author
Percy Holmes Boynton
1875–1946
A longtime University of Chicago professor and literary critic, he wrote lively, accessible books that helped readers make sense of American literature and the writers of his own time. His work blends scholarship with a clear interest in the people behind the books.
1 Audiobook
A History of American Literature
by Percy Holmes Boynton
About the author
Born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1875, Percy Holmes Boynton studied at Amherst and Harvard before beginning his teaching career at Smith Academy in St. Louis. He joined the University of Chicago in the early 1900s and remained there for decades, becoming a well-known professor of English literature.
Boynton wrote both literary history and criticism. His books include A History of American Literature, Some Contemporary Americans, and More Contemporary Americans. He was especially interested in explaining literature in a way that connected writers, ideas, and public life, which helped make his criticism approachable for general readers as well as students.
Archival records at the University of Chicago show that he was active not only as a teacher and author but also as a public literary voice, with papers that include correspondence and scrapbooks of articles he wrote for the Chicago Daily Journal. He died in 1946, leaving behind a body of work centered on American writing and its place in modern culture.