Pulitzer Prize Biography Winner

Barrett Wendell and His Letters

by M. A. De Wolfe Howe

Summary

M. A. De Wolfe Howe presents the life of Barrett Wendell, the Harvard professor and writer who helped shape the study of American literature. The book weaves biographical narrative together with Wendell's own letters to reveal his opinions, friendships, and the academic world of his era. It matters as a portrait of intellectual life at Harvard in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Historical Context & Significance

Barrett Wendell was a Harvard scholar whose teaching helped establish American literature as a subject of serious study.