Tony Tanner
D.
darjr at shore.net
Fri Dec 11 09:20:10 CST 1998
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.
More information about the Pynchon-l
mailing list