| Thomas Raynesford Lounsbury | |
| Honorific Suffix: | LL.D. |
| Birth Date: | January 1, 1838 |
| Birth Place: | Ovid, New York |
| Education: |
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| Honours: | Honorary degrees from Yale University, Harvard University, Lafayette College, Princeton University, and Aberdeen College |
| Signature: | Thomas Raynesford Lounsbury Signature.png |
Thomas Raynesford Lounsbury (January 1, 1838 – April 9, 1915)[1] was an American literary historian and critic. He was born in Ovid, New York on January 1, 1838. He graduated from Yale College in 1859 with a B.A. and received a M.A. from Yale University in 1887.[2] He later received honorary degrees from Yale University (LL.D. in 1892), Harvard University (LL.D. in 1893), Lafayette College, Princeton University, and Aberdeen College. He enlisted in the 126th New York Volunteers in 1862 and served in the Civil War as a first lieutenant.
From 1871 until his retirement in 1906 he was professor of English language and literature in Yale. For 33 years he was also librarian at Sheffield Scientific School, Yale. He was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1898) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1896).
His work is marked by sound scholarship and literary acumen. It is as a student of Chaucer, of Shakespeare, and of the English language from the point of view of its development that he especially distinguished himself. His editorial work includes: Chaucer's Parliament of Foules (1877); the Complete Works of Charles Dudley Warner (1904); and the Yale Book of American Verse (1912). Professor Lounsbury wrote other important publications which include:
Lounsbury was also the subject of some needling by Mark Twain, in his famous critique of James Fenimore Cooper ("Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses", written 1895). Lounsbury had written favorably of Cooper, which Twain took to mean that Lounsbury simply hadn't actually read Cooper.