Howard Mumford Jones
Howard Mumford Jones was an American intellectual historian, literary critic, journalist, poet, and professor of English at the University of Michigan and later at Harvard University.
Jones was the book editor for The Boston Evening Transcript.
Background
Howard Mumford Jones was born on April 16, 1892, in Saginaw, Michigan. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison as an undergraduate, winning oratorical contests thereCareer
Before moving to Harvard University, Jones was a member of the English faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1925 he approached president Harry Woodburn Chase, lamenting the absence of a bookstore in the town of Chapel Hill, and offered to open one in his office. This eventually became the Bull's Head Bookshop, now located in Student Stores.In February 1954, Jones gave the dedicatory address at the opening of an addition to the University of Wisconsin's Memorial Library, entitled "Books and the Independent Mind." The crux of his comments was contained in this comment: "While it is true that we in this nation remain free to be idiotic, it does not necessarily follow that we must be idiotic in order to be free!"
Personal life and death
In 1927, Jones married the former Bessie Judith Zaban, of Atlanta, Georgia, in New York City, and they remained married until his death.Howard Mumford Jones died age 88 on May 11, 1980, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after a brief illness.
Awards and honors
- 1938: elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 1941: elected to the American Philosophical Society
- 1965: Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for [O Strange New World|O Strange New World: United States of America|American Culture-The Formative Years].
Legacy
The Howard Mumford Jones Professorship of American Studies at Harvard University is named in his honor.Quotations
- "Ours is the age which is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to."
Works
Jones wrote scholarly articles as well as the following books:Gargoyles and Other Poems America and French Culture: 1750-1848 The Harp That Once: A Chronicle of the Life of Thomas Moore Ideas in America The Bright Medusa The Pursuit of Happiness American Humanism: Its Meaning for World Survival One Great Society: Humane Learning in the United States The Scholar as American Humane Traditions in America: A List of Suggested Readings, Volume 1 The University and the New World O Strange New World: American Culture—The Formative Years History and the Contemporary: Essays in Nineteenth-Century Literature Belief and Disbelief in American Culture The Age of Energy: Varieties of American Experience, 1865-1915 Revolution and Romanticism Howard Mumford Jones: An AutobiographyJones also wrote the introduction to Thomas Wentworth Higginson's book Army Life in a Black Regiment.