Daniel Aaron (1) (1912–2016)

Author of Writers on the Left

For other authors named Daniel Aaron, see the disambiguation page.

23+ Works 368 Members 1 Review

About the Author

Daniel Baruch Aaron was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 4, 1912. He received a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Michigan in 1933 and the first doctoral degree in American civilization from Harvard University. He taught English at Smith College for 30 years. During wartime show more shortages of manpower, he worked on a farm and as a volunteer police officer. In 1979, he co-founded the nonprofit Library of America. The company has published millions of copies of over 250 moderately priced novels, memoirs, narrative histories, forgotten masterpieces, and other classics. He wrote several books during his lifetime including Men of Good Hope: A Story of American Progressives, Writers on the Left: Episodes in American Literary Communism, and The Unwritten War: American Writers and the Civil War. His memoirs include The Americanist and Commonplace Book, 1934-2012. He condensed the 155 volume journal of failed poet and scion of Southern wealth Arthur Crew Inman into The Inman Diary: A Public and Private Confession. In 2010, he was awarded a National Humanities Medal as a scholar and as the founding president of the Library of America. He died from complications of pneumonia on April 30, 2016 at the age of 103. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Image credit: Daniel Aaron [credit: Lorie Conway from Boston Film & Video Productions]

Works by Daniel Aaron

Popular Recent

Writers on the Left (1961) 72 copies

The United States: The History of a Republic (1957) — Joint Author. — 55 copies

The Unwritten War: American Writers and the Civil War (1973) 44 copies

Emerson: A Modern Anthology (1958) — Editor — 38 copies

Men of good hope; a story of American progressives (1951) 33 copies

The structure of American history (1964) 25 copies

The Strenuous Decade: A Social and Intellectual Record of the 1930'S, (1970) 20 copies

From a Darkened Room: The Inman Diary (Inman Fund) (1996) — Editor — 13 copies

Cincinnati, Queen City of the West, 1819-1838 (1992) 12 copies

The Americanist (2007) 12 copies

America in crisis; fourteen crucial episodes in American history (1971) 8 copies

Studies in Biography (1978) 8 copies

Paul Elmer More's Shelburne Essays on American Literature (1963) — Editor — 6 copies

American Notes: Selected Essays (1994) 5 copies

The American Republic (Volume 2, Since 1865) (1959) 5 copies

The American Republic (v. 1) (1959) 4 copies

Commonplace Book, 1934-2012 (2015) 2 copies

AMERICAN ISSUES FORUM AMERICAN SOCIETY IN THE MAKING VOLUME ONE 1 copy

American issues forum 1 copy

Scrap Book (2014) 1 copy

AMERICAN ISSUES FORUM THE MOLDING AMERICAN VALUES VOLUME TWO 1 copy

The Inman Diary A Public and Private Confession **2 VOLUMES** 1 copy

The United States: A world power (1976) 1 copy

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Associated Works

The 42nd Parallel (1930) — Editor, some editions — 1,640 copies

The song of Hiawatha (1855) — Editor, some editions — 1,235 copies

The Aspern Papers (1888) — Introduction, some editions — 882 copies

Letters on literature and politics, 1912-1972 (1977) — Introduction — 125 copies

Introducing Don DeLillo (1991) — Contributor — 40 copies

Tagged

19th century (4) 20th century (4) 8th (4) American (5) American Civil War (4) American history (21) American History or Political Philosophy & Theory & Essays & Analysis (2) American intellectual history (2) American literature (12) anthology (2) autobiography (3) Cincinnati (3) Civil War (10) communism (9) criticism (12) culture (7) essays (7) Granddaddy (2) historiography (2) history (33) ideology (3) intellectual history (2) Kenneth Burke (2) kristi_test (2) literary criticism (6) literature (7) maps (2) memoir (6) NF (3) non-fiction (13) philosophy (7) plutocracy (3) politics (7) progressivism (4) social history (2) socialism (3) transcendentalism (3) United States History (2) US history (5) USA (13)

Common Knowledge

Legal name: Aaron, Daniel Baruch
Birthdate: 1912-08-04
Date of death: 2016-04-30
Gender: male
Nationality: USA
Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Place of death: Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Cause of death: pneumonia (complications)
Places of residence: Northampton, Massachusetts, USA
Education: University of Michigan (AB)
Harvard University (PhD)
Occupations: literary historian
professor emeritus
literary critic
Organizations: Harvard University
Smith College
Library of America (cofounder)
Awards and honors: National Humanities Medal (2010)

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Reviews

The Americanist by Daniel Aaron

I was disappointed in this book; I'd seen a good review somewhere. The author is a professor of American Studies. The book is a short memoir of his life as a professor and his travels around the world talking about American culture. He traveled a lot for the USIA. He claims he always told the truth & aired his criticisms of the US, but he is both defensive & defending of his activities in support of the US. I don't think he had anything interesting to say about politics, and the reminiscences didn't have much content.… (more)

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franoscar | Nov 20, 2007 |

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