William A. Henry III
William A. Henry III | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1950 |
| Died | 1994 (aged 43–44) |
| Education | Yale University (BA) |
| Occupation | Cultural critic |
William Alfred Henry III (1950–1994) was an American cultural critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning author.
Career
Henry lived in North Plainfield, New Jersey as a young man. He graduated from Yale in 1971 and began his career in journalism in Boston, writing for the Boston Globe. His coverage of school desegregation in Boston won a Pulitzer Prize in 1975. He also wrote on the arts for the Globe, winning a second Pulitzer for his television criticism in 1980.[1]
In the 1980s he worked as an arts critic for Time magazine, while pursuing his interests in cultural criticism and in American politics. Among his articles for Time was a story critical of the Hollywood trade newspapers in their cozy relationship in an industry town.[2] In 1984, he wrote Visions of America, an account of the American presidential campaign of that year. His 1990 video documentary of Bob Fosse, Steam Heat, won an Emmy.[citation needed] He also wrote a 1992 biography of Jackie Gleason, The Great One.[3][4]
His final book was In Defense of Elitism, a work of social and cultural criticism that argued that societies and cultures might be ranked on a spectrum ranging from 'egalitarianism' to 'elitism', and that the contemporary United States had moved too far away from the latter; a view he defended with reference to college education, multiculturalism, and other topics. He died of a heart attack on June 28, 1994, while the book was coming to press.[5]
Publications
- Henry, William A. (1985). Visions of America : how we saw the 1984 election. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 9780871130129. OCLC 564291516.
- Henry, William A. (1992). The Great One: The Life and Legend of Jackie Gleason. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-41533-0. OCLC 651898009 – via Internet Archive.
- Henry, William A. (1994). In Defense of Elitism. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-47943-1. OCLC 30155600.
References
- ^ Official website of the Pulitzer Prize
- ^ Trades Blow No Ill Winds, TIME, September 27, 1982
- ^ Henry, III, William A. (1992). The Great One: The Life and Legend of Jackie Gleason. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-41533-0. OCLC 651898009 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Henry's biographical sketch at Random House, which published In Defense of Elitism
- ^ Short obituary of Henry at Time magazine; long obituary of Henry at TIME Magazine
External links
- George Scialabba's review of In Defense of Elitism
- Roger Kimball's article in The New Criterion, April 2001 references In Defense of Elitism
Pulitzer Prize for Criticism (1976–2000) | ||
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