Tony Tanner

[D.]

As seen as in clari.news.obituaries moments ago:


Subject: British Literary Critic Tanner Dies
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1998 6:42:58 PST
From: C-ap at clari.net (AP)
Organization: Copyright 1998 by The Associated Press (via ClariNet)
 Newsgroups: clari.news.obituaries, clari.world.europe.british_isles.uk,
clari.living.books, clari.living.top, clari.world, clari.world.europe,
clari.world.europe.british_isles, clari.living

                                      
        CAMBRIDGE, England (AP) -- Tony Tanner, a prolific literary  
critic and popular professor who introduced the study of American 
literature at Cambridge University, has died, British media 
reported. He was 63. 
        The reports, which said Tanner died of cancer Dec. 5, did not  
disclose the location of his death. 
        Born in Surrey in south London, Tanner graduated from  
Cambridge's Jesus College with an English degree after two years of 
military service in the Intelligence Corps. 
        His fascination with American literature led him to the  
University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University for a 
prestigious Harkness Scholarship in the late 1950s. 
        His doctoral dissertation on wonder and naivete in American  
literature became the first on an American subject to be accepted 
by the Cambridge English faculty. 
        After earning his doctorate in 1964, Tanner was appointed to a  
teaching position. He eventually convinced the university to offer 
a master's degree in American literature. 
        His first book, ``The Reign of Wonder,'' a study of the work of  
Henry James, Mark Twain and Ralph Waldo Emerson, brought him 
prominence in America after its publication in 1965. 
        He also wrote about Saul Bellow, Thomas Pynchon, Joseph Conrad  
and Jane Austen. 
        Tanner's last book, 1992's ``Venice Desired,'' included chapters  
on Lord Byron, John Ruskin and Marcel Proust. Most recently, he 
edited and wrote introductions for a series called ``Shakespeare 
for Everyman.'' 
        He is survived by his wife, Nadia Fusini, a translator and  
critic whom he married in 1979. No details were available about 
funeral arrangements. 


Just thought the List would want to know....


D.