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Stuart Pratt Sherman (1881-1926) was associate professor of English (1907-11); professor of English (1911-24); and chair of the English Department (acting, 1910; 1914-24) at the University of Illinois (UI). He was an educator and one of the leading literary critics of his era.
Sherman was born in Anita, Iowa, on October 1, 1881, to parents Ada Pratt and John Sherman. He spent his childhood in Iowa, California, and Vermont. He graduated from Williams College in 1903 before earning a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1906 with a dissertation on English playwright and poet John Ford (1586-ca. 1639). Sherman served as instructor of English at Northwestern University (1906-07) before he accepted a position at UI in 1907. He was known for his scholarship on Matthew Arnold (1822-1888). As a critic, he was a proponent of what he perceived to be traditional American literature, aligning him with the antimodernist, Nativist literary movement and the new humanism of his Harvard mentor Irving Babbitt (1965-1933) and critic Paul Elmer More (1864-1937). His intellectual position famously put him at odds with his contemporary, H. L. Mencken (1880-1956). Sherman's published works included
Sherman married Ruth Bartlet Mears in 1906, and they had one son. He died on August 21, 1926, as a result of a canoe accident on Lake Michigan.
Sources:
Wikipedia, s.v. "Stuart Sherman," accessed May 20, 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Sherman.
George E. DeMille, "Stuart P. Sherman: The Illinois Arnold,"
"Stuart Sherman Papers," University Archives, UIUC, accessed May 20, 2020, https://archon.library.illinois.edu/?p=collections/controlcard&id=2423.
MaryJean Gross and Dalton Gross, "Sherman, Stuart Pratt,"
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Stuart Sherman - Literary Standards Correspondence, including four verses of poetry by David Kinley, titled "Christmas 1923," which congratulates Sherman on his criticism of "filthy writing" and Sherman's response, titled "Here lies 1923. 'There let it lie.' Meditations on a Piece of Marble (For all men past forty)," which denies his intention to impose "marble qualities on flesh and blood." The series includes Kinley's annotations on his poetry and two typewritten documents by Kinley on Sherman's criticism of contemporary literature.