Austin Warren

Becoming What One Is chronicles the early life of Austin Warren (1899-1986), an important pioneer in the early days of New Criticism and one of the most respected scholars of the twentieth century. This intimate memoir of Warren's formative years begins with his childhood on a New England farm and education at Wesleyan, Harvard, and Princeton and ends with reflections on the scholar's search for identity, religion, and wisdom; the relationship between his profession, education, and his vocation, writing; and the need for a new vision of the role of the teacher. The journey in between is an extraordinary odyssey of spiritual and intellectual discovery - an elegant chronicle of "becoming" by a singular personality who searched ceaselessly for meaning and a wider intellectual world.