M.H. Abrams, Professor Who Shaped the Study of Romanticism, Dies at 102

NYT ^ | 4/23/2015 | WILLIAM GRIMES

[Borges]

M. H. Abrams, who transformed the study of Romanticism with the critical histories “The Mirror and the Lamp” and “Natural Supernaturalism,” and who edited the first seven editions of “The Norton Anthology of English Literature,” a virtual Bible in literature survey courses, died on Tuesday in Ithaca, N.Y. He was 102.

Cornell University, where he taught for nearly 40 years, announced his death.

On its publication in 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.

[Borges]

Anyone who studied English at the college level either encountered his own stuff or read the Norton Anthology.

[Prospero]

Unfortunately, or, perhaps, fortunately, it was not until late in life that I came to appreciate the Romantics and Realists. My range of literature ran from Heinlein to Vonnegut. Henry James or George Eliot, for example, were simply beyond my appreciation, for the latter, and comprehension, for the former.

Of undoubted fortune is the advent of the Internet, because I can now live in a library, and gutenberg and archive. I think I prefer the eighteenth century's idea of an Adult Book better than our own.

It's said, under ideal conditions, the average person might read 20,000 books in a single lifetime. Therefore I've had to discriminate, being mindful that an eternal summer on this side of Eternity no longer lies before me, and I can appreciate the need for the critical judgement of someone who obviously had sufficient time no only to read but to re-read his own favorites.

[IronJack]

Yep. The Norton Anthology was standard issue for undergrad English majors. I’ve still got the American and English Lit versions somewhere in my collection.

[RansomOttawa]

I've got the abridged version of the Norton Anthology in my textbook collection, but in the long run of my English degree program, I appealed repeatedly to his Glossary of Literary Terms, a truly excellent reference.

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

If I remember correctly, The “Mirror and the Lamp” has a good discussion of aesthetic theory. It also discussed the differences between English, German, and French “Romanticism,” or more correctly, “Romanticisms.” (The movements were very different in their objectives and outlooks.)

The book was in my library when I read it. I did not finish it; I was long out of college by this time.