Nationality American Name Daniel Aaron Occupation Americanist, academic Role Writer | Employer Harvard University | |
Born August 4, 1912 (age 111) ( 1912-08-04 ) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. Title Victor S. Thomas Professor of English and American Literature Emeritus Education Harvard University (1943), University of Michigan Awards Guggenheim Fellowship for Humanities, US & Canada Nominations National Book Award for Arts and Letters (Nonfiction) Books The Unwritten War: Ame, The Americanist, Men of good hope, The United States: Conqueri, Cincinnati - Queen City of the West Similar People Jonathan Aaron, Richard Hofstadter, Ralph J Roberts, Edmund Wilson, Julian A Brodsky | ||
Organizations founded Library of America Board member of Library of America | ||
THE DIARIST - Interview w/ Inman Diary Editor Daniel Aaron (11:08)
Daniel Aaron (August 4, 1912 – April 30, 2016) was an American writer and academic who helped found the Library of America.
Contents
- THE DIARIST Interview w Inman Diary Editor Daniel Aaron 1108
- Education
- Writing
- Teaching
- Publishing
- Recognition
- Editing
- References
Education
Daniel Baruch Aaron was born in 1912. Aaron received a BA from the University of Michigan, and later went on to do graduate studies at Harvard University. In 1937, Aaron became the first to graduate with a degree in "American Civilization" from Harvard University.
Writing
Aaron published his first scholarly paper in 1935, “Melville and the Missionaries.” He has written studies on the American Renaissance, the Civil War, and American progressive writers. His latest work is an autobiography, The Americanist (2007). He edited the diaries of American poet Arthur Crew Inman (1895–1963): some 17 million words from 1919 to 1963. He has written a number of articles for the New York Review of Books.
Teaching
Aaron taught at Smith College for three decades and Harvard (1971-1983). He remains the Victor S. Thomas Professor of English and American Literature Emeritus at Harvard. His son, Jonathan Aaron, is an accomplished poet who holds a doctorate from Yale University and teaches writing at Emerson College in Boston, MA.
Publishing
In 1979, he helped found the Library of America, where he served as president to 1985 and board member and remained an emeritus board member.
Recognition
Aaron was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1973 and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1977.
In 2010, he was a National Humanities Medalist, whose citation reads:
Daniel Aaron: Literary scholar for his contributions to American literature and culture. As the founding president of the Library of America, he helped preserve our nation’s heritage by publishing America’s most significant writing in authoritative editions.