Northrop Frye's Victoria College

Herman Northrop Frye was born in Sherbrooke, Quebec in 1912 and raised in Moncton, New Brunswick — but his entire academic life belonged to Toronto. He entered Victoria College at the University of Toronto in 1929 and graduated in 1933 with first-class honours in philosophy and English, placing first in his class every year.

A career built entirely at Victoria College

Frye joined Victoria College's English department as a lecturer in 1939 and rose steadily: assistant professor, associate professor, full professor in 1947, department chair in 1952, and Principal of Victoria College from 1959 to 1967. In 1967 he became a University Professor at U of T while remaining a Victoria College professor, and served as Chancellor of Victoria University from 1978 until his death.

Fearful Symmetry and Anatomy of Criticism

His landmark books — Fearful Symmetry (1947), a study of William Blake, and Anatomy of Criticism (1957), his sweeping theory of literary modes — were written during this decades-long Victoria College tenure, which also overlapped with teaching a young Margaret Atwood. Frye died in Toronto in 1991; Victoria University later named Northrop Frye Hall after him and unveiled a statue of him on the Victoria College grounds.

Sources

• The Canadian Encyclopedia — Northrop Frye
• Victoria University, E.J. Pratt Library — Northrop Frye @ 100