author
Bliss Perry
1860–1954
A leading American man of letters, he moved easily between the classroom, the editor’s desk, and the wider literary world. His writing brings together criticism, biography, and a deep interest in American literature.
6 Audiobooks
A Study of Poetry
by Bliss Perry
John Greenleaf Whittier: A sketch of his life, with selected poems
by Bliss Perry, John Greenleaf Whittier
The American Mind The E. T. Earl Lectures
by Bliss Perry
Fishing with a Worm
by Bliss Perry
Stories of New York
by Annie Eliot Trumbull, George A. (George Abiah) Hibbard, Bliss Perry, Edith Wharton, John Seymour Wood
About the author
Born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1860, Bliss Perry became an American literary critic, writer, editor, and teacher whose career stretched across many corners of literary life. He studied at Williams College and later also studied in Berlin and Strasbourg before returning to teach.
Perry taught at Williams College, then at Princeton, and later at Harvard, where he became especially associated with the study of American literature. From 1899 to 1909 he also served as editor of The Atlantic Monthly, giving him an important role not just in teaching literature but in shaping the literary conversation of his time.
He wrote widely, including criticism, essays, biography, fiction, and studies of major authors such as Walt Whitman and John Greenleaf Whittier. He died in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1954, remembered as a scholar and editor who helped bring American writing to a broader audience.