Charles Glicksberg

Charles Irving Glicksberg (13 December 1900 – 14 February 1998) was a Polish-American literary critic, professor, and writer.

Life

Glicksberg was born to Lillian and Isidore Glicksberg in Warsaw, Poland. He moved to the United States at a young age and became a naturalized citizen. He attended the College of the City of New York for a bachelor's degree which he received in 1923, Columbia University for a masters which he received in 1924, and the University of Pennsylvania for a PhD which he received in 1938. He was also a Fulbright Scholar at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. His PhD dissertation became the book Walt Whitman and the Civil War which was considered an important addition to the existent scholarship on Whitman.[1] He died on February 14, 1988, in New York City, survived by his two children, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.[2]

Teaching

Glicksberg taught English at South Philadelphia High School for multiple years, and eventually joined Brooklyn College as a professor, becoming professor emeritus by 1971. He also taught at multiple other colleges, including the New School for Social Research and the City University of New York.[1]

Writing

Definition of Irony

The heart of irony is to be found in a contradiction which cannot be resolved and which cannot be endured and yet which is somehow lived.

Charles Glicksberg, quoted in Frontiers[3]

He was a prolific author, writing multiple books including Walt Whitman and the Civil War.[4] The Saturday Review of Literature said the book is an "excellent piece of research work, designed to fill in biographical gaps by publishing newly discovered journalistic writings which Whitman wrote over the pseudonym 'Velsor Brush'", and it is a "welcomed [addition] to the shelves of all Whitman students".[5]

Additional books include: Literature and Religion, A Study in Conflict (Southern Methodist University Press, 1960), The Self in Modern Literature (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1963), Modern Literature and the Death of God (Martinus Nijhoff, 1966), and The Literature of Nihilism (Bucknell University Press, 1975).

He was also the editor of American Literary Criticism, 1900 to 1950 (Hendricks House, 1952)[6] and wrote multiple essays including for: The Arizona Quarterly,[7] The Humanist,[8] The Colorado Quarterly,[9] The New Leader,[10] and the Curriculum Journal.[11]

Awards

Glicksberg received several awards for "best essay" from the Arizona Quarterly and received various honors in his multiple professorships. He also was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship.[1]

Literary criticism

Glicksberg wrote on a variety of topics, but especially some of his later books like The Ironic Vision in Modern Literature focused on the progression from more heroic tales to more ironic tales as writing approaches the modern day.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Glicksberg, Charles Irving". SNAC. OCLC 423033657. Retrieved 21 October 2018. From the description of The Papers of Charles I. Glicksberg; 1923-1998 1930-1979. (Brooklyn College)
  2. ^ "Paid Notice: Deaths Charles I. Glicksberg". The New York Times. 16 February 1998. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
  3. ^ Cota-Cardenas, Margarita (1994). "The faith of activists: Barrios, cities, and the Chicana feminist response". Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. 14 (2): 51. doi:10.2307/3346624. JSTOR 3346624. ProQuest 232348543.
  4. ^ Glicksberg, Charles I., ed. (1933). Walt Whitman and the Civil War: A Collection of Original Articles and Manuscripts. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-1-5128-0167-5. JSTOR j.ctv51338s.
  5. ^ Canby, Henry Seidel, ed. (15 April 1933). "The New Books". The Saturday Review of Literature. Vol. 9, no. 39. p. 542.
  6. ^ Glicksberg, Charles Irving (1952). American literary criticism, 1900-1950. New York: Hendricks House.
  7. ^ Glicksberg, Charles I. (Autumn 1950). Powell, Desmond (ed.). "Contributors". The Arizona Quarterly. 6 (3). University of Arizona: 287. ISSN 0004-1610. LCCN 47003188. OCLC 795987055. "Modern Literature And The Sense Of Doom" pp. 208-217
  8. ^ Glicksberg, Charles (Autumn 1943). "Angels of Darkness". The Humanist. Vol. 3, no. 3. pp. 115–119. ISSN 0018-7399. OCLC 1587384.
  9. ^ Glicksberg, Charles I. (Autumn 1958). "The God of Fiction". The Colorado Quarterly. 7 (2). University of Colorado: 207–220. ISSN 0010-1710. OCLC 1564194.
  10. ^ Glicksberg, Charles (27 August 1949). "Writers and Writing". Literary Section. The New Leader. Vol. 32, no. 35. p. 9. ISSN 0028-6044.
  11. ^ Glicksberg, Charles I. (February 1943). "Radio Appreciation in the Secondary Schools". Curriculum Journal. 14 (2).
  12. ^ Glicksberg, Charles I. (1969). The ironic vision in modern literature. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. ISBN 9789401509770. OCLC 651802921.