Oscar Cargill

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2025}} '''Oscar Cargill''' (19 March 1898, Livermore Falls, Maine – 18 April 1972, Montclair, New Jersey) was a writer, editor, and professor of English.<ref name=ObitNYT>{{cite news|title=Dr. Oscar Cargill of N.Y.U. Dies at 74|newspaper=NY Times|date=20 April 1972|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/20/archives/dr-oscar-cargill-ofnyu-diesat-7-english-professor-emeritus-joined.html|archive-date=21 October 2018|access-date=20 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181021065948/https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/20/archives/dr-oscar-cargill-ofnyu-diesat-7-english-professor-emeritus-joined.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

He graduated in 1922 from Wesleyan University and became an English instructor at Marietta College and then Michigan State University.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Wesleyan University Bulletin|date=December 1923|volume=17|issue=5|page=48|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7a9GAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA9-PA48}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Wesleyan University Bulletin|date=June 1924|volume=18|issue=2|page=52|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7a9GAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA3-PA52}}</ref> He enrolled as a graduate student at Columbia University, studied in 1927–1928 at Stanford University on a Cutting fellowship from Columbia, and received his doctorate from Columbia in 1930. Cargill became a professor at New York University, served for some years as the chair of the English department, and from 1948 to 1966 was the director of N.Y.U.'s American civilization program.<ref name=ObitNYT/>

{{blockquote|A consulting editor on English texts to the Macmillan Company, he also edited more than 35 titles for the Gotham Library series of the N.Y.U. Press. He edited works of Whitman, Thoreau, Henry James, Frank Norris and O'Neill. ... Dr. Cargill was a guiding force in building the English Department at N.Y.U. Distinguished scholars during his tenure included Gay Wilson Allen, Leon Edel, M. L. Rosenthal and David H. Greene.<ref name=ObitNYT/>}}

Most of Cargill's publications dealt with the works of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American authors.<ref>{{cite book|title=Liturgical drama and the reimagining of medieval theater|author=Norton, Michael L.|year=2017|page=77|publisher=Medieval Institute Publications |isbn=9781580442633|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gKoyDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA77}}</ref> Upon his death he was survived by his widow, two daughters, and six grandchildren.<ref name=ObitNYT/>

==Selected publications== *{{cite book|title=Drama and liturgy|year=1930|location=New York|publisher=Columbia University Press}}<ref>{{cite journal|author=Brooks, Neil C.|title=Review of ''Drama and Liturgy'' by Oscar Cargill|journal=The Journal of English and Germanic Philology|volume=30|issue=3|date=July 1931|pages=433–439|jstor=27703541}}</ref> *as editor: {{cite book|title=Social revolt; American literature from 1888 to 1914|location=New York|publisher=Macmillan|year=1933}} *{{cite book|title=Intellectual America; ideas on the march|url=https://archive.org/details/intellectualamer0000carg|url-access=registration|location=New York|publisher=Macmillan|year=1941}}<ref>{{cite journal|author=Thorp, Willard|title=Intellectual Americans (review of ''Intellectual America'' by Oscar Cargill)|journal=Virginia Quarterly Review|year=1938|volume=18|issue=2|pages=280–285|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A5BlNzm78qkC&pg=PA280}}</ref> **{{cite book|title=América intelectual, ideas en marcha, versión castellana y notas de Julio E. Payro|location=Buenos Aires|publisher=Editoria Guillermo Kraft|year=1948}} *as editor: {{cite book|title=Henry D. Thoreau: Selected writings on nature and liberty|location=New York|publisher=Liberal Arts Press|year=1952}} *with Thomas Clark Pollock: {{cite book|title=Thomas Wolfe add Washington Square|publisher=New York University Press|year=1954}} *as editor with Thomas Clark Pollock: {{cite book|title=The correspondence of Thomas Wolfe and Homer Andrew Watt|publisher=New York University Press|year=1954}} *{{cite book|title=Novels of Henry James|url=https://archive.org/details/novelsofhenryjam00carg|url-access=registration|location=New York|publisher=Macmillan|year=1961}}<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=1207382|last1=Clark|first1=Harry Hayden|authorlink=Harry Hayden Clark|title=Reviewed work: The Novels of Henry James, Oscar Cargill|journal=Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature|year=1962|volume=3|issue=1|pages=71–73|doi=10.2307/1207382}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Review of ''The Novels of Henry James'' by Oscar Cargill|website=Kirkus Reviews|date=31 July 1961|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/oscar-cargill/the-novels-of-henry-james/|access-date=20 October 2018|archive-date=21 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181021024748/https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/oscar-cargill/the-novels-of-henry-james/|url-status=live}}</ref> *as editor with N. Bryllion Fagin and William J. Fisher: {{cite book|title=O'Neill and his plays, four decades of criticism|url=https://archive.org/details/oneillhisplaysfo00carg|url-access=registration|location=New York|publisher=New York University Press|year=1961}} *{{cite book|title=Toward a pluralistic criticism. With a preface by Harry T. Moore|location=Carbondale|publisher=Southern Illinois University Press|year=1965}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cargill, Oscar}} Category:American literary critics Category:Wesleyan University alumni Category:Columbia University alumni Category:New York University faculty Category:People from Livermore Falls, Maine Category:1898 births Category:1972 deaths Category:20th-century American people Category:American academics of English literature