{{short description|20th-century American poet and academic}} {{Lead too short|date=October 2019}} '''Theodore Spencer''' (1902–1949) was an American poet and academic.

==Life== He graduated from Princeton University in 1923, and a Ph.D from Harvard University in 1928. He then taught there, from 1927 to 1949. He was appointed lecturer in English literature at Cambridge University, England, in 1939. In 1942, Spencer gave the Lowell lectures on Shakespeare, published as ''Shakespeare and the Nature of Man'', his most important work. From 1946 to 1949, he was the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard.

Spencer also published essays, short stories, and poetry.

Spencer died of a heart attack in a taxi. His notebook is at Princeton University,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://diglib.princeton.edu/ead/getEad?id=ark:/88435/kk91fk58h|title = Error &#124; Princeton University Library}}</ref> and papers are at Harvard University.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hou00832|title = We've moved}}</ref>

==Awards== * Golden Rose Award

==Works==

===Poetry=== * {{cite book| title=The paradox in the circle| publisher=New Directions| year=1941 }} * {{cite book| title=An act of life| url=https://archive.org/details/actoflife0000spen| url-access=registration| publisher=Harvard University Press| year=1944 }}{{dead link|date=December 2025}} * {{cite book| title=An acre in the seed: Poems| publisher=Harvard University Press| year=1949 }} * {{cite book| title=Poems, 1940-1947| url=https://archive.org/details/poems194019470000spen| url-access=registration| publisher=Harvard University Press| year=1948 }}{{dead link|date=December 2025}}

===Essays=== * {{cite book| title=Shakespeare and the nature of man| publisher=Macmillan| year=1951 }} * {{cite book| title=A garland for John Donne, 1631-1931| url=https://archive.org/details/garlandforjohndo0000spen| url-access=registration| publisher=P. Smith| year=1958 }} * {{cite book| chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WMk9AAAAIAAJ&q=Theodore+Spencer&pg=PA352| chapter=Aldous Huxley review| title=Aldous Huxley, the critical heritage| editor=Donald Watt | isbn=978-0-7100-8114-8 | year=1975 | publisher=Routledge & K. Paul}}

==References== {{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Spencer, Theodore}} Category:1902 births Category:1949 deaths Category:Princeton University alumni Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Harvard University faculty Category:20th-century American poets