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LINDEN KENT MEMORIAL SCHOOL OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.
Professor Kent
This School, recently founded upon a liberal donation from Mrs. Linden
Kent, of Washington, D. C., as a memorial to her late husband, a distinguished
alumnus of this University,[1]
will embrace the work offered in English Literature,
Rhetoric, and Belles Lettres. Three courses will be given.
The B. A. Course will comprise, first, a careful study of the principles of
style and invention in prose discourse, with abundant exercise in essay-writing
and in the critical analysis of selected specimens of English prose. The second
part of this course will consist of a general view of literature in England and
America. Critical essays will be required, and parallel reading will be prescribed.
The M. A. Course will be varied from year to year, but for the next session
will be devoted to the study of poetry. It will be divided into two parts,
which, however, are closely connected. First, by means of text books and the
Professor's lectures the class will study the principles of versification, the morphology
of verse, the forms of verse, the kinds of poetry, and the history of
English poetry. Class exercises of various kinds will be assigned from time to
time. The class will then proceed to a close study of the representative writers
of poetry in England and America. The work of the second part of the course
will be composed of assigned readings, lectures by the Professor, written criticisms
and oral discussions by the students. For graduation, in addition to the
usual examinations, a dissertation will be required, showing original and independent
work.
The Ph. D. Course will be in some measure adapted to the needs of the
students desiring to pursue it. Its purposes will be to cultivate more fully the
love of letters, to encourage independent and scholarly research, and to further
the art of literary expression. It will include the study of some writer, or school
of writers, or of some period or movement of literature, and will take into consideration
the political, social and literary characteristics of the time.
Text-books in the several courses will be assigned at the beginning of the session.
Linden Kent was born at Louisa Courthouse, Va., 26th December, 1846, and died
in Washington, D. C., 4th October, 1892. He entered the Confederate States Army in
1863, at the age of sixteen, and served through the rest of the civil war, until his capture at
Sailor's Creek, Amelia county, three days before Lee's surrender. In October, 1867, he
entered the University of Virginia, and remained three years as a student in the Academical
and Law Departments, being graduated in 1870 as B. L. During his connection with the
University he was medalist of the Washington Society and editor of the University Magazine.
Shortly after his graduation he removed to Alexandria, Va., and thence, in 1881, to
Washington, D. C. His career at the bar was eminently successful, and his entire life such
as to reflect dignity and distinction upon his Alma Mater.
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