Biographer and Booklover Justin Kaplan: 1925-2014

In tribute to an old friend

Justin Kaplan at home

Justin Kaplan ’45, G ’47, who won a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for his first biography of Mark Twain, died on March 2. His biographies of Walt Whitman and Lincoln Steffens, and his other books about life and lives in America attracted readers for their humanity and style as well as for their substance. (For his take on biographical sketches by another author, Rachel Cohen ’94, read his review of A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists.) He also tackled autobiography, writing a joint memoir, Back Then: Two Lives in 1950s New York with his wife, novelist Anne Bernays, who survives him.

Kaplan was also a longtime friend of and occasional contributor to this magazine. When he was reviewing proofs for the seventeenth edition of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, his second go-round as editor of that cultural landmark, then managing editor Christopher Reed paid him a visit to learn something about his modus operandi: “What the Meaning of the Word ‘Is’ Is.”

 

 

 

You might also like

Two Momentous Faculty Retirements

Arthur Kleinman and Harry Lewis depart the classroom.

Five Questions with Cass R. Sunstein

The Harvard Law professor and constitutional scholar on what Star Wars can tell us about today’s Supreme Court

Harvard Releases Antisemitism and Anti-Muslim Task Force Reports

University publishes findings from thorough examinations of campus conditions.

Most popular

Update: Harvard Encampment Ends

As protest numbers dwindled, organizers and administrators reached an agreement

Harvard Releases Antisemitism and Anti-Muslim Task Force Reports

University publishes findings from thorough examinations of campus conditions.

The New Gender Gaps

What to do as men and boys fall behind

Explore More From Current Issue

The Trump Administration's Impact on Higher Education

Unprecedented federal actions against research funding, diversity, speech, and more

89664

Jessica Shand—Math and Music at Harvard

Jessica Shand blends math and music.

89677

Paper Peepshows at Harvard's Baker Library

How “paper peepshows” brought distant realms to life

89684