Alexander Maclaren Witherspoon

Background

Alexander M. Witherspoon was born on October 31, 1894, at Bowling Green, Kentucky, the son of Thomas Motley Witherspoon, a merchant, and of Angilene Holland.

Education

After graduating from Bowling Green High School in 1913, he studied for three years at Ogden College in Bowling Green and taught English there (1916 - 1917) before entering Yale University as a senior. He received the B. A. in 1918.

Career

Then he served in France with the American Expeditionary Forces as a corporal in the artillery. Following his discharge he was an instructor in English (1919 - 1920) at the Red Cross Institute for the Blind in Baltimore, Md. Witherspoon then returned to Yale, where he was awarded the M. A. in 1921, with an essay on William Vaughn Moody, and the Ph. D. in 1923. His dissertation, The Influence of Robert Garnier on Elizabethan Drama, was published in 1924. Two years later he edited Titus Andronicus for the Yale edition of Shakespeare. Appointed an instructor in the Yale department of English in 1923, Witherspoon soon became one of the most inspiring teachers of his time. Using only a folder of miscellaneous notes, some written on the backs of envelopes, mingled with clippings from periodicals and newspapers, he fascinated generations of undergraduates by relating, with sardonic humor, the works of the Metaphysical poets to the problems of modern life. Despite their apparent casualness, his classes were always skillfully planned and organized. Out of them came his widely used texts A Book of Seventeenth-Century Prose (edited with R. P. Tristram Coffin, 1929), The College Survey of English Literature (1951), and Seventeenth-Century Prose and Poetry (edited with Frank J. Warnke, 1963). From 1949 until his death, Witherspoon was a member of the board of editors of The Complete Prose Works of John Milton, serving as coeditor of volume IV. He was generous with his time in discussing their reading with his students and exacting in correcting their writing. A minor publication, Common Errors in English and How to Avoid Them (1943), was an offspring of his scrupulous care. In 1938 he was elected to The Club, a small group of distinguished Yale professors, and wrote the story of its first 125 years (1964). Alexander M. Witherspoon died on March 4, 1964, at a nursing home in Hamden, Connecticut.

Achievements

• During a career of nearly forty years, Alexander Maclaren Witherspoon was a teacher, who was especially noted for his courses in the literature of the seventeenth century. Alexander M. Witherspoon was an original fellow of Berkeley College at Yale.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Seventeenth-Century Prose and Poetry

    (Seventeen-Century Prose and Poetry)

  • The Influence of Robert Garnier on Elizabethan Drama.

    (n.p. 1968 Archon Books. Reprint of book originally publis...)

Membership

Alexander M. Witherspoon belonged to the board of editors of The Complete Prose Works of John Milton. In addition, he was elected to The Club, a small group of distinguished Yale professors, in 1938 and was an original fellow of Berkeley College at Yale.

Personality

Though a very private man in some ways, Alexander M. Witherspoon was always a cheerful and convivial companion.

Connections

Alexander Maclaren Witherspoon never married.

Father:

Thomas Motley Witherspoon

Mother:

Angilene Holland