Blackmur, Richard Palmer

Blackmur, Richard Palmer, 1904–65, American critic and poet, b. Springfield, Mass. Although he had no formal education after high school, he was a resident fellow (1940–48) and professor (1948–65) at Princeton. His volumes of alert, precise, yet provisional appraisals of literature include The Art of the Novel (1934), The Double Agent (1935), The Expense of Greatness (1940), Language as Gesture (1952), Lion and the Honeycomb (1955), and Primer of Ignorance (1967). He also wrote such volumes of poetry as From Jordan's Delight (1937) and Second World (1942).