Vernon Louis Parrington

Vernon Louis Parrington (August 3, 1871 – June 16, 1929) was an American literary historian, scholar, and college football coach. The first two volumes of his is three-volume history of American letters, Main Currents in American Thought, won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1928 and was one of the most influential books for American historians of its time. The third volume approximately half completed was completed by his associates and students after his sudden death in 1929. Parrington taught at the College of Emporia, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Washington. He was also the head football coach at the College of Emporia from 1893 to 1896 and Oklahoma from 1897 to 1900. Parrington founded the American studies movement in 1927.

Early life and education

Born in Aurora, Illinois, to a Republican family that soon moved to Emporia, Kansas, Parrington attended the College of Emporia and Harvard University, receiving his B.A. from the latter institution in 1893. He did not undertake graduate study. He was appalled by the hardships of Kansas farmers in the 1890s, and began moving left. He began his career teaching English and coaching football at the College of Emporia, which awarded him a master's degree in 1895 "for work completed 'in course.'"

Career

Parrington moved to the University of Oklahoma in 1897, where he taught British literature, organized the department of English, coached the football team, played on the baseball team, edited the campus newspaper, and tried to beautify the campus. He published little and in 1908 he was fired due to pressures from religious groups who wanted all "immoral faculty" fired. Oklahomans who remember him say: "Parrington? Oh yes, He was the man in English for a number of yeaars at the University of Oklahoma. The one who left in about 1908 after he was condemened for smoking cigarets in Public." From there he went on to a distinguished academic career at the University of Washington.