Joseph Wood Krutch (1893–1970)
Författare till The Desert Year
Om författaren
Joseph Wood Krutch demonstrated that the Renaissance man was not someone merely to read about. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, he studied science and received his B.A. from the University of Tennessee. Afraid that society's emphasis on science and technology was a threat to our wilderness and visa mer wildlife, he went on to study humanities. After receiving his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University, he remained there to teach as a member of the English department and later occupied an endowed chair of dramatic literature. He was also an editor and a drama critic. When Krutch retired in 1952 because of respiratory problems, he moved to the southern Arizona desert, where, inspired by the natural beauty of the desert and its wildlife, he began to write about nature and conservation. Although his biographical work includes books on Edgar Allan Poe, Samuel Johnson, and Henry David Thoreau, here we will be concerned with some of his writings in natural history. (Bowker Author Biography) visa färre
Foto taget av: Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery (image use requires permission from the New York Public Library)
Verk av Joseph Wood Krutch
The world of animals; a treasury of lore, legend, and literature by great writers and naturalists from 5th century B.C.… (1961) 29 exemplar
Is the common man too common? An informal survey of our cultural resources and what we are doing about them (1971) 3 exemplar
Selected Works 2 exemplar
Wildlife in Danger 1 exemplar
"Dualism in Thomas Mann" 1 exemplar
Associerade verk
In Search of the Simple Life: American Voices, Past and Present (1986) — Bidragsgivare — 34 exemplar
These Simple Things: Some Appreciations of the Small Joys in Daily Life (1965) — Bidragsgivare — 8 exemplar
Taggad
Allmänna fakta
- Födelsedag
- 1893-11-25
- Avled
- 1970-05-22
- Kön
- male
- Nationalitet
- USA
- Födelseort
- Knoxville, Kentucky, USA
- Dödsort
- Tucson, Arizona, USA
- Bostadsorter
- Arizona, USA
Knoxville, Kentucky, USA (birth)
Tucson, Arizona, USA (death) - Utbildning
- University of Tennessee
Columbia University - Yrken
- critic
naturalist
science writer
professor - Organisationer
- American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature, 1937)
The Nation
Columbia University - Priser och utmärkelser
- Emerson-Thoreau Medal (1967)
- Kort biografi
- Joseph Wood Krutch (1893-1970), twentieth-century humanist and individualist, scholar and writer, drama critic and teacher, was an ardent, eloquent admirer of the natural world and an articulate, angry critic of its despoilers. He devoted the last two decades of a versatile and productive life to writing books and essays on natural history and conservation. Krutch wrote not only for personal pleasure but also to remind his readers of the need to preserve the world in its natural state. Krutch was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he attended public schools and where he remained to attend the University of Tennessee which granted him the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1915. He subsequently enrolled in the graduate school of Columbia University, where he received the Master of Arts degree in literature in 1916 and the Doctor of Philosophy degree in English literature in 1923. After graduation he joined the staff of The Nation as a literary and drama critic and remained in that position for twenty-eight years. From 1937 to 1953 he was also affiliated with the faculty or Columbia University. The highlight of his academic career came in 1943 when he was appointed to the Brander Matthews Chair or Dramatic Literature. During the late 1940's Krutch's life took a dramatic turn from his dual careers as critic and academician. His growing interest in nature and in the writings of Henry David Thoreau prompted him to write a biography of the nineteenth-century Transcendentalist. Consequently, he spent the remainder of his life writing in the fields or natural history and conservation. In 1952, plagued by 111 health and disenchanted with the city, Krutch and his wife, Marcelle, moved from New York City to Tucson, Arizona. There, emulating Thoreau at Walden Pond, Krutch formulated and articulated the major premises of his humanistic philosophy of man and nature. Krutch believed that man was both identified with and estranged from nature, the foundation or human existence. Man was alienated by a technological society which worshipped the machine and material progress. and he ascribed to a mechanistic, deterministic philosophy which stripped him of his dignity. As an environmentalist, Krutch deplored the systematic exploitation or the natural world which he reared would lead to the destruction of all organic life. He attributed this exploitation to technology, selfishness, greed, man's philosophy of progress and an irresistible impulse to destroy. Krutch knew that all life was interrelated, and as the earth lived or died, so, too, would man. On the other hand, man was identified with the natural world through the biological evolutionary process, by a mystical affinity with nature, and by the common possession of life with all other creatures on earth. Man shared consciousness, purpose, imagination, courage, and freedom with nature. If man would reclaim his identity with the natural world he would receive its rewards and exalt both nature and himself. Ultimately the survival of man and the world depended upon the development of a radically new attitude toward nature. Krutch advised man to learn to love, admire, and respect the earth for its own sake, because in the final analysis it was identity with nature that sustained the human spirit.
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Statistik
- Verk
- 42
- Även av
- 10
- Medlemmar
- 1,133
- Popularitet
- #22,652
- Betyg
- 4.0
- Recensioner
- 10
- ISBN
- 62
- Språk
- 1
- Favoritmärkt
- 4
The cover may not look so inviting but inside this book are lovely woodcut reproductions from the 16th century. I found this book in the Science stacks while examining some reference books for display. This book, by naturalist Joesph Wood Krutch looks at theories and discoveries of Herbalists from ancient times to present day. 100 plants and 6 creatures are detailed within.
Herbalists were the fathers of medicine, pharmacology and horticulture and herein lies their many beliefs in text and illustration. Beautifully detailed are lettuce, mistletoe, juniper, nasturtiums, oats, and nutmeg along with many other plants. Included are illustrations of animals these herbalists felt could be used in treatment of disease. Herein lies a beautiful book.
“The illustrations in this book are taken from the woodcuts in Pierandrea Mattioli’s huge folio volume, Commentaries on the Six Books of Dioscorides, issued in Prague in 1563 and Venice in 1565. The work was first published in 1544 and appeared in some fifty editions in several languages, but all of those prior to 1563 had very much smaller plates.… (mer)