Background
Brooks, Cleanth was born on October 16, 1906 in Murray, Kentucky, United States. Son of Cleanth and Bessie Lee (Witherspoon) Brooks.
Brooks, Cleanth was born on October 16, 1906 in Murray, Kentucky, United States. Son of Cleanth and Bessie Lee (Witherspoon) Brooks.
AB, Vanderbilt University, 1928. A.M., Tulane University, 1929. Rhodes scholar, Oxford University, Louisiana and Exeter, England, 1932.
Bachelor (honorary), Oxford University, 1931. Bachelor of Letters, Oxford University, 1932. Doctor of Literature (honorary), Upsala College, 1963.
Doctor of Literature (honorary), University Kentucky, 1963. Doctor of Literature (honorary), University Exeter, 1966. Doctor of Literature (honorary), Washington and Lee University, 1968.
Doctor of Literature (honorary), Tulane University, 1969. Doctor of Literature (honorary), University of South, 1975. Doctor of Literature (honorary), Newberry College, 1979.
Doctor of Literature (honorary), Indiana State University, 1992. Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), St. Louis University, 1968. Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), Centenary College, 1972.
Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), Oglethorpe University, 1976. Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), St. Peter's College, 1978. Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), Lehigh University, 1980.
Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), Millsaps College, 1983. Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), University New Haven, 1984. Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), University South Carolina, 1984.
Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), Adelphi University, 1992.
Professor English Louisiana State University, 1932-1947. Managing editor (with R. P. Warren) Southern Review, Baton Rouge, 1935-1941, editor (with R. P. Warren), 1941-1942. Visiting professor University Texas, summer 1941, University Michigan, summer 1942, University Chicago, 1945-1946, University Southern California, Los Angeles, 1953, Bread Loaf School English, 1963.
Fellow Library of Congress, 1951-1962. Cultural attache American Embassy, London, 1964-1966. Gray professor rhetoric emeritus Yale University, New Haven.
Lamar lecturer, 1984. Jefferson lecturer, 1985. Member council of scholars for Library of Congress, 1984-1987.
Chancellor Fellowship of Southern Writers, 1986-1991.
Modern Poetry and the Tradition 1939, The Well-Wrought Urn 1947. With Robert Penn Warren: Understanding Poetry 1938, Understanding Fiction 1943, Modern Rhetoric 1950. Literary Criticism: A Short History (with W. K. Wimsatt, Jr.) 1957, The Hidden God 1963, William Faulkner: the Yoknapatawpha Country 1963, A Shaping.Joy 1971, American Literature: the Makers and the Making (with R. W. B. Lewis and R. P. Warren) 1973, William Faulkner: Toward Yoknapatawpha and Beyond 1978, The Rich Manifold 1983, William Faulkner: First Encounters 1983, The Language of the American South 1985, On the Prejudices, Predilections and Firm Beliefs of William Faulkner 1987.General Editor (with David N. Smith) The Percy Letters, 10 vols. since 1942. Editor: The Correspondence of Thomas Percy and Richard Fanner 1946, The Correspondence of Thomas Percy and William Shenstone 1977.
Member Modern Language Association, Royal Society Literature, American Academy Arts and Sciences, National Academy Arts and Letters, American Philosophical Society, Phi Beta Kapa. Club: Athenaeum (London).
Married Edith Amy Blanchard, September 12, 1934 (deceased October 1986).