Schorer earned an MA at
Harvard and his Ph.D. in English at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1936. During his academic career, he held positions at
Dartmouth, Harvard, and the
University of California, Berkeley, where he chaired the Department of English from 1960 to 1965. A leading critic of his time, he was best known for his work,
Sinclair Lewis: An American Life. Schorer was also the author of many short stories, which appeared in magazines such as
The New Yorker,
Harpers,
The Atlantic Monthly, and
Esquire. This incident is dramatized in the film
Howl (2010), in which Schorer is portrayed by
Treat Williams. In addition to his scholarly works, he also co-authored a series of
science-fiction and
horror stories with writer, publisher and childhood friend (both being natives of
Sauk City, Wisconsin)
August Derleth. These stories, originally published mainly in
Weird Tales magazine during the 1920s and 1930s, were eventually anthologized in
Colonel Markesan and Less Pleasant People (1966). Schorer died from a blood infection following bladder surgery in
Oakland, California at the age of 69. ==Bibliography==