Henry Seidel Canby

Canby, Henry Seidel, 1878-1961, American editor and critic, b. Wilmington, Del., grad. Yale, 1899. He taught at Yale for over 20 years, achieving professorial rank in 1922. He established and edited (1920-24) the Literary Review of the New York Evening Post, afterward joining with others to found and edit (1924-36) the Saturday Review of Literature; Seven Years' Harvest (1936) is his intellectual diary culled from its files. His critical and literary works include Classic Americans (1931), Thoreau (1939), Whitman (1943), The Brandywine (1941), The Gothic Age of the American College (1936), and Turn West, Turn East: Mark Twain and Henry James (1951).

Search unanswered questions...

Browse: Unanswered questions | Most-recent questions | Reference library

Works by Henry Seidel Canby

Top

(1878-1961)

1931	Classic Americans: A Study of Eminent American Writers from Irving to Whitman. Canby's first important literary history evaluates the major figures of the nineteenth century. As an indicator of future changes in literary reputation, Canby devotes thirty pages to Irving but only six to Melville. Canby helped found and became the first editor of the Saturday Review of Literature in 1924 and became the editorial board chairman for the Book-of-the-Month Club in 1926.
1939	Thoreau. The first truly scholarly biography of the writer would remain the standard work until the 1960s. Literary historian Robert Spiller has observed that the book is not only "the sanest biography of Thoreau, but it is one of the sanest I have read of anyone."
1943	Walt Whitman, an American: A Study in Biography. Though it breaks no new ground, Canby's intellectual biography, concentrating on Whitman's internal conflicts and the American historical and cultural forces that shaped them, serves to make Whitman's poetry more accessible to a wider audience, enhancing the poet's reputation.
1947	American Memoir. Professor of literature and the cofounder and first editor of the Saturday Review of Literature, Canby revises and condenses the first two volumes of his autobiography--The Age of Confidence (1934) and Alma Mater (1936)--and continues the story of his life, offering a wide view of the literary scene during the first half of the twentieth century.

Quotes By:

Henry S. Canby

Top

Quotes:

"Arrogance, pedantry, and dogmatism... the occupational diseases of those who spend their lives directing the intellects of the young."

Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Henry Seidel Canby

Top

Henry Seidel Canby (September 6, 1878 – April 5, 1961) was a critic, editor, and Yale University professor.

Canby was born in Wilmington, Delaware and attended Wilmington Friends School. He graduated from Yale in 1899, then taught at the university until becoming a professor in 1922.

Following a four year stint as the editor of the Literary Review of the New York Evening Post, Canby became one of the founders and editors of the Saturday Review of Literature, serving as the last until 1936.

Bibliography

Definitions: Essays in Contemporary Criticism (1922)
American Estimates (1929)
Classic Americans (1931)
The Age of Confidence (1934)
Thoreau (1939)
Whitman (1943)
The Brandywine (1941) (Part of the Rivers of America Series)
The Gothic Age of the American College (1936)
Turn West, Turn East: Mark Twain and Henry James (1951)
Introduction to Favorite Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1947)

External links

Works by or about Henry Seidel Canby at Internet Archive (scanned books original editions color illustrated)
Works by Henry Seidel Canby at Project Gutenberg (plain text and HTML)

References

Information Please Almanac article on Henry Seidel Canby

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Homer Saint-Gaudens	Cover of Time Magazine 19 May 1924	Succeeded by Sir James Craig

Persondata
Name	Canby, Henry
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	September 6, 1878
Place of birth
Date of death	April 5, 1961
Place of death

This biography of an American academic is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This article about an American writer is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Donate to Wikimedia

Related answers:

	What was Henry the religion of Henry the 8th? Read answer...
	Why were Henry I and Henry II important? Read answer...
	Was Henry VIII Henry Tudor? Read answer...

Help us answer these:

	Are Henry you and Henry II related?
	Was Henry the navigator henry VIII?
	What did Henry Luce and Henry Wallace have in common?

Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:

Copyrights:

		Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more
		Houghton Mifflin Chronology of US Literature. The Chronology of American Literature, edited by Daniel S. Burt. Copyright © 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Quotes By. Copyright © 2008 QuotationsBook.com. All rights reserved. Read more
		Wikipedia on Answers.com. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Henry Seidel Canby. Read more

	Saturday Review of Literature (literature)
	Dorothy Parker (literature)
	Norman Cousins