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OBITUARIES

Quentin Anderson '37

Quentin Anderson ’37, a literary critic, scholar, cultural historian and Columbia professor emeritus of American literature, died on February 18 at his home on Morningside Heights. He was 90 and had taught at Columbia for more than 40 years.

The eldest son of writer Maxwell Anderson, he was born in Minnewaukan, N.D. Anderson spent his formative years in New York as his father moved among the worlds of journalism, Hollywood and Broadway. During the Depression, the young Anderson’s colorful life included stints as a grease monkey, grave-digger and self-described spear-carrier at the rear of the stage as Helen Hayes starred up front. He began a career in literary criticism in the 1940s after trying his hand at theater.

While at the College, Anderson studied with Jacques Barzun ’27 and Lionel Trilling ’25, and discovered his interest in Henry James. In 1939, he joined Columbia’s English department as a lecturer. A childhood accident kept Anderson from military service in World War II, during which time he served in the civilian defense in Rockland County. He continued his education, earning an M.A. from Harvard in 1945 and a Ph.D. in English and comparative literature from GSAS in 1953. Anderson rose to full professor at the University in 1961. He was named Julian Clarence Levi Professor of the Humanities in 1978 and retired three years later.

Anderson’s research on primary figures in 19th century American literature focused on defining the particulars of American identity, both separate from and connected with European antecedents. He wrote, most notably, The American Henry James (1957), a critique of the novelist’s work, and The Imperial Self: An Essay in American Literary and Cultural History (Random House, 1971). He also published Making Americans: An Essay on Individualism and Money (Harcourt, 1992), which remains in print. He was an authority on Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman, and contributed to periodicals such as The New York Times Book Review, The Times Literary Supplement and numerous journals. Anderson was granted a senior fellowship by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1973–74 and was a fellow at the National Humanities Center in 1979–80.

Anderson’s rapport with students and interest in campus life dated from his duties in the 1950s as student adviser for an early admissions program sponsored by the Ford Foundation. He served as the departmental representative of the College’s English Department from 1961–69, and, after the campus unrest of 1968, he served as chairman of the Joint Committee of Disciplinary Affairs, which comprised administrators, faculty members and students and recommended probation for some students and expulsion for those found responsible for acts of vandalism or theft.

According to an article on the University’s website, “[Anderson’s] decades of service to Columbia involved the instruction of thousands of students. A wry student course guide once described him as ‘the most pompous, friendly man on the Columbia campus,’ an epithet that captured his personality’s mix of profound, sometimes inscrutable intellection with a heartfelt interest in his students.”

He is survived by his second wife, of 55 years, Thelma Ehrlich Anderson; daughter, Martha; sons, Abraham and Maxwell; brothers, Alan H. Jr. and Terence; sister, Hesper; and grandson.

L.P.

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