism Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature (1971); and multiple editions of the invaluable A Glossary of Literary Terms. His most recent book The Fourth Dimension of a Poem was published in honor of his 100th birthday in 2012.
While at Cornell Abrams was instrumental in founding the AD White Center for the Humanities, now The Society for The Humanities, as well as acquiring Wm. Wordsworth's Poetical Works & works by James Joyce & others for the Cornell Library.
Abrams received numerous awards during his lifetime including the National Humanities Medal presented by President Obama in a ceremony at the White House on July 28, 2014, 5 days after Abram's 102nd birthday.
In 1935, he traveled alone to Italy where he witnessed a speech by Mussolini and to Germany where he managed to smuggle diamonds back to the US to reach Jewish students whose parents were unable to leave Germany.
Abrams inspired people worldwide with his indomitable spirit. He will be missed immensely for his sunny optimism & good spirits, his wit and his humility.
Abrams was predeceased by his wife Ruth after 71 years of marriage.
There will be a memorial service at Kendal on Saturday, May 30th at 3:00 pm.
Published in Ithaca Journal on May 2, 2015
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