The School of Letters was a summer institute and degree-granting (M.A. and Ph.D. minor) program at Indiana University, Bloomington

Indiana University

Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...

. The School moved from Kenyon College

Kenyon College

Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, founded in 1824 by Bishop Philander Chase of The Episcopal Church, in parallel with the Bexley Hall seminary. It is the oldest private college in Ohio...

 in 1951 following the withdrawal of funding of the School of English by the Rockefeller Foundation. I.U. President Herman B. Wells obtained funding from the University and located the School under the administration of Dean John W. Ashton of the College of Arts and Sciences. The School opened under the direction of Prof. Richard B. Hudson and then transitioned to Prof. Newton P. 'Stalky' Stallknecht until his retirement and the School's dissolution in 1972.

Founding of the School of Letters

When Indiana University moved the School from Kenyon to Bloomington they maintained John Crowe Ransom

John Crowe Ransom

John Crowe Ransom was an American poet, essayist, magazine editor, and professor.-Life:...

, Lionel Trilling

Lionel Trilling

Lionel Trilling was an American literary critic, author, and teacher. With wife Diana Trilling, he was a member of the New York Intellectuals and contributor to the Partisan Review. Although he did not establish a school of literary criticism, he is one of the leading U.S...

, Philip Rahv, Austin Warren, and Allen Tate

Allen Tate

John Orley Allen Tate was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1943 to 1944.-Life:...

 as senior fellows, all well-known literary scholars. The Kenyon School of English was founded by three senior fellows, John Crowe Ransom, F. O. Matthiessen

F. O. Matthiessen

Francis Otto Matthiessen was an educator, scholar and literary critic influential in the fields of American literature and American studies.-Scholarly work:...

 and Lionel Trilling and was held during a summer session at Kenyon College from 1948 until 1950. The first session of the School of Letters in Bloomington ran from June 21 to August 1, 1951.

School of Letters Mission Statement

The School's Impact on the Field

Students at the School of Letters included James M. Cox '51 (later would become a faculty member at Indiana University and the School), Martha Banta '62, Paul Lauter '55, and Geoffrey H. Hartman

Geoffrey Hartman

Geoffrey H. Hartman is a German-born American literary theorist, sometimes identified with the Yale School of deconstruction, but also has written on a wide range of subjects, and cannot be categorized by a single school or method.-Biography:...

 '51. The School existed during a period of major change within the field of literary studies from the dominance of New Criticism

New Criticism

New Criticism was a movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic...

 until the rise of Theory. During each session of the School high profile academics, poets, and critics were brought to Bloomington to teach seminars and deliver weekly forum lectures. These instructors included Northrop Frye

Northrop Frye

Herman Northrop Frye, was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century....

, William Empson

William Empson

Sir William Empson was an English literary critic and poet.He was known as "燕卜荪" in Chinese.He was widely influential for his practice of closely reading literary works, fundamental to the New Critics...

, Leslie Fiedler

Leslie Fiedler

Leslie Aaron Fiedler was a Jewish-American literary critic, known for his interest in mythography and his championing of genre fiction. His work also involves application of psychological theories to American literature. He was in practical terms one of the early postmodernist critics working...

, and R. P. Blackmur

R. P. Blackmur

Richard Palmer Blackmur was an American literary critic and poet. He was born and grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. An autodidact, Blackmur worked in a bookshop after graduating from high school, and attended lectures at Harvard University without enrolling...

.