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{{Short description|American literary critic, writer, editor and teacher}}
[[File:Portrait of Bliss Perry.jpg|thumb|Bliss Perry, circa 1906]]
'''Bliss Perry''' (25 November 1860 – 13 February 1954), was an American literary critic, writer, editor, and teacher.
==Biography==
Perry was born in [[Williamstown, Massachusetts]] to [[Arthur Latham Perry]], a prominent economist, and Mary Brown Perry. He was educated at [[Williams College]], Williamstown, as well as the universities of [[University of Berlin|Berlin]] and [[University of Strasbourg|Strasbourg]].<ref>* ''Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia'', ed. J R LeMaster and Donald D Kummings, 512.</ref>
Perry taught at Williams from 1886 until 1893. He then taught at [[Princeton University]], where he became acquainted with future US president [[Woodrow Wilson]], Dean [[Andrew Fleming West]], and former US President [[Grover Cleveland]], about whom he wrote entertainingly in his autobiographical work, ''And Gladly Teach''.<ref name=ebooks/> At Princeton he was the Holmes Professor of English Literature from 1893 to 1900.<ref>{{cite web|title=Perry, Bliss (1860-1954)|website=Special Collections, Williams|url=https://specialcollections.williams.edu/williams-history/biographies/bliss-perry-1860-1954/}}</ref> In 1902 he published ''A Study of Prose Fiction'', dedicated "to the Princeton men who used to listen to these discourses".<ref>{{cite book|author=Perry, Bliss|title=A Study of Prose Fiction|year=1902|publisher=Houghton, Mifflin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b_udE5vjU08C}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Review of ''A Study of Prose Fiction'' by Bliss Perry|journal=The Athenaeum|issue=3941|date=May 9, 1903|pages=588–589|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oKA5AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA588}}</ref> Perry taught at [[Harvard University]] between 1907 and 1930 and was the Harvard lecturer at the [[University of Paris]] from 1909 to 1910. From 1899 to 1909 he was the editor of ''[[The Atlantic Monthly]]''.<ref name=ebooks>{{cite web|title=Bliss Perry|website=ebooks-library.com|url=http://www.ebooks-library.com/author.cfm/AuthorID/1039}}</ref>
Perry was awarded the [[Legion of Honour]] by the French. He edited the works of [[Edmund Burke]], Sir [[Walter Scott]], and [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]]. From 1905 until 1909 he was general editor of the [[Cambridge University Press|Cambridge]] edition of the major American poets. He wrote extensively,<ref name=ebooks/> including monographs on [[Walt Whitman]],<ref>{{cite journal|journal=The Cambridge Review|title=Review of ''Walt Whitman, his life and work'' by Bliss Perry|date=December 6, 1906|volume=28|page=249|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gLFNAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA149}}</ref> [[John Greenleaf Whittier]],<ref>{{cite book|author=Perry, Bliss|title=John Greenleaf Whittier: A sketch of his life and work, with selected poems|year=1908|publisher=Houghton, Mifflin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8YYpAQAAIAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Review of ''John Greenleaf Whitter: A sketch of his life and work'' by Bliss Perry|journal=The Cambridge Review|date=May 21, 1908|volume=29|page=384|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dfo9AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA384}}</ref> [[Thomas Carlyle]]<ref>{{cite journal|title=Review of ''Carlyle, how to know him'' by Bliss Perry|journal=Princeton Alumni Weekly|date=December 8, 1915|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ThJbAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA249|volume=XVI|pages=249–250}}</ref> and Emerson.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Hinds, A. E.|title=Review of ''Emerson today'' by Bliss Perry|journal=Princeton Alumni Weekly|date=November 27, 1931|page=209|volume=XXXII|issue=10|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kBJbAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA209}}</ref> He was also a prolific writer of novels, short fiction, essays, studies in poetry, and an autobiography.<ref name=ebooks/>
Perry is famed in certain Vermont lore for "establishing" the "summer colony" of [[Greensboro, Vermont]]. He enjoyed its tranquil setting and its distance from the cares of the busy world of the ''Atlantic Monthly'' and his professorships. Fly fishing was one of his key hobbies, which led to the publication of "Fishing With a Worm."<ref>LeMaster and Kummings.</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Perry, Bliss|title=Fishing with a Worm|year=1916|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008921753}}</ref>
Perry was the brother of Dr. [[Lewis Perry]], headmaster of [[Phillips Exeter Academy]] from 1914 to 1946.
In 1954 Perry died in [[Exeter, New Hampshire]].
==References==
{{Reflist}}
== External links ==
{{wikisource author}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=1188| name=Bliss Perry}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Bliss Perry |sopt=t}}
* {{Librivox author |id=4198}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perry, Bliss}}
[[Category:1860 births]]
[[Category:1954 deaths]]
[[Category:The Atlantic (magazine) people]]
[[Category:Williams College alumni]]
[[Category:Williams College faculty]]
[[Category:Harvard University faculty]]
[[Category:Princeton University faculty]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Paris]]
[[Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters]]