Synopsis
A Shakespearean authority explores the role of imagination and creative force, likening them to an atomic chain reaction.
About the Author(s)
Harold Goddard (1878-1950) was born in Worcester, MA of solid Puritan stock. His grandfather was a minister, and his father a printer who loved books and learning. After receiving a degree in mathematics from Amherst (1900), he studied English literature at Columbia (Ph.D. 1909) and taught at Northwestern University (1904-1909) and Swarthmore College (1909-1946).
He engaged his children in literary games using Blake’s poetry; he quoted the first part of a line, and expected them to finish. Student seminars at the family home included the children as discussants. His love of nature was also integrated with his teaching of his children and of his students.
Through Chaucer, Shakespeare. and Blake to Russian authors like Chekov, Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, Goddard taught philosophy and psychology, and the meaning of and the zest for life. He and his childhood New England friends often regaled each other with Shakespearean puns. His two-volume work The Meaning of Shakespeare was published posthumously in 1951 by University of Chicago Press.
Pendle Hill Pamphlet #57
