Of Words and Music

TK-page paperback / 6" x 9" / ISBN 9781589882256
Publication Date: 6/8/2027 (available for pre-order)

Of Words and Music is a selection of essays by critic and English teacher William H. Pritchard that explores literary and music criticism. Under the section header “Words,” the first ten essays include pieces on Ruben Brower, Samuel Johnson, and George Orwell, among others, writers that Pritchard has chosen for the “sharp intensity of their critical focus.” The second group of essays revolve around music and musical performers from Beethoven to Duke Ellington to Benny Goodman. Spanning the two sections is an autobiographical piece, “My Life in Music,” in which Pritchard considers his career as a teacher, literary critic, and skilled pianist in the attempt to demonstrate the coming together of words and music.

PRAISE FOR WILLIAM H. PRITCHARD AND HIS EARLIER BOOKS:

"These pieces reflect Pritchard’s abiding joy in literature, especially poetry . . . Pritchard is demanding, fastidious, and occasionally cantankerous, yet in a refreshing way that reminds readers what it means to care deeply about literature."
—Booklist on Ear Training

"What shines through here is Pritchard's passionate commitment to literature and writing in an impoverished academic world. This is a clear-minded and judicious tale of one critic's quest to situate his critical identity in a world that has largely left his kind behind."
—Library Journal on English Papers: A Teaching Life

"A savvy literary critic . . . Pritchard writes with both uncommon clarity and easygoing erudition."
—Publishers Weekly on Updike: America's Man of Letters

"Pritchard's sympathetic, kinetic engagement with the canon has always distinguished him from other voices of the academy. Maybe that's because Pritchard believes less in great books than in great writing. His immersion in literature is emotional and philosophical, as well as technical and professional."
—Kirkus Reviews on Talking Back to Emily Dickinson, and Other Essays

William H. Pritchard is the author of several essay collections and literary biographies including Randall Jarrell: A Literary Life, Updike: America’s Man of Letters, Ear Training (Paul Dry Books, 2023), and On Frost and Eliot (Paul Dry Books, 2025), a Choice Outstanding Academic title. He is professor of English emeritus at Amherst College where he taught for sixty years. He lives in western Massachusetts.