Joseph Wood Krutch (1893–1970)

Joseph Wood Krutch (1893-1970), twentieth-century humanist and individualist, scholar and writer, drama critic and teacher, was an ardent, eloquent admirer of the natural world and an articulate, angry critic of its despoilers. He devoted the last two decades of a versatile and productive life to writing books and essays on natural history and conservation. Krutch wrote not only for personal pleasure but also to remind his readers of the need to preserve the world in its natural state. Krutch was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he attended public schools and where he remained to attend the University of Tennessee which granted him the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1915. He subsequently enrolled in the graduate school of Columbia University, where he received the Master of Arts degree in literature in 1916 and the Doctor of Philosophy degree in English literature in 1923. After graduation he joined the staff of The Nation as a literary and drama critic and remained in that position for twenty-eight years. From 1937 to 1953 he was also affiliated with the faculty or Columbia University. The highlight of his academic career came in 1943 when he was appointed to the Brander Matthews Chair or Dramatic Literature. During the late 1940's Krutch's life took a dramatic turn from his dual careers as critic and academician. His growing interest in nature and in the writings of Henry David Thoreau prompted him to write a biography of the nineteenth-century Transcendentalist. Consequently, he spent the remainder of his life writing in the fields or natural history and conservation. In 1952, plagued by 111 health and disenchanted with the city, Krutch and his wife, Marcelle, moved from New York City to Tucson, Arizona. There, emulating Thoreau at Walden Pond, Krutch formulated and articulated the major premises of his humanistic philosophy of man and nature. Krutch believed that man was both identified with and estranged from nature, the foundation or human existence. Man was alienated by a technological society which worshipped the machine and material progress. and he ascribed to a mechanistic, deterministic philosophy which stripped him of his dignity. As an environmentalist, Krutch deplored the systematic exploitation or the natural world which he reared would lead to the destruction of all organic life. He attributed this exploitation to technology, selfishness, greed, man's philosophy of progress and an irresistible impulse to destroy. Krutch knew that all life was interrelated, and as the earth lived or died, so, too, would man. On the other hand, man was identified with the natural world through the biological evolutionary process, by a mystical affinity with nature, and by the common possession of life with all other creatures on earth. Man shared consciousness, purpose, imagination, courage, and freedom with nature. If man would reclaim his identity with the natural world he would receive its rewards and exalt both nature and himself. Ultimately the survival of man and the world depended upon the development of a radically new attitude toward nature. Krutch advised man to learn to love, admire, and respect the earth for its own sake, because in the final analysis it was identity with nature that sustained the human spirit.