Joseph Warren Beach - Life

Life

Beach had been drawn to the University of Minnesota from Gloversville, New York, by the school's president, his uncle, Cyrus Northrop. For teachers there, "he wrote his first poetry and his brilliant undergraduate papers," wrote University of Minnesota historian James Gray.

Following Beach's graduation from the University of Minnesota with a B.A. in 1900, he became an instructor in rhetoric. After earning his M.A. (1902) and Ph.D. (1907) at Harvard University, Beach returned to Minneapolis in 1907 to join the faculty of the Department of English at the University of Minnesota. Starting as Assistant Professor, he became Associate Professor in 1917 and Professor in 1924. Beach chaired the English Department from 1940 to 1948, after which time he retired. William van O'Connor, noted critic and professor in the English Department, wrote that at the time of his death Beach was "the most distinguished scholar" the department had ever had.

After retirement from the University of Minnesota, Beach never stopped teaching. He taught at Harvard University and the University of Illinois, and then at the Sorbonne in Paris, and the University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, France. He was then a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University and at the University of Vienna in Vienna, Austria.