Word: murdock
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...this time there was an informal Big Three in the American Literature field at the University: Greenough, and Murdock, and Bliss Perry. Perry, who had made his entrance into the field at about the same time as Wendell, was quite different from his bearded colleague. Possessed of a slow deep voice, he had "nothing of the showman about him--he didn't need to have." He had, Douglas Bush recalled at Perry's death in 1954, "bright blue eyes, a slow smile, a warm and selfless concern with literature and things humane." Perry wrote one of the first favorable biographies...
Perry retired in 1930, and so the field was left to his two co-pioneers. Greenough taught a course in eighteenth-century English thought and expression; Murdock taught a course in the American Novel...
Shortly after Matheissen's entrance into the Department, a fourth giant was added: Perry G. E. Miller, who made his Harvard debut by aiding Murdock with English 33 and later taking over Matthiesson's course in sectional American literature. Miller has since established himself as perhaps the foremost scholar on colonial literature, and has kept himself yoked to English 33 (or 7) for almost 25 years...
...years, these four scholars--Murdock, Mathiessen, Miller, and Jones--strengthened the department and greatly broadened the scope of its offerings. This was done by the continual change in the character of English 170 and 270: one year 170 would become Murdock's novel course; another year it would be Miller's course in American Romanticism; again, it became Matheissen's course in American poetry...
...death left Murdock, Miller, and Jones to carry forward American literature at Harvard by themselves. Today there are fourteen courses listed in the catalogue or actually being taught, and it may be assumed that, with interest in the field increasing, the number of courses will also increase. It is doubtful that there will ever be a concentration program in American literature, since, as Murdock says this would result in concentrators becoming "awfully provincial." American writing, he continues, "cannot be seriously studied without realizing how very much it has been influenced by English literature...