M. H. Abrams celebrates 100th birthday

Here is a revealing birthday profile of M.H. Abrams, who turned 100 years old, peer of Lionel Trilling, teacher of Harold Bloom, and editor of the Norton Anthology. The article, here, appeared in The Tablet.

A quote from the article by Adam Kirsch:

“What he demonstrates in The Mirror and the Lamp is that the intellectual lenses through which we understand the world and ourselves are always changing; what he shows in Natural Supernaturalism is that our deep longings for transformation and redemption are constant. The combination of these two insights naturally leads to a certain tolerance, a forgiving kind of relativism, when it comes to ideas and theories, none of which is allowed to have a monopoly on truth.”