tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615090486175644658.post7688357060357718951..comments2023-10-25T06:19:20.288-07:00Comments on A Walker in the City: Writings by Peter Anastas: John W. Aldridge, 1924-2007Peter Anastashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08372139385565530486noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615090486175644658.post-11329622183430647172010-01-02T06:57:36.486-08:002010-01-02T06:57:36.486-08:00I enjoyed your tribute to Aldridge. I first read h...I enjoyed your tribute to Aldridge. I first read his "Lost Generation" when I was in my twenties--over twenty years ago. When I bemoan the loss of the dedicated literary critic, I' thinking less of Kazin or Trilling than of Aldridge, who cast his calm, steely, steady vision on the literary landscape. With him and other like him gone it's like the adults have all left the room. Thanks!Peter Selginhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03493565026700541812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615090486175644658.post-68176771905292266442008-07-30T12:28:00.000-07:002008-07-30T12:28:00.000-07:00The Hopwood Library at the University of Michigan ...The Hopwood Library at the University of Michigan provided this additional information and the web address appears below:<BR/><BR/>John Aldridge<BR/><BR/>John Aldridge, emeritus professor of English, passed away in Madison, Ga, Feb. 7. He retired from active faculty status Dec. 31, 1990, after a highly productive career as teacher and scholar.<BR/><BR/>(Photo courtesy Hopwood Program)<BR/><BR/>Aldridge studied at the University of Chattanooga in his native Tennessee from 1940-43. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1947.<BR/><BR/>His service in the World War II was distinguished; an infantry rifleman and information specialist, he was decorated with the Bronze Star Medal and five bronze combat stars for Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Central Europe, and the Ardennes.<BR/><BR/>Having taught at the University of Wyoming and Sarah Lawrence College, he came to Ann Arbor in 1964 and remained until his retirement. He served as chairman of the editorial board of the Michigan Quarterly Review and, for more than a decade, as chairman of the Hopwood Writing Awards Committee.<BR/><BR/>When his book "After The Lost Generation" appeared in 1951, it was immediately hailed as the rallying cry of a new generation of novelists—writers such as Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal, Truman Capote and Paul Bowles. In his 1985 Introduction to the reissued text, Norman Mailer suggests, "Aldridge was the nearest guideline to absolute truth that the working novelist had in my young days. I wonder if there was ever a critic who understood any better the roots of the problems that best the novelists of his own generation."<BR/><BR/>As critic and cultural arbiter, he remained in the forefront of the literary life of America. He wrote a novel, "The Party At Cranton," and social commentary such as "In The Country of the Young." His other works of literary criticism include such titles as "Time to Murder and Create," "The American Novel and the Way We Live Now," and "Classics and Contemporaries." He was a regular contributor to such magazines as The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire and Harper's, as well as a book commentator on The MacNeil-Lehrer news hour.<BR/><BR/>In his last years he continued to write—producing articles, book reviews and a memoir. Married five times and the father of five sons, he is survived by his widow Patsy Aldridge, who requests that donations in his memory be sent to the Hopwood Awards Program at U-M.<BR/>—Submitted by Nicholas Delbanco, Robert Frost Distinguished University Professor of English Language and Literature <BR/><BR/>http://www.ur.umich.edu/0607/Feb 19 07/obits.shtmlmark bransdorferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14218518135096104529noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615090486175644658.post-85343894644973366532008-07-29T14:02:00.000-07:002008-07-29T14:02:00.000-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.mark bransdorferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14218518135096104529noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615090486175644658.post-73798948011016950782008-07-29T14:01:00.000-07:002008-07-29T14:01:00.000-07:00great tribute by peter anastas to a great teacher,...great tribute by peter anastas to a great teacher, john aldridge. jack aldridge was one of the two great teachers i had in graduate school at the university of michigan. almost thirty years after peter heard jack urge potential writers to flee the university jack was still doing the same thing in ann arbor in the early 1980s. jack helped both my sister and myself to win hopwoods in the 1980s. my sister told me today that jack had recently died from a posting in the hopwood newsletter. i immediately looked for an obituary on the internet and only found the tribute by peter anastas. there should be more, much more, including a full wikipedia entry. jack aldridge was the real thing.mark bransdorferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14218518135096104529noreply@blogger.com