George McLean Harper
George McLean Harper | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1859 or 1860 |
| Died | (aged 87) |
| Spouse | Belle Dunton Westcott |
| Children | 2 |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Princeton University |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Professor of Literature |
| Institutions | Princeton University |
George McLean Harper (1859 or 1860 – July 14, 1947) was an American professor of literature at Princeton University. Harper was best known for his scholarship on the writings and biographies of the English poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth.
He was born in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Princeton University in 1884. After graduating, he worked as an editor for few years before returning to Princeton in 1892, where he taught French and Italian while working on his PhD. In 1900, Harper became Holmes Professor of Belles Lettres and English Language and Literature at Princeton.
While teaching at Princeton, Harper published several books on literature. He took a position on the panel of Pulitzer Prize judges in 1929. Harper retired from Princeton in 1933 and focused on his own writing. He died in 1947.
Early life and education
[edit]George McLean Harper was born in 1859 or 1860 in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, to William Wylie Harper and Nancy Jane McLean Harper. He studied at Princeton University, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1884. After graduating he was a copy editor and journalist at The New York Times for six months. Afterwards, he studied at the University of Göttingen and University of Berlin. He was assistant editor of Scribner's Magazine from 1887 until 1889.[1]
Princeton University
[edit]In 1889, he returned to Princeton as a teacher of French and Italian.[2] He received a master's degree and Doctor of Philosophy from the university in 1892.[1] In 1894, he edited Contes de Balzac.[3] He became the Woodhull Chair in the Department of Romance Languages in 1895.[1]
In 1900, Harper moved to the university's English department,[2] and was named Holmes Professor of Belles Lettres and English Language and Literature.[1] In 1915, he was a member of the American Commission for Relief in Belgium and he was made an Officer of the Crown of Belgium in recognition of his work.[2] His 1916 biography of William Wordsworth, William Wordsworth: His Life, Works, and Influence, was given a positive review in North American Review.[4] His work on Wordsworth was considered "pioneering".[5] He became the Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature at Princeton in 1926,[2] and held that position until his retirement.[1]
He was a contributor to Woodrow Wilson memorial edition of The Daily Princetonian published in 1926.[6] He also reviewed Wilson's The New Democracy, Presidential Messages, Address, and Other Papers (1913–1917).[7] In 1928, Harper coined the term "Conversation poems" in 1928 to describe a group of eight poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge that were addressed to a close friend of the poet. The name came from the title of "The Nightingale. A Conversation Poem", one of the poems in the group.[8] Harper had previously identified the poems as a distinct group in a 1925 essay.[9] In 1929, Harper became a member of the committee of judges for the Pulitzer Prize.[2]
Harper taught at Princeton until his retirement in 1933, when he began writing a critical biography of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.[10] After his retirement, he became special lecturer in English literature at Princeton.[1]
Retirement and death
[edit]In 1939, the festschrift Wordsworth and Coleridge: Studies in Honor of George McLean Harper was published.[11]
He died of a heart attack at the age of 87 on July 14, 1947. He was married to Belle Dunton Westcott, with whom he had a daughter and a son, George Harper McLean Jr.[1] After Harper's death, his wife presented the collected George McLean Harper Papers to Princeton University.[12]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g "Prof. Harper Dies – Long at Princeton – Emeritus Holder of Woodrow Wilson Chair in Literature Joined Faculty in 1889". The New York Times. 1947-07-15. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-05-28.
- ^ a b c d e "Princeton Professor to Quit Faculty Post – George McLean Harper Served University for 43 Years – Plans Biography of Coleridge". The New York Times. 1932-06-08. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-05-28.
- ^ "Book Review: Contes de Balzac". Journal of Education. 39 (9): 139–139. March 1894. doi:10.1177/002205749403900929. ISSN 0022-0574.
- ^ Lowell, James Russell; Norton, Charles Eliot; Adams, Henry; Rice, Allen Thorndike; Bryce, Lloyd Stephens; Harvey, George Brinton McClellan; Smyth, Joseph Hilton; Dana, Robert; Wilson, Robley (1916). The North American Review. University of Northern Iowa. pp. 924–926.
- ^ Priestman, Donald G. (1974). "The Borderers: Wordsworth's addenda to Godwin". University of Toronto Quarterly. 44 (1). Retrieved 2026-05-29 – via Project MUSE.
- ^ "A Tribute to Woodrow Wilson '79 From The Daily Princetonian | Princeton Alumni Weekly". paw.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2026-05-29.
- ^ "New Volumes of President Woodrow Wilson '79's Public Papers Reflect Stress of Times". paw.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2026-05-29.
- ^ Magnuson, Paul (2002), "The 'Conversation' poems", in Newlyn, Lucy (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Coleridge, Cambridge Companions to Literature, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 32–44, ISBN 978-0-521-65071-7, retrieved 2026-05-29
- ^ Christie, William (1981). "The Act of Love in Coleridge's Conversation Poems". Sydney Studies in English. 7.
- ^ "Education: Retirements". Time. Archived from the original on 2025-05-11. Retrieved 2026-05-28.
- ^ "Wordsworth and Coleridge: Studies in Honor of George McLean Harper . Earl Leslie Griggs". The Library Quarterly. 9 (4): 543–544. October 1939. doi:10.1086/614630. ISSN 0024-2519.
- ^ Dunklin, Gilbert T. (1950). "The George McLean Harper Papers". The Princeton University Library Chronicle. 11 (2): 89–94. doi:10.2307/26400487. ISSN 0032-8456.