Daniel Aaron Explained

Daniel Aaron
Birth Name:	Daniel Baruch Aaron
Birth Date:	4 August 1912
Birth Place:	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Death Place:	Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Education:	University of Michigan (BA) Harvard University (PhD)
Employer:	Harvard University
Occupation:	Americanist, academic
Victor S. Thomas Professor of English and American Literature Emeritus
Boards:	Library of America
Awards:	National Humanities Medal

Daniel Aaron (August 4, 1912 – April 30, 2016) was an American writer and academic who helped found the Library of America.^[1]

Education

Daniel Baruch Aaron, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia, was born in 1912.^[2] Aaron received a BA from the University of Michigan, and later went on to do graduate studies at Harvard University.^[3] In 1937, Aaron became the first to graduate with a degree in "American Civilization" from Harvard University.^[1]

Career

Writing

Aaron published his first scholarly paper in 1935, "Melville and the Missionaries". He wrote studies on the American Renaissance, the Civil War, and American progressive writers. His last work was an autobiography, The Americanist (2007).^[4] He edited the diaries of American poet Arthur Crew Inman (1895–1963): some 17 million words from 1919 to 1963.^[5] He wrote a number of articles for the New York Review of Books.^[6]

Teaching

Aaron taught at Smith College for three decades and at Harvard (1971–1983). He was the Victor S. Thomas Professor of English and American Literature Emeritus at Harvard. His son, Jonathan Aaron, is an accomplished poet who holds a doctorate from Yale University and teaches writing at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.

Publishing

In 1979,^[7] he helped found the Library of America, where he served as president to 1985 and board member and remained an emeritus board member.^{[8] [9]}

Recognition

Aaron was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1973^[10] and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1977.^[11]

He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by Harvard University in 2007.^[12]

In 2010, he was a National Humanities Medalist,^{[13] [14]} whose citation reads:

Selected works

Writing

• Commonplace Book, 1934-2012 (Pressed Wafer 2015)^[3]
• Scrap Book (Pressed Wafer 2014)
• The Americanist (2007).^[15]
• American Notes: Selected Essays (1994).^[16]
• Cincinnati, Queen City of the West: 1819-1838 (1992)^[16]
• The Unwritten War: American Writers and the Civil War (1973)^[16]
• America in Crisis: Fourteen Crucial Episodes in American History (1971)^[16]
• Writers on the Left: Episodes in American Literary Communism (1961,^[17] 1974 and 1992^[16])
• Men of Good Hope (1951)^[3]

Editing

• Arthur Crew Inman, From a Darkened Room: The Inman Diary, ed. Daniel Aaron (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996)
• Arthur Crew Inman, The Inman Diary: A Public and Private Confession (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985)
• Paul Elmer More, Shelburne Essays on American Literature, ed. Daniel Aaron (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1963)

See also

• List of members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Department of Literature

External links

• University of Michigan Press
• NEH National Medals
• "What We Learned from Grandpa's FBI File", Note to Self, 31 May 2017 (radio show episode about Aaron's FBI file, including audio recording of interview with Aaron).
• Daniel Aaron Papers at the Smith College Archives, Smith College Special Collections.

Notes and References

1. Cromie, William J., Ken Gewertz, Corydon Ireland, and Alvin Powell. "Honorary degrees awarded at Commencement's Morning Exercises", The Harvard Gazette. June 7, 2007.
2. News: Daniel Aaron, scholar who helped develop academic field of American studies, dies at 103. Washington Post. 2016-05-02.
3. Web site: Roberts . Sam . Daniel Aaron, Critic and Historian Who Pioneered American Studies, Dies at 103 . . 2016-05-04 . 2018-02-03.
4. Web site: Scholars Venerable. The Harvard Gazette. 15 December 2011. 4 January 2012.
5. News: Gregory. Jaynes. In Boston: Inside a Tortured Mind . Time. June 21, 2005. https://web.archive.org/web/20080222040034/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1074772,00.html. dead. February 22, 2008. 4 January 2012.
6. Web site: Contributor: Daniel Aaron. New York Review of Books. 4 January 2012.
7. Web site: Board of Directors. Library of America. 4 January 2012.
8. Web site: History and Mission. Library of America. 4 January 2012.
9. Web site: 2010 National Humanities Medalists. National Endowment for the Humanities. 4 January 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20111116125324/http://www.neh.gov/news/archive/2010_Medalists.html#No1. 16 November 2011. dead.
10. Web site: Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A. 1. American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 18 March 2011.
11. Web site: Current Members. American Academy of Arts and Letters. 1 April 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20160624004136/http://www.artsandletters.org/academicians2_current.php. 24 June 2016.
12. Web site: Honorary degree recipients and citations, 2007. 14 June 2007.
13. Web site: National Humanities Medals Awarded . The Harvard Gazette . dead . March 2011 . 4 January 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110305131946/http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/03/white-house-awards-aaron-and-bailyn-humanities-medals/ . 5 March 2011.
14. Web site: Awards & honors: 2010 National Humanities Medalist - Daniel Aaron. Serpe. Nick. National Endowment for the Humanities. 15 October 2017.
15. Dirda, Michael "From scholar Daniel Aaron, the long view of civilization". The Washington Post May 6, 2007.
16. Web site: Books by Daniel Aaron. New York Review of Books. 4 January 2012.
17. Web site: Writers on the Left . Library of Congress . https://archive.today/20121213083511/http://lccn.loc.gov/61013349 . dead . 13 December 2012 . 4 January 2012 .