Book Description

Robert Bechtold Heilman is one of the last survivors of a remarkable generation of American critics that included such literary giants as Cleanth Brooks, Allen Tate, & Edmund Wilson, men to whom literary criticism was not a profession or an academic necessity but a calling. In a distinguished career that has spanned nearly six decades, Heilman has influenced generations of scholars & critics through his exquisitely written commentaries on subjects ranging from William Shakespeare to Thomas Hardy. In The Professor & the Profession, Heilman looks back over his life & times from his perspective as both an academic & an American. Differing in theme & subject matter, the essays included in this collection are ultimately unified by the author himself. Whether the topic is football, Robert Penn Warren, or education, Heilman's generous & intelligent voice emerges on every page. Yet this collection is more than one academic's personal reminiscences; it is a reflection upon American literary history itself. In the first section of essays, "The Self Displayed," Heilman reveals how he developed from a small-town boy into a distinguished critic & teacher, touching upon his love of baseball & football along the way. "Writers Portrayed" & "Literary Types & Problems Inspected," the following sections, offer his opinions on the past & on the current state of American literary criticism, including personal portraits of such renowned friends as Eric Voegelin, Robert Penn Warren, Theodore Roethke, & Malcolm Cowley. The final section, "Education Examined," is an enlightening inquiry into the development of American universities in the twentieth century. A fascinating chronicle of a significant academic life, The Professor & the Profession will appeal to a broad array of scholars, from young academics wanting to know where they came from to those of Heilman's generation who can appreciate this personal reminiscence into the world of letters.