Laurence Perrine

Who was Laurence Perrine?

Laurence Perrine was a Southern Methodist University professor whose literature textbooks became standard works nationwide.

Perrine earned B.A. and M.A. degrees from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. from Yale University. He began his distinguished career as a member of SMU's English faculty in 1946 and was named the Daisy Deane Frensley Professor of English Literature in 1968.

Laurence Perrine's works include textbooks on the appreciation of poetry and fiction entitled Sound and Sense and Story and Structure, first published in 1956 and 1959 respectively. Both of these went through many editions during Perrine's lifetime and are still in use in posthumously edited new editions. Sound and Sense was originally developed for use in his poetry class; it became one of the most influential works in modern American education. Many of the principles of both Sound and Sense and Story and Structure contributed to a secondary-level literature textbook co-edited by Perrine entitled Adventures in Appreciation, part of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich's Adventures in Literature Program. Perrine was also the author of books of limericks.