Joseph Warren Beach papers

Joseph Warren Beach, B.A. (1900) University of Minnesota, M.A. (1902), Ph.D. (1907) Harvard University. Professor of English and chairman of the English Department at the University of Minnesota. Was an internationally recognized figure in the field of literary criticism.

Joseph Warren Beach (JWB) was born in Gloversville, New York on January 14, 1880. He was the son of Dr. Eugene Beach, a physician, and Sarah Jessup Warren Beach. His mother's sister, Elizabeth Warren Northrop was married to Cyrus Northrop who served as the second president of the University of Minnesota (1884-1911).

It was for this reason that Joseph Warren Beach enrolled in the University of Minnesota in 1896 and lived in the Northrop household, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1900. He also attended Harvard University where he obtained a Master of Arts degree in 1902 and a Ph.D. in 1907. He returned to the University of Minnesota in 1907 and joined the Department of English as an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor in 1917 and professor in 1924. He also served as chairman of the department from 1939 until his retirement in 1948. After he retired from the University, Beach taught at Harvard University (1949-1950), Illinois University (1950-1951), the Sorbonne, Paris, and the University of Strasbourg as a Fulbright Lecturer (1951-1952), Johns Hopkins (1952-1953), and the University of Vienna as a Fulbright Lecturer (1954-1955).

Beach was best known for introducing literary criticism into the study of literature. He was also interested in poetry and Twentieth Century fiction. Beach was the author of over 15 books, including Sonnets of the Head and Heart(1903), The Method of Henry James(1918), The Concept of Nature in Nineteenth Century English Poetry(1936), The Twentieth-Century Novel(1932), The Outlook for American Prose(1926), and American Fiction, 1920-1940(1941). He died on August 13, 1957 at the age of 77.

In 1959, family and friends arranged for the Joseph Warren Beach Lecture Series at the University of Minnesota. Still offered by the Department of English, the Lecture Series hosts some of the most notable names in literary criticism.

Elizabeth Northrop, Cyrus Northrop's daughter, and Joseph Warren Beach were married in 1907. They had two sons, (Cyrus) Northrop and (J.D.) Warren Beach. Elizabeth Northrop Beach died in February 1918 of tuberculosis. On April 22, 1918, Joseph Warren Beach married Dagmar Doneghy. She died in 1966.