author
W. C. (William Crary) Brownell
1851–1928
Best known as a sharp, elegant American literary and art critic, he helped shape serious cultural discussion in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His essays brought a broad, thoughtful style to criticism and kept him close to the world of major writers and publishers.
1 Audiobook
French Art: Classic and Contemporary Painting and Sculpture
by W. C. (William Crary) Brownell
About the author
Born in New York City in 1851, William Crary Brownell became one of the better-known American critics of his day. He graduated from Amherst College in 1871 and began his career in journalism, working for the New York World and later for The Nation before building a long association with Charles Scribner's Sons.
Brownell wrote about both literature and art, and reference sources consistently describe him as an important American critic. Britannica notes that he tried to widen the scope of American literary criticism in a way often compared with Matthew Arnold's influence in Britain, and archival material from Amherst outlines his early newspaper work and later editorial career.
He died in 1928 in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Today he is remembered mainly for criticism rather than fiction, and for the part he played in the literary culture of his era through essays, reviews, and publishing work.