Herbert Marshall McLuhan

July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980

Herbert Marshall

• Herbert was a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar, a professor of English literature, a literary critic, a rhetorician, and a communication theorist.

• McLuhan's work is viewed as one of the cornerstones of the study of media theory.

Background Information • McLuhan was born in

Edmonton, Alberta, on July 21, 1911 to Methodist parents Elsie Naomi (née Hall) and Herbert Ernest McLuhan.

• McLuhan's father enlisted in the Canadian army when his business failed and World War I and contracted influenza

The Marshall - McLuhan Family

• "Marshall" was a family name: his maternal grandmother's surname.

• His mother was a Baptist schoolteacher who later in life became an actress.

• His father had a real estate business in Edmonton

More Background Info.

• After Herbert's discharge from the army in 1915, the McLuhan family moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba,

• Marshall went to school attending Kelvin Technical High School before enrolling in the University of Manitoba in 1928

• McLuhan earned a BA (1933)—winning a University Gold Medal in Arts and Sciences—and MA (1934) in English from the University of Manitoba

Education

• He had always wanted to pursue graduate studies in England and McLuhan was accepted for enrollment at the University of Cambridge.

• He entered Trinity Hall, Cambridge in the Fall of 1934, where he studied under I. A. Richards and F. R. Leavis, and was influenced by New Criticism

Education Continued

• These studies formed an important precursor to his later ideas on technological forms

• He received his bachelor's degree from Cambridge in 1936 and began graduate work.

• While studying the trivium at Cambridge he took the first steps toward his eventual conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1937, founded on his reading of G. K. Chesterton.

• After consulting with a minister, his father accepted the decision to convert, despite his mother’s objections

Religion

• McLuhan was devout throughout his life, but his religion remained a private matter.

• He had a lifelong interest in the number three—the trivium, the Trinity—and sometimes said that the Virgin Mary provided intellectual guidance for him

• For the rest of his career he taught

in Roman Catholic institutions of

higher education.

Teaching Career• From 1937 to 1944

he taught English at Saint Louis University

• At Saint Louis he tutored and befriended Walter J. Ong, S.J. (1912–2003)

• He was awarded a Ph.D. in December 1943

Teaching Career Continued

• From 1944 to 1946 McLuhan taught at Assumption College in Windsor, Ontario.

• Moving to Toronto in 1946, McLuhan joined the faculty of St. Michael's College, a Catholic college of the University of Toronto

Advancements In His Field

• In the early 1950s, McLuhan began the Communication and Culture seminars, funded by the Ford Foundation, at the University of Toronto.

• His reputation grew, and the University of Toronto, desperate to keep him, created the Centre for Culture and Technology in 1963.

• McLuhan was named to the Albert Schweitzer Chair in Humanities at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York, for one year (1967–68).

Sickness and Recovery

• While at Fordham, McLuhan was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor; it was treated successfully.

• He returned to Toronto where for the rest of his life, he worked at the University of Toronto and lived in Wychwood Park.

Interesting Information• Marshall and Corinne

McLuhan had six children: Eric, twins Mary and Teresa, Stephanie, Elizabeth and Michael.

• The demanding costs of supporting a large family eventually drove McLuhan to advertising work and consulting and speaking seminars for large corporations such as IBM and AT&T.

Stroke, Followed By Death• The University of Toronto's

School of Graduate Studies attempted to close his research centre shortly after the stroke but was stopped by substantial protests

• The most famous protestor was Woody Allen, (McLuhan had a cameo role in Allen's Oscar-winning motion picture Annie Hall ).

• Mcluhan never fully recovered from the stroke and died in his sleep on December 31, 1980.

Works Cited

“MarshallMcLuhan.”

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan.  April, 2010.  

• The End!