Louis Menand

Louis Menand (born January 21, 1952) is a prominent American writer and academic, best known for his book "The Metaphysical Club" (2001), an intellectual and cultural history of late 19th and early 20th century America.

Life and career

Menand was born in Syracuse, New York, U.S., and raised around Boston, Massachusetts, United States. His mother is a historian, writing a biography of Samuel Adams. Menand's father, Louis Menand III, taught political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

A graduate of Pomona College, Menand attended Harvard Law School for one year (1973-1974) before he received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1980. He thereafter taught at Princeton University and held staff positions at "The New Republic" and "The New Yorker". He served as Distinguished Professor of English at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York before accepting a post at Harvard in 2003.

Menand published his first book, "Discovering Modernism: T. S. Eliot and His Context", in 1987. His long-anticipated second book, "", includes detailed biographical material on Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., William James, Charles Sanders Peirce, and John Dewey. It received the Pulitzer Prize for History, the 2002 Francis Parkman Prize, and The Heartland Prize for Non-Fiction. In 2002, Menand published "American Studies", a collection of essays on prominent figures in American culture.

Menand is the Robert M. and Anne T. Bass Professor of English and American Literature and Language at Harvard University. His principal field of academic interest is 19th and 20th century American cultural history. He contributes regularly to "The New Yorker", for which he remains a staff writer, and "The New York Review of Books," among other publications.

Books

*"Discovering Modernism: T. S. Eliot and his Context", 1987, New York: Oxford University Press
*"The Future of Academic Freedom", (editor), 1996, Chicago: U of Chicago Press
*"Pragmatism: A Reader", (editor), 1997, New York: Vintage
* "", 2001, New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, ISBN 0-374-19963-9 (hardcover), ISBN 0-374-52849-7 (paperback)
* "American Studies", 2002, New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, ISBN 0-374-10434-4 (hardcover)

ee also

* Pragmatism
* William James
* Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

External links

* [http://www.hoching.com/menand The Essential Menand] : books, articles, and everything Louis Menand
* Harvard University Department of English [http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~english/people/facultyprofiles.html faculty listing] for Menand
* CUNY [http://web.gc.cuny.edu/English/fac_lmenand.html profile] of Menand (former faculty post)
* [http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=880228 Menand's humorous exegesis] of "The Cat in the Hat" on NPR's "All Things Considered" (link to Windows Media and RealMedia audio)
* [http://www.newyorker.com/critics/books/?040628crbo_books1 Louis Menand on writing]

Interviews

* [http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1123425 Menand interview] on "The Metaphysical Club" on "All Things Considered" (link to WM and RM audio)
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20050309001537/http://www.theminnesotareview.org/ns52/menand.htm "New New York Intellectual: An Interview with Louis Menand"] in the "Minnesota Review", (June 1, 2001). archived URL retrieved August 10, 2006