author
Henry Seidel Canby
1878–1961
A leading American critic and editor, he helped bring serious literature to a wide general audience in the early 20th century. Best known for his work at Yale, The Yale Review, and the founding of the Saturday Review of Literature, he became an influential voice in American reading life.
3 Audiobooks
Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories
by Elizabeth Ashe, Henry Seidel Canby, Cornelia A. P. (Cornelia Atwood Pratt) Comer, Charles Caldwell Dobie, Madeleine Z. (Madeleine Zabriskie) Doty, H. G. (Harrison Griswold) Dwight, John Galsworthy, Katharine Fullerton Gerould, Katharine Butler Hathaway, Zephine Humphrey, Mary Lerner, F. J. Louriet, E. V. (Edward Verrall) Lucas, Margaret Lynn, C. A. Mercer, Margaret Prescott Montague, E. (Edith) Nesbit, Anne Douglas Sedgwick, Dallas Lore Sharp, Margaret Pollock Sherwood, Ernest Starr, Amy Wentworth Stone, Arthur Russell Taylor
![Definitions: Essays in Contemporary Criticism [First Series]](/api/img/6638c6fd972dc5c80ef75836/cover.jpg)
Definitions: Essays in Contemporary Criticism [First Series]
by Henry Seidel Canby
Everyday Americans
by Henry Seidel Canby
About the author
Born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1878, Henry Seidel Canby studied at Yale and went on to teach there for more than two decades, becoming a professor in 1922. Alongside his academic work, he built a career as a literary critic and editor with a gift for making books and ideas feel inviting rather than remote.
Canby edited The Yale Review and later created the literary supplement of the New York Evening Post. In 1924, that effort developed into the Saturday Review of Literature, which he helped found and edit, giving him a major role in shaping American literary conversation between the wars.
He also wrote widely, including criticism, memoir, and biography, and remained active as a public man of letters long after leaving the classroom. Remembered for combining scholarship with readability, he helped connect academic literary culture with everyday readers.