Gordon S. Haight


Gordon Sherman Haight was an American professor of English at Yale University from 1950 to 1968. He was the author of George Eliot: A Biography and the editor of The George Eliot Letters.

Early life and education

Haight was born in Muskegon, Michigan, the son of Lewis Pease Haight and Grace Carpenter Haight. He graduated from Yale University in 1923, and earned his Ph.D. there in 1933, with a dissertation on English poet Francis Quarles.

Career

Haight taught at the Kent School and the Hotchkiss School as a young man. He taught English at Yale University beginning in 1933, was master of Pierson College from 1949 to 1953, and was a full professor from 1950 to 1968. He was recognized as an expert on author George Eliot. His biography of George Eliot won the Van Wyck Brooks Memorial Award and James Tait Black Memorial Prize. In 1980, he was invited to give the dedication speech when a memorial stone for Eliot was placed in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner.

Personal life

Haight married Mary Nettleton in 1937. He died at home in Woodbridge, Connecticut, in December 1985, at the age of 84.

Works

Works edited by Gordon S. Haight