author
Stuart Pratt Sherman
1881–1926
A sharp, influential voice in early 20th-century American criticism, he moved from the classroom to the newspaper world and became widely known for his debates about literature, culture, and public taste.
1 Audiobook
My dear Cornelia
by Stuart Pratt Sherman
About the author
Born in Anita, Iowa, on October 1, 1881, he grew up in several states before studying at Williams College and earning a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1906. He went on to teach English at the University of Illinois, where he built a reputation as a gifted teacher and literary scholar.
He is best remembered as a literary critic, educator, and journalist whose work helped shape American cultural debate in the 1910s and 1920s. After leaving Illinois in 1924, he became literary editor of the New York Herald Tribune, and he was especially noted for his public intellectual clash with H. L. Mencken.
His career was cut short when he died on August 21, 1926, at the age of 44. Even so, his essays and criticism left a strong impression on readers interested in how literature should speak to modern life.