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Joseph Wood Krutch (1893–1970)

Author of The Desert Year

42+ Works 1,133 Members 10 Reviews 4 Favorited

About the Author

Joseph Wood Krutch demonstrated that the Renaissance man was not someone merely to read about. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, he studied science and received his B.A. from the University of Tennessee. Afraid that society's emphasis on science and technology was a threat to our wilderness and show more wildlife, he went on to study humanities. After receiving his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University, he remained there to teach as a member of the English department and later occupied an endowed chair of dramatic literature. He was also an editor and a drama critic. When Krutch retired in 1952 because of respiratory problems, he moved to the southern Arizona desert, where, inspired by the natural beauty of the desert and its wildlife, he began to write about nature and conservation. Although his biographical work includes books on Edgar Allan Poe, Samuel Johnson, and Henry David Thoreau, here we will be concerned with some of his writings in natural history. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery (image use requires permission from the New York Public Library)

Works by Joseph Wood Krutch

The Desert Year (1951) 121 copies
Samuel Johnson (1944) 75 copies
The Great Chain of Life (1702) 68 copies
Herbal (1965) 49 copies
Henry David Thoreau (1948) 48 copies
A treasury of birdlore (1962) 46 copies
The gardener's world (1959) 25 copies
More Lives Than One. (1962) 12 copies
Experience and Art (1932) 10 copies
American Drama Since 1918 (1939) 10 copies
The Best of Two Worlds (1953) 6 copies
Selected Works 2 copies

Associated Works

Walden and Other Writings (1854) — Editor, some editions — 1,478 copies
Darwin (Norton Critical Edition) (1970) — Contributor — 652 copies
Nine Plays (1932) — Introduction, some editions — 445 copies
Eight Great Tragedies (1957) — Contributor, some editions — 385 copies
Ants, Indians, and little dinosaurs (1975) — Contributor — 191 copies
Literary history of the United States (1946) — Contributor — 190 copies
American Heritage: A Reader (2011) — Contributor — 81 copies
Selected Works (Modern Library - Kronenberger, ed.) (1777) — Foreword, some editions — 70 copies

Tagged

19th century (47) American (44) American literature (82) anthology (75) anthropology (25) Arizona (19) biography (74) biology (63) classic (48) classics (53) collection (19) Darwin (37) desert (21) drama (148) environment (20) essays (154) evolution (86) fiction (59) hardcover (25) history (62) history of science (24) literature (110) memoir (25) Modern Library (50) natural history (98) nature (142) nature writing (33) non-fiction (179) philosophy (159) play (23) plays (61) poetry (27) read (20) science (109) theatre (43) Thoreau (29) to-read (70) tragedy (23) transcendentalism (45) unread (31)

Common Knowledge

Birthdate
1893-11-25
Date of death
1970-05-22
Gender
male
Nationality
USA
Birthplace
Knoxville, Kentucky, USA
Place of death
Tucson, Arizona, USA
Places of residence
Arizona, USA
Knoxville, Kentucky, USA (birth)
Tucson, Arizona, USA (death)
Education
University of Tennessee
Columbia University
Occupations
critic
naturalist
science writer
professor
Organizations
American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature, 1937)
The Nation
Columbia University
Awards and honors
Emerson-Thoreau Medal (1967)
Short biography
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.

Members

Reviews

There are passages in this book that make it worthwhile to read, in particular, the amateur naturalist's observations about the desert and humans. It has the feeling of a book that Edward Abbey might have written if he had been writing in 1951.

But it is also infused with a distracting and naive pantheism and anthropomorphism from an earlier time. It could also stand editing to remove some of the more random unrelated thoughts. I had higher expectations.

I recommend that you read it and mark the best passages with Book Darts. Don't worry about the other parts. The book is short.… (more)
 
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Michael_Lilly | 1 other review | Nov 11, 2015 |
How do you like a desert? The book with photographs by Eliot Porter and text by Joseph Wood Krutch swipes a shallow perception and assumption about the desert. The book takes the readers to surprising discovery that there is not everything so rude and hopeless in the arid lands. It teaches not to look at landscape but to see and understand it. The Geography of Hope is in the title of the book and it brings the Hope of seeing the desert through the liberated thinking mind. By my opinion, if one is able to change negative attitudes toward desert, he is able to change his life to the best. Therefore, this book is one of the most valuable items in the Arizona prison library collection.… (more)
 
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PrisonLib | 1 other review | Nov 28, 2010 |
This book is a joyous introduction to the exciting world of North American birds as seen through the eyes and ears of almost every significant naturalist from Columbus's time to the present.
32pp. of B&W illustrations; circa 80 bird articles by noted authors, including Audubon, Burroughs, Mark Catesby, John Muir, Edwin Way Teale, John Kieran, Donald Culross Peatre and many others. The book is organized in five parts: Flight,Family matters, Birds of a Feather, Birds and Men, Extinction and Conservation.… (more)
 
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cherrys-books | Feb 5, 2007 |
Eliot Porter's photographs, with excerpts from Krutch's many books, offering perhaps the best anthology of Krutch's pantheistic religious views on the meaning of man and nature.
 
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pansociety | 1 other review | Oct 14, 2006 |

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Statistics

Works
42
Also by
10
Members
1,133
Popularity
#22,652
Rating
4.0
Reviews
10
ISBNs
62
Languages
1
Favorited
4

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