Nathalia Wright

Nathalia Wright
President of the Melville Society
In office
1956–1957
In office
1972–1973
President of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association
In office
1978–1979
Personal details
Born(1913-03-29)March 29, 1913
Athens, Georgia, U.S.
DiedNovember 22, 2004(2004-11-22) (aged 91)
Maryville, Tennessee, U.S.
OccupationLiterary scholar
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship (1953)
Academic background
Alma mater
ThesisMelville's Use of the Bible (1949)
Academic work
DisciplineAmerican literature
InstitutionsUniversity of Tennessee

Nathalia Wright (March 29, 1913 – November 22, 2004) was an American scholar of American literature. A 1953 Guggenheim Fellow, her work included Melville's Use of the Bible (1949), Horatio Greenough: The First American Sculptor (1963), American Novelists in Italy (1965), Questionnaire for the Investigation of American Regional English (1972), and A Word Geography of England (1974) - the last two of which she co-authored with Harold Orton - as well as the edited volumes The Complete Works of Washington Irving: Journals and Notebooks, Volume I, 1803-1806 (1969), Letters of Horatio Greenough: American Sculptor (1972), and The Correspondence of Washington Allston (1993). She was a full professor at the University of Tennessee, as well as president of the Melville Society (1956-1957; 1972-1973) and of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association (1978-1979).

Biography

Nathalia Wright was born on March 29, 1913, in Athens, Georgia.[1] She was the only child of Elizabeth (née MacNeal) and Hilliard Carlisle Wright,[1] the latter of whom ran a store in Maryville, Tennessee.[2] After going to Maryville High School,[2] she obtained a BA with honors from Maryville College in 1933.[1] She then attended Yale University, where she obtained an MA in 1938 and PhD in 1949;[1] her doctoral dissertation was titled Melville's Use of the Bible.[2] She also published a poetry volume through Hawthorne House, The Inner Room, in 1938.[1]

After working at her alma mater Maryville as an librarian and instructor in the 1930s and 1940s (sources conflict on the exact years),[1][3] Wright joined the University of Tennessee as an assistant professor in 1949.[1] She was promoted to associate professor in 1955 and full professor in 1962.[1] A faculty member of the Department of English, she was also associate director of graduate studies from 1970 to 1976.[4] In 1972, she became the first woman named as UT's Macebearer.[4] She was a 1975 UT Alumni Distinguished Service Professor and won the Notable UT Woman Award in 2000.[2] She retired from UT in 1982.[2]

Wright specialized in American literature, with The Daily Times calling her "one of the foremost scholars on the works of Herman Melville".[2] She published several books and edited volumes, including Melville's Use of the Bible (1949), Horatio Greenough: The First American Sculptor (1963), American Novelists in Italy (1965), The Complete Works of Washington Irving: Journals and Notebooks, Volume I, 1803-1806 (1969), Letters of Horatio Greenough: American Sculptor (1972), Questionnaire for the Investigation of American Regional English (1972), A Word Geography of England (1974), and The Correspondence of Washington Allston (1993).[1] She also edited four Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints editions, two of which were Greenough works, as well as editions of Mary Noailles Murfree's In the Tennessee Mountains and Herman Melville's Mardi.[1] She was an editorial board member of Publications of the Modern Language Association from 1970 to 1975.[1]

In 1953,[5] Wright was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to do research on sculptor Horatio Greenough.[3] She was president of the Melville Society from 1956 to 1957 and 1972 to 1973,[6] as well as of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association from 1978 until 1979 and the Modern Language Association's American Literature section in 1977.[4][2] She was a member of the American Council of Learned Societies board of directors.[2] She was also a 1959-1960 American Association of University Women fellow.[4]

Wright was a resident of Maryville for more than six decades, and she was also part of the local St. Andrew's Episcopal Church.[2]

Wright died on November 22, 2004, at Blount Transitional Care Center in Maryville, following years of declining health.[2] She was aged 91.[2] The John C. Hodges Library has a plaque dedicated to her in one of the faculty study rooms.[4]

Bibliography

Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints editions

  • (ed., by Horatio Greenough) The Travels, Observations, and Experience of a Yankee Stonecutter (1958)[1]
  • (ed., by John Galt) The Life of Benjamin West (1959)[1]
  • (ed., by Washington Allston) Lectures on Art and Poems and Monaldi (1967)[1]
  • (ed., by Greenough) The Miscellaneous Writings of Horatio Greenough (1975)[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "Nathalia Wright". Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors. Retrieved July 16, 2025 – via Gale In Context: Biography.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Former UT professor dies in Maryville". The Daily Times. November 28, 2004. Archived from the original on November 29, 2004. Retrieved July 17, 2025.
  3. ^ a b Reports of the Secretary and Treasurer. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 1953. p. 91.
  4. ^ a b c d e Creekmore, Betsey B. "Wright, Nathalia". Volopedia. Retrieved July 16, 2025.
  5. ^ "Nathalia Wright". Guggenheim Fellows. Archived from the original on February 25, 2025. Retrieved July 17, 2025.
  6. ^ "Committee History". The Melville Society. Archived from the original on March 1, 2022. Retrieved July 17, 2025.
  7. ^ Braswell, William (1950). "Review of Melville's Use of the Bible". American Literature. 22 (3): 359–360. doi:10.2307/2921311. ISSN 0002-9831. JSTOR 2921311.
  8. ^ Hyman, Stanley Edgar (1950). "The Deflowering of New England". The Hudson Review. 2 (4): 600–612. doi:10.2307/3847715. ISSN 0018-702X. JSTOR 3847715.
  9. ^ Ryan, Robert C. (1971). "Review of The Poetry of Melville's Late Years: Time, History, Myth, and Religion; Selected Poems of Herman Melville: A Reader's Edition; Melville: The Ironic Diagram; The Melville Archetype; Progress into Silence: A Study of Melville's Heroes; The Tailoring of Melville's White-Jacket; Moby-Dick as Doubloon: Essays and Extracts (1951-1970); Melville's Use of the Bible; Milton and Melville; Melville and the Comic Spirit". Studies in Romanticism. 10 (3): 230–240. doi:10.2307/25599806. ISSN 0039-3762. JSTOR 25599806.
  10. ^ Vincent, Howard P. (1950). "Review of Melville's Use of the Bible; Herman Melville, a Critical Study". The New England Quarterly. 23 (1): 109–112. doi:10.2307/361598. ISSN 0028-4866. JSTOR 361598.
  11. ^ Walsh, Chad (1950). "Review of Melville's Use of the Bible". Journal of Bible and Religion. 18 (2): 138–138. ISSN 0885-2758. JSTOR 1456962.
  12. ^ Brumbaugh, Thomas B. (1964). "Review of Horatio Greenough the First American Sculptor". The New England Quarterly. 37 (3): 420–422. doi:10.2307/364051. ISSN 0028-4866. JSTOR 364051.
  13. ^ Wiggins, Robert A. (1964). "Review of Horatio Greenough: The First American Sculptor". American Quarterly. 16 (3): 508–509. doi:10.2307/2710949. ISSN 0003-0678. JSTOR 2710949.
  14. ^ Dwyer, John (1976). "Review of American Novelists in Italy. The Discoverers: Allston to James". Italian Americana. 3 (1): 110–112. ISSN 0096-8846. JSTOR 29775909.
  15. ^ Woodress, James (1966). "Review of American Novelists in Italy: The Discoverers: Allston to James". American Literature. 37 (4): 495–497. doi:10.2307/2923157. ISSN 0002-9831. JSTOR 2923157.
  16. ^ Beard, James Franklin (1970). "Review of The Complete Works of Washington Irving; Volume I, Journals and Notebooks, 1803-1806; Volume III, Journals and Notebooks, 1819-1827., Washington Irving". American Literature. 42 (3): 397–399. doi:10.2307/2923921. ISSN 0002-9831. JSTOR 2923921.
  17. ^ "Review of The Scientific Community". The American Biology Teacher. 29 (5): 396–396. 1967. doi:10.2307/4441757. ISSN 0002-7685. JSTOR 4441757.
  18. ^ Pickering, James H. (1970). "Review of The Complete Works of Washington Irving: Journals and Notebooks, Volume I, 1803-1806". American Quarterly. 22 (2): 289–289. doi:10.2307/2712134. ISSN 0003-0678. JSTOR 2712134.
  19. ^ Roth, Martin (1971). "Review of Journals and Notebooks. Vol. 1: 1803-1806". Modern Philology. 69 (2): 178–180. ISSN 0026-8232. JSTOR 436772.
  20. ^ Wagenknecht, Edward (1970). "Review of "The Complete Works of Washington Irving"". The New England Quarterly. 43 (1): 147–149. doi:10.2307/363707. ISSN 0028-4866. JSTOR 363707.
  21. ^ Friedlaender, Marc (1974). "Review of Letters of Horatio Greenough, American Sculptor". The New England Quarterly. 47 (1): 135–137. doi:10.2307/364335. ISSN 0028-4866. JSTOR 364335.
  22. ^ Martus, Julia (1974). "Review of Letters of Horatio Greenough: American Sculptor; White Silence: Greenough, Powers, and Crawford, Sculptors in Nineteenth Century Italy". Art Journal. 33 (3): 278–280. doi:10.2307/775801. ISSN 0004-3249. JSTOR 775801.
  23. ^ Duckert, Audrey R.; McDavid, Raven I. (1972). "Of Work Sheets and Questionnaires". American Speech. 47 (3/4): 278–285. doi:10.2307/3087963. ISSN 0003-1283. JSTOR 3087963.
  24. ^ Francis, W. Nelson (1978). "Review of A Word Geography of England". American Speech. 53 (3): 221–231. doi:10.2307/455193. ISSN 0003-1283. JSTOR 455193.
  25. ^ Hargreaves, Henry (1976). "Review of A Word Geography of England". The Review of English Studies. 27 (107): 322–323. ISSN 0034-6551. JSTOR 515284.
  26. ^ Jones, Charles (1976). "Review of A Word Geography of England". The Modern Language Review. 71 (4): 867–869. doi:10.2307/3725959. ISSN 0026-7937. JSTOR 3725959.
  27. ^ Brady, Patricia (1994). "Review of The Correspondence of Washington Allston". Journal of the Early Republic. 14 (2): 265–266. doi:10.2307/3124235. ISSN 0275-1275. JSTOR 3124235.
  28. ^ Mack, Angela (1994). "Review of The Correspondence of Washington Allston". The South Carolina Historical Magazine. 95 (1): 78–79. ISSN 0038-3082. JSTOR 27569986.
  29. ^ Miller, David C. (1994). "Review of The Correspondence of Washington Allston". The New England Quarterly. 67 (2): 329–331. doi:10.2307/366086. ISSN 0028-4866. JSTOR 366086.
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