# Robert B. Heilman > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Robert_B._Heilman > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Robert_B._Heilman.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_B._Heilman > Source revision: 1336556079 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) American educator (1906–2004) **Robert Bechtold Heilman** (July 18, 1906 – August 5, 2004) was an American educator and writer. ## Life in academia Heilman attended [Lafayette College](/source/Lafayette_College) and later received his Ph.D. in English from [Harvard University](/source/Harvard_University) in 1935. Soon after, he began teaching at [Louisiana State University](/source/Louisiana_State_University) (LSU). His entry into LSU occurred shortly after the rise of the [Fugitive poets](/source/Fugitive_poets). While he was at LSU, many of his colleagues were influenced by the school of [New Criticism](/source/New_Criticism). In 1948 Heilman joined the [University of Washington](/source/University_of_Washington) faculty, as chair of the English department, which he led until his retirement in 1971.[1] ## "The Southern Temper" One example of Heilman's writing is his essay "The Southern Temper", in the collection *Southern Renascence: The Literature of the Modern South* (1953). In this piece, Heilman argues that there are five components to [Southern writing](/source/Southern_writing), and that Southern writing should be valued for its ability to mix these components into a balanced canon: 1. sense of the elemental: complement to the ornamental, emphasizes the action as unembellished, Ex. violence seen in the works of Faulkner as examples of the elemental. 1. sense of the ornamental: “…the awareness of style as integral in all kinds of communication…” ex. writings of Robert Warren 1. sense of the concrete: writings “…incline not to linger in the realm of theory as such but to hurry on to the exemplary case” 1. sense of the representative: one obligation to the present is to refer to the past 1. sense of totality: “…we do not live alone in time, thrust into eminence, and into finality, by what went before, servile and unentangling” again, importance of the past ## Books - *America in English Fiction 1760 to 1800: The Influences of the American Revolution* (1937, 1968) - *Aspects of Democracy* (1941, 1968) (edited) - *Aspects of a World at War* (1943) - *Understanding Drama: Twelve Plays* (1945, 1948) (with [Cleanth Brooks](/source/Cleanth_Brooks)) - *This Great Stage: Image and Structure in King Lear* (1948, 1963) - *An Anthology of English Drama before Shakespeare* (1952) (edited) - *Modern Short Stories: A Critical Anthology* (1953, 1971) (edited) - *Shakespearean Tragedy and the Drama of Disaster* (1960) - *Tragedy and Melodrama: Versions of Experience* (1968) - *The Ghost on the Ramparts, and Other Essays in the Humanities* (1973) - *The Iceman, the Arsonist, and the Troubled Agent: Tragedy and Melodrama on the Modern Stage* (1973) - *Magic in the Web: Action & Language in Othello* (1977) - *The Ways of the World: Comedy and Society* (1978) - *Shakespeare, the Tragedies: New Perspectives* (1984) (edited) - *The Southern Connection: Essays* (1991) - *The Workings of Fiction: Essays* (1993) - *The Professor and the Profession* (1999) - *Robert B. Heilman and [Eric Voegelin](/source/Eric_Voegelin): A Friendship in Letters, 1944–1984* (2004) (edited by Charles R. Embry) - *Robert B. Heilman: His Life in Letters* (2009) (edited by Edward Alexander, Richard Dunn, and Paul Jaussen) ## Robert B. Heilman Prize Heilman contributed for 60 years to the *[Sewanee Review](/source/Sewanee_Review)*, and was an advisory editor for nearly 30 years. The editor from 1973 to 2016, George Core, wrote of him: "The greatness of Bob Heilman was demonstrated many times as he discharged his many offices – teacher, administrator, scholar, critic, editor, essayist, citizen in the body politic – with vast accomplishment and unfailing panache."[2] Beginning in 1994, the *Sewanee Review* has awarded an annual prize in Heilman's name for the most accomplished book reviewing in the magazine in the calendar year. Recipients of the Robert B. Heilman Prize have been: - 1994 — [George Woodcock](/source/George_Woodcock) - 1995 — Edward L. Galligan - 1996 — Judith Weissman - 1997 — J. A. Bryant, Jr - 1998 — [William Harmon](/source/William_Harmon) - 1999 — [Sam Pickering](/source/Samuel_Pickering) - 2000 — [Walter Sullivan](/source/Walter_Sullivan_(novelist)) - 2001 — Scott Donaldson - 2002 — Heinz R. Kuehn - 2003 — [Cushing Strout](/source/Cushing_Strout) - 2004 — Stephen Miller - 2005 — Sam Pickering - 2006 — Ed Minus - 2007 — [Ann E. Berthoff](/source/Ann_E._Berthoff) - 2008 — William Harmon - 2009 — Warner Berthoff - 2010 — Merritt Moseley - 2011 — Phillip Parotti - 2012 — Russell Fraser - 2013 — Merritt Moseley - 2014 — George Poe - 2015 — Christopher McDonough ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["Heilman, Robert Bechtold 1906-"](http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/ark:/99166/w65z4r0n). *Social Networks and Archival Context*. Retrieved 2016-09-02. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** George Core, "In Memory of Robert Bechtold Heilman, 1906–2004", *Sewanee Review*, Summer 2004, inside front cover. ## External links - [Lafayette article](https://web.archive.org/web/20110522062724/http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/news/7402)[*[dead link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Link_rot)*] - [Career at Washington](http://www.washington.edu/research/showcase/1948a.html) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20060114034300/http://www.washington.edu/research/showcase/1948a.html) 2006-01-14 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine) - [Heilman, Robert Bechtold 1906-](http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/ark:/99166/w65z4r0n) Authority control databases International ISNI VIAF GND FAST WorldCat National United States France BnF data Netherlands Poland Israel Belgium People Trove Other IdRef SNAC Yale LUX --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Robert B. Heilman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_B._Heilman) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_B._Heilman?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.