Russel Blaine Nye | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 17, 1913 Viola, Wisconsin, US |
| Died | September 2, 1993 (aged 80) |
| Alma mater | Oberlin College University of Wisconsin |
| Awards | Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography (1945) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | English and American Culture |
| Institutions | Michigan State University |
Russel Blaine Nye (February 17, 1913 – September 2, 1993) was an American professor of English who in the 1960s pioneered popular culture studies.[1] He was the author of a dozen books, including George Bancroft: Brahmin Rebel which won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.
Born in Viola, Wisconsin, Nye received his bachelor's degree from Oberlin College in 1934 and his master's degree from the University of Wisconsin in English the following year. In 1938 he married Kathryn Chaney, and in 1940 he completed his doctorate on George Bancroft again at the University of Wisconsin.[2] Nye taught in the English department at Michigan State University from 1941 to 1979.[3]
In 1957 after Ralph Ulveling, the director of the Detroit Public Library, claimed that L. Frank Baum's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz had no value and should not be stocked by libraries, Nye and Martin Gardner published a new critical edition of the novel highlighting its value, causing a firestorm of controversy, followed by eventual acceptance.
In 1970 he co-founded the Popular Culture Association with Ray B. Browne and Marshall Fishwick, working to shape a new academic discipline called Popular Culture Theory that blurred the traditional distinctions between high and low culture, focusing on mass culture mediums like television and the Internet, and cultural archetypes like comic book heroes.
He died in Lansing, Michigan in 1993.
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Special Collections Overview | MSU Libraries | PBS WKAR
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Sunday School Books | MSU Libraries | PBS WKAR
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YouTube Copyright School
Transcription
BERG- Special Collections is where the university library holds its rare and special research collections. SCOTT- Whether they're old and rare, or new and controversial or ephemeral and fragile. BERG- It includes a rare book collection, with books going back to the 15th century. Our earliest book was printed in 1472, but it also encompasses special research collections in popular culture and in radicalism. The Russell Nye collection, which features about 300,000 cataloged items, is easily one of the best collections of popular culture in the world. It began in the early 1970’s with a donation by Professor Russell Nye, who taught here in the English Department. SCOTT- It tries to capture those parts of American Culture that were not traditionally part of academic libraries, meaning popular entertainment and popular information. Textbooks, Sunday School Books, Fiction. In the genres: Westerns, Science Fiction, and Harlequin Romances, and of course comic books, which is my favorite. -Batman #39- BERG- Special Collections Material is held in closed stacks, that’s in contrast to what people normally think with libraries, where they can go up to the stacks and browse through them. Ours are on closed stacks so we can keep them secure, because they are important, rare, special, and we wish them to be here for future generations to use. When individuals come to the reading room, we page the book for them, -SCOTT: I’m on a mission, getting a book for a patron.- BERG: We bring it out. We ask them to keep all bags and backpacks in a special area, and allow them only to use paper and pencil at the desk. If they have a laptop that’s perfectly fine, but we don’t want them to have ink or food at the table because we want to protect this material. Russell Nye was probably one of the most important professors ever to work here at MSU. He began his career here in the 1940’s, and he was the original donor of what is now the Russell B. Nye Popular Culture Collection. It was his work on the book “The Unembarrassed Muse,” in which he studied the popular arts in the United States primarily in the 19th century, that was the seed for the collection that is now the Russell B. Nye Popular Culture Collection.
Works
- Russel B. Nye, The Mind and Art of George Bancroft (1939)[4]
- Russel B. Nye, George Bancroft: Brahmin Rebel (1944)[5]
- Russel B. Nye, Fettered Freedom: Civil Liberties and the Slavery Controversy 1830-1860 (1948) Michigan State University Press
- Russel B. Nye and Jack Eric Morpurgo, A History of the United States. Volume One: The Birth of the U.S.A. (1955)
- Russel B. Nye and Jack Eric Morpurgo, A History of the United States. Volume Two: The Growth of the U.S.A. (1955; Third Edition 1970) Penguin Books
- Russel B. Nye and Martin Gardner, The Wizard of Oz and Who He Was (1957)[6]
- Russel B. Nye, The cultural life of the new Nation, 1776-1830 (1960) New York: Harper
- Russel B. Nye, This almost chosen people; essays in the history of American ideas (1966) Michigan State University Press
- Russel B. Nye and Ray B. Browne, Crises on Campus (1971)[7]
- Russel B. Nye and Arra M. Garab, Modern Essays (1971)[8]
- Russel B. Nye, Society and culture in America, 1830-1860 (1974) New York: Harper
- Joseph G. Waldmeir, Essays in Honor of Russel B. Nye (1978)[9]
- Harold E. Hinds et al. (eds.), Popular Culture Theory and Methodology: A Basic Introduction (2006)[10]
References
- ^ "Russel B Nye". Social Security Death Index. New England Historic Genealogical Society. Retrieved June 24, 2011.
- ^ "Russel B(laine) Nye - 1913-1993" Contemporary Authors Gale
- ^ Waldmeir, Joseph, Essays in Honor of Russel B. Nye (East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press, 1978), vii.
- ^ Nye, Russel Blaine (1939-01-01). The mind and art of George Bancroft. University of Wisconsin--Madison.
- ^ Nye, Russel Blaine (1972-01-01). George Bancroft, Brahmin Rebel. Octagon Books. ISBN 9780374961336.
- ^ Baum, Lyman Frank; Gardner, Martin; Nye, Russel Blaine (1994-12-01). The Wizard of Oz and who he was. Michigan State University Press. ISBN 9780870133664.
- ^ Nye, Russel B.; Browne, Ray Broadus (1971-01-01). Crises on campus. Bowling Green University Press. ISBN 9780879720612.
- ^ Nye, Russel B.; Garab, Arra M. (1971-01-01). Modern Essays. Scott, Forsman and Company.
- ^ Waldmeir, Joseph J. (1978-01-01). Essays in Honor of Russel B. Nye. Michigan State University Press. ISBN 9780870132094.
- ^ Hinds, Harold E.; Motz, Marilyn Ferris; Nelson, Angela M. S. (2006-01-01). Popular Culture Theory and Methodology: A Basic Introduction. Popular Press. ISBN 9780879728717.
Sources
- "Russel Nye, Historian, Dies at 80; A Student of Comics, Jazz and TV" New York Times, September 5, 1993
- Herder, Dale (1994) "A Tribute to Russel B. Nye 1913 -- 1993"] MSU Alumni Magazine, Winter 1994
- Brief Biography on the Wisconsin Library Association's web site [1]
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This page was last edited on 15 February 2024, at 06:05