Lois Whitney (October 14, 1892 – February 1982) was an American academic of English literature and painter who published the 1934 book Primitivism and the Idea of Progress in English Popular Literature of the Eighteenth Century. She worked as an English professor in Vassar College and Russell Sage College, and during her free time was a painter.
Lois Whitney | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 14, 1892 Oberlin, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | February 1982 (aged 89) |
| Occupations |
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| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | |
| Thesis | Studies in eighteenth century primitivistic theories of epic origins (1921) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | English literature |
| Institutions | |
Biography
editLois Whitney was born in Oberlin, Ohio on October 14, 1892.[1] She was the daughter of Adelaide and Worrallo Whitney, the latter of whom worked more than three decades as a teacher at Bowen High School and Hyde Park High School.[2][3]
Whitney received her BS (1914) and MA (1915) at the University of Chicago.[1] After working as an instructor in English at Grinnell College (1916-1919) and spending a year studying at Radcliffe College (1919-1920), she returned to the University of Chicago to get her PhD in 1921.[1] Her PhD thesis was titled Studies in eighteenth century primitivistic theories of epic origins.[4] After spending two years as an instructor in English at the University of Minnesota (1921-1923), she started working at Goucher College as Assistant Professor of English, before moving to Vassar College in 1926.[1] In 1937, she moved from Vassar to Russell Sage College.[5][6] In 1947, she was promoted from assistant professor to professor, a rank she would hold until her retirement in 1958.[7][6]
As an academic, she specialized in English literature. In 1929, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for "study[ing] the inter-relations of the [...] ideas of progress and primitivism, especially as they are illustrated by English literature of the eighteenth century".[1] In 1934, she published the book Primitivism and the Idea of Progress in English Popular Literature of the Eighteenth Century.[8] In 1939, she, Louis I. Bredvold, and Alan Dugald McKillop were the co-editors of the anthology Eighteenth Century Poetry & Prose.[9]
Whitney also made paintings as a hobby during her free time.[6] Among her paintings were oil paintings, silk screens, and watercolors.[6][10] Some of her works appeared in local and national exhibitions, including the Luckey, Platt & Company Department Store, the Russell Sage College library, and the Women's University Club of New York.[6][11][10] Whitney often visited Stowe, Vermont, where she once had an exhibition, because according to The Burlington Free Press, she "[found] Vermont landscapes so paintable, especially in the early spring and the late autumn when the colors are unusually lovely."[10]
Whitney, by then a resident of Chicago, died in February 1982.[12]
Publications
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d e "Lois Whitney". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
- ^ Van Hise, I. N. (1938). "Worrallo Whitney". School Science and Mathematics. 38 (5): 480–481. doi:10.1111/j.1949-8594.1938.tb14441.x. ISSN 0036-6803 – via Wiley Online Library.
- ^ "CHICAGO SCHOOL TEACHER FOR 35 YEARS DIES AT 79". Chicago Tribune. March 11, 1938. p. 14. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
- ^ Whitney, Lois (1921). "Studies in eighteenth century primitivistic theories of epic origins". OCLC 49951252. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
- ^ "New Faculty Appointments Made By Vassar Board of Trustees". Poughkeepsie Eagle-News. June 8, 1937. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e "Sage Faculty Honors Two Retiring Members At Tea The Times Record". The Times Record. May 28, 1958. p. 12. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
- ^ "STEPHEN SAMPSON HEADS TRUSTEES OF RUSSELL SAGE". The Times Record. June 2, 1947. p. 17. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
- ^ a b
Reviews of Primitivism and the Idea of Progress in English Popular Literature of the Eighteenth Century:
- Budd, F. E. (1935). "Review of Primitivism and the Idea of Progress in English Popular Literature of the Eighteenth Century". The Modern Language Review. 30 (4): 526–527. doi:10.2307/3716270. ISSN 0026-7937. JSTOR 3716270 – via JSTOR.
- L., H. A. (1934). "Review of Primitivism and the Idea of Progress in English Popular Literature of the Eighteenth Centrury". The Journal of Philosophy. 31 (21): 579–580. doi:10.2307/2015392. ISSN 0022-362X. JSTOR 2015392 – via JSTOR.
- Nicolson, Marjorie (1936). "Review of Primitivism and the Idea of Progress in English Popular Literature of the Eighteenth Century". Modern Language Notes. 51 (6): 398–400. doi:10.2307/2912445. ISSN 0149-6611. JSTOR 2912445 – via JSTOR.
- Ryan, Frederick L. (1936). "Review of Primitivism and the Idea of Progress in English Popular Literature of the Eighteenth Century". Books Abroad. 10 (3): 356. doi:10.2307/40075655. ISSN 0006-7431. JSTOR 40075655 – via JSTOR.
- Prior, Moody E. (1935). "Review of Primitivism and the Idea of Progress in English Popular Literature of the Eighteenth Century". Modern Philology. 33 (1): 99–101. doi:10.1086/388179. ISSN 0026-8232. JSTOR 434343 – via JSTOR.
- Sutherland, James R. (1936). "Review of Primitivism and the Idea of Progress in English Popular Literature of the Eighteenth Century". The Review of English Studies. 12 (48): 478–479. doi:10.1093/res/os-XII.48.478. ISSN 0034-6551. JSTOR 509251 – via JSTOR.
- Wright, Ernest Hunter (1936). "Review of Primitivism and the Idea of Progress". The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 35 (3): 430–433. ISSN 0363-6941. JSTOR 27704172 – via JSTOR.
- "Review of Primitivism and the idea of progress in english popular literature of the eighteenth century". Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale. 42 (3): 11–12. 1935. ISSN 0035-1571. JSTOR 40897438 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Bredvold, Louis I.; McKillop, Alan D.; Whitney, Lois, eds. (1939). Eighteenth Century Poetry & Prose. The Ronald Press Company.
- ^ a b c "Artists' Paintings Exhibited At Stowe". The Burlington Free Press. June 11, 1937. p. 17. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
- ^ "ART EXHIBITION TO OPEN TODAY". Poughkeepsie Eagle-News. October 13, 1934. p. 22. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
- ^ Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2014.