Irving Babbitt

Irving Babbitt , 1865-1933, American scholar, b. Dayton, Ohio. At Harvard as professor of French literature from 1912 until his death, he was a vigorous critic of romanticism, deprecating especially the influence of Rousseau on modern thought and art. He and Paul Elmer More initiated a movement, called New Humanism, that advocated a forceful doctrine of moderation and restraint, looking to classical traditions and literature for inspiration. His works include Literature and the American College (1908), The New Laokoön (1910), The Masters of Modern French Criticism (1912), and On Being Creative (1932).

Bibliography: See F. E. McMahon, The Humanism of Irving Babbitt (1931); Irving Babbitt (ed. by F. Manchester and O. Shepard, 1941, repr. 1969).

Babbitt, Irving (1865–1933), born in Ohio, graduated from Harvard (1889), and after study abroad became a professor of Romance languages at Williams (1893–94) and of French at Harvard (1894–1933). He was an outstanding scholar and as a leader of the New Humanism was a trenchant critic of romanticism and its arch‐apostle, Rousseau. Among the books in which he set forth his humanist doctrines are Literature and the American College (1908), a plea for the humanities; The New Laokoön (1910), on the romantic confusion in the arts; Rousseau and Romanticism (1919); Democracy and Leadership (1924), a philosophy of modern civilization; and On Being Creative (1932), a discussion of classic theories of imitation and romantic concepts of spontaneity. Spanish Character (1940), a posthumous collection of essays, contains a bibliography and index to his works.