Levin, Harry

Levin, Harry (Tuchman)

(1912–94) scholar, literary critic; born in Minneapolis, Minn. Precocious as an undergraduate at Harvard, he never bothered with a Ph.D. but stayed on as professor of comparative literature (1939–83). Noted for his somewhat mannered style, he wrote perceptively on Elizabethan drama, the modern novel, and French literature. He was also famous for his highly composed lectures: once, as a guest lecturer at Oxford, he timed his quoting of the line from Marlowe's Dr. Faustus about the clock striking so that it came just as Christ Church College's "Great Tom" struck noon.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.