Irving Babbitt

Author Code: AIBB

Educated at Harvard College, Babbitt graduated in 1889 and began teaching classics at the College of Montana. In 1891, he went to France and continued his studies at the Sorbonne. He returned to Harvard in 1892 and received his Master's degree. After a short period of teaching romance languages at Williams College, Babbitt once again returned to Harvard in 1894 to teach French. The following year he introduced his New Humanist movement which would become popular during the period 1910 through the 1930's. In 1908, he published Literature and the American College, a collection of essays which were controversial within the literary community of the time. Babbitt eventually became professor of French Literature at Harvard in 1912 and continued in that capacity until his death. His other works include The New Laokoon (1910), The Masters of Modern French Criticism (1912), Rousseau and Romanticism (1919), Democracy and Leadership (1924) and On Being Creative (1932).