Howard Mumford Jones

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Howard Mumford Jones (April 16, 1892 – May 11, 1980)<ref>Elizabeth A. Brennan, Elizabeth C. Clarage. Who's who of Pulitzer Prize winners Template:ISBN</ref> was an American intellectual historian, literary critic, journalist, poet, and professor of English at the University of Michigan and later at Harvard University.<ref name=NYTobit>Template:Cite news</ref>

Jones was the book editor for The Boston Evening Transcript.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Background

Howard Mumford Jones was born on April 16, 1892, in Saginaw, Michigan. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison as an undergraduate, winning oratorical contests there <ref>La Crosse Tribune, 1914. https://www.newspaperarchive.com/us/wisconsin/la-crosse/la-crosse-tribune/1914/03-09</ref>

Career

Before moving to Harvard University, Jones was a member of the English faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1925 he approached president Harry Woodburn Chase, lamenting the absence of a bookstore in the town of Chapel Hill, and offered to open one in his office. This eventually became the Bull's Head Bookshop, now located in Student Stores.<ref>Bulls Head Bookshop, UNC</ref>

In February 1954, Jones gave the dedicatory address at the opening of an addition to the University of Wisconsin's Memorial Library, entitled "Books and the Independent Mind." The crux of his comments was contained in this comment: "While it is true that we in this nation remain free to be idiotic, it does not necessarily follow that we must be idiotic in order to be free!"<ref>Jones, Howard Mumford. "Books and the Independent Mind: An Address Delivered at the Dedication of the Memorial Library of the University of Wisconsin." February 1, 1954. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1954, 22 pp.</ref>

Personal life and death

In 1927, Jones married the former Bessie Judith Zaban, of Atlanta, Georgia, in New York City,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and they remained married until his death.<ref name=NYTobit/>

Howard Mumford Jones died age 88 on May 11, 1980, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after a brief illness.<ref name=NYTobit/>

Awards and honors

Legacy

The Howard Mumford Jones Professorship of American Studies at Harvard University is named in his honor.<ref name=memoir> Template:Cite book</ref>

Quotations

  • "Ours is the age which is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Works

Jones wrote scholarly articles as well as the following books:

Jones also wrote the introduction to Thomas Wentworth Higginson's book Army Life in a Black Regiment (Michigan State University Press, 1960).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

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References

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