Howard Mumford Jones (April 16, 1892 – May 11, 1980)[1] was an American intellectual historian, literary critic, journalist, poet, and professor of English at the University of Michigan and later at Harvard University.[2]
Jones was the book editor for The Boston Evening Transcript.[3]
Howard Mumford Jones was born on April 16, 1892, in Saginaw, Michigan. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison as an undergraduate, winning oratorical contests there [4]
Before moving to Harvard University, Jones was a member of the English faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1925 he approached president Harry Woodburn Chase, lamenting the absence of a bookstore in the town of Chapel Hill, and offered to open one in his office. This eventually became the Bull's Head Bookshop, now located in Student Stores.[5]
In February 1954, Jones gave the dedicatory address at the opening of an addition to the University of Wisconsin's Memorial Library, entitled "Books and the Independent Mind." The crux of his comments was contained in this comment: "While it is true that we in this nation remain free to be idiotic, it does not necessarily follow that we must be idiotic in order to be free!"[6]
In 1927, Jones married the former Bessie Judith Zaban, of Atlanta, Georgia, in New York City,[7] and they remained married until his death.[2]
Howard Mumford Jones died age 88 on May 11, 1980, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after a brief illness.[2]
The Howard Mumford Jones Professorship of American Studies at Harvard University is named in his honor.[11]
Jones wrote scholarly articles as well as the following books:
Jones also wrote the introduction to Thomas Wentworth Higginson's book Army Life in a Black Regiment (Michigan State University Press, 1960).[13]
