Who said: "These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves"

"These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves"

Gilbert Highet (1906-78) was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He graduated from Oxford in 1932 with a double first and taught there until 1937, before going to Columbia University where he became an exceptionally popular Humanities teacher. He stayed at Columbia until he retired in 1972 (except for 3 years in the British Army from 1943-46).

He was chief literary critic for Harper's Magazine from 1952-54, judge of the Book-of-the-Month Club from 1954-78 and author of many books including The Classical Tradition (1949) and The Art of Teaching (1950). He also hosted weekly radio talks from 1952-59. He was married to the novelist Helen MacInnes.

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