Kenneth Burke, 1897-1993. American author
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Finding-Aid for the Burke Papers [00156]Collection Description
Papers
5 items, ca. 1961-1964
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The rare literary critic who never completed college, Kenneth Burke can be considered a largely self-taught thinker who attempted to integrate scientific and philosophical concepts with his analysis of semantics and literature. In 1915, Burke moved to Greenwich Village in New York, where he was at the forefront of American modernism, conversing with writers and artists such as Marianne Moore, Jean Toomer, Alfred Stieglitz, and William Carlos Williams. After brief stints with The Dial and The Nation, he turned to literary criticism and taught at Bennington College from 1943 to 1961. By the time of his death at age ninety-eight, Burke left behind such classics in the field as The Philosophy of Literary Form (1941), Permanence and Change: An Anatomy of Purpose (1935), A Grammar of Motives (1945), and Language as Symbolic Action (1966).
The Burke papers contain two letters from Burke to Ralph B. Atkinson (February 16, 1963) and Jacob Zetlin (March 17, 1964) concerning a manuscript of his, as well as a Ts. Draft for a lecture to be given at Antioch College in November 1961. There is also a Ms. Outline of Burke's "Definition of Man," as well as a 46 page draft of that book from 1963. A modified version of this essay appeared in Language as Symbolic Action.
Selected Names
Burke, Kenneth, 1897-1993. American author