Sylvan Barnet (1926–2016)
Author of A Short Guide to Writing About Art
About the Author
Sylvan Saul Barnet was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 11, 1926. During World War II, he served in the Army for two years. He received a bachelor's degree in English from New York University in 1948 and a master's degree in 1950 and a doctorate in 1954 from Harvard University. For the next show more three decades, he taught freshman writing and literature at Tufts University. He wrote or edited numerous textbooks including An Introduction to Literature, A Short Guide to Writing About Literature, A Short Guide to Writing About Art, The Study of Literature: A Handbook of Critical Essays and Terms, and Critical Thinking, Reading and Writing: A Brief Guide to Argument. In the early 1960s, he decided that his students at Tufts University needed an edition of Shakespeare with each play in a separate volume including an introduction and study aids. He presented the idea to editors at the New American Library. The editors approved of the idea and Barnet became the general editor of the Signet Classic Shakespeare series. He was the co-author with William Burto of Zen Ink Paintings, which was published in 1982. He died of cancer on January 11, 2016 at the age of 89. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Sylvan Barnet
Current Issues and Enduring Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking and Argument with Readings (1987) 343 copies, 1 review
Twentieth century interpretations of the Merchant of Venice: a collection of critical essays (1970) 9 copies
Instructor's Manual to Accompany Literature for Composition Essays, Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (2003) 4 copies
An Introduction to Fiction 1 copy
Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing 6e & Oral Presentations in the Composition Course (2008) 1 copy
Instructor's manual to accompany Barnet & Stubb's Practical guide to writing, third edition and third edition with… (1980) 1 copy
Instructor's Handbook to Accompany Literature for Composition Essays, Fiction, Poetry and Drama 5th Edition (1999) 1 copy
Associated Works
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (1589) — Editor, some editions — 32,422 copies, 169 reviews
4 Plays: Hamlet; King Lear; Macbeth; Othello (1982) — Editor, some editions; Introduction, some editions — 1,130 copies, 2 reviews
The Importance of Being Earnest / Salomé / Lady Windermere's Fan (1898) — Introduction, some editions — 720 copies, 4 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1926-12-11
- Date of death
- 2016-01-11
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Place of death
- Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- Cause of death
- brain cancer
- Places of residence
- Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- Education
- Harvard University (Ph.D.)
New York University
Erasmus Hall High School - Occupations
- literary critic
Shakespearean scholar
professor (English) - Relationships
- Burto, William (life partner)
- Organizations
- Tufts University
Members
Reviews
Eight Great Tragedies: The Complete Texts of the… by Morton Berman
A superb collection of tragedies with selected commentaries that augment the texts. While there are specific editions that offer superior texts for reading and analyzing individual plays, this is helpful for reading and debating a range of tragedies.
Genius might be a bit...strong...for a number of these plays. They are standard issue morality plays from the early English theatre, and many of them are rather tedious. There are some truly great works in here, such as MacBeth and Marlowe's Faust. Jonson's Volpone completes the trifecta of worthy plays. I'm afraid Milton's Samson Agonistes left me cold. It probably reads better as poetry than as a play, but even then, it was too repetitive, and way too much logorrhea.
A drama text book so the essays were a little dry, but a good broad collection of plays spanning the centuries.
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Statistics
- Works
- 46
- Also by
- 19
- Members
- 4,308
- Popularity
- #5,826
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 16
- ISBNs
- 239