Herbert Marshall McLuhan

Life• Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, July 21, 1911.• University of Manitoba: B. A., 1932; M. A., 1934.

Cambridge University: B. A., 1936; M. A., 1939; Ph. D., 1942.

• Taught at University of Wisconsin (Madison): 1936-1937.Taught at St. Louis University: 1937-1944.Taught at Assumption University (Windsor, Ontario): 1944-1946.Taught at St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto: 1946-1979.Full professor: 1952.

• Married Corinne Keller Lewis of Fort Worth, Texas: 1939.

• Chairman of Ford Foundation Seminar on Culture and Communication: 1953-1955.

• Co-Editor of Explorations magazine: 1954-1959.• Director of Project in Understanding New Media for

National Association of Educational Broadcasters and U. S. Office of Education: 1959-1960.

• Appointed in 1963 by the President of the University of Toronto to create a new Centre for Culture and Technology, to study the psychic and social consequences of technologies and media.

• Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada: 1964.• Companion of the Order of Canada: 1970.

Honorary Degrees·  University of Windsor -1965D. Litt. ·  Assumption University -1966D. Litt. ·  University of Manitoba-1967D. Litt. ·  Simon Fraser University -1967LL.D. ·  Grinnell University-1967D. Litt. ·  St, John Fisher College -1969Lit. Hum. ·  University of Alberta -1971LL. D. ·  University of Western Ontario -1972D. Litt. ·  University of Toronto -1977D. Litt. 

Awards• Honorary Award in Culture and Communication

(New York: Niagara University): 1967.• Molson Award for Outstanding Achievement in

the Social Sciences: 1967.• Appointment to the Albert Schweitzer Chair in

the Humanities, • Fordham University, New York: 1967-1968.• The Institute of Public Relations President’s

Award (Great Britain): 1970.• Gold Medal Award from President of the Italian

Republic at Rimini, • Italy, in recognition of original work as

philosopher of the mass media: 1971.• Christian Culture Award, Assumption University:

1971.

• President’s Cabinet Award, University of Detroit: 1972.

• Vatican appointment as Consulter of the Pontifical Commission for

• Social Communications: 1973.• Citation from The Religious Educational

Association of the United • States and Canada: 1973.• Civic Award of Merit, given by Mayor David

Crombie at Toronto City • Hall: 1974.• “Man of Achievement” Diploma from the

International Biographical Centre (Cambridge, England): 1975.

• Appointed to the McDermott Chair at the University of Dallas (Texas):

Distinguished Lectures• Second Annual A.V.B. Geoghegan Lecture,

University of Pennsylvania: 1966. • Marfleet Lectures, University of Toronto: 1967. • Purves Memorial Lecture, American Institute of

Architects (New York): 1967. • Congressional Breakfast (Washington, D. C.): 1970. • Gillett Lecture Series, University of Western Ontario:

1970. • Mary C. Richardson Lecture, State University College

of Arts and Science 9Geneseo, New York): 1970. • Gerstein Lecture Series, York University (Toronto):

1971. • The fourth annual Pound Lecture in the Humanities,

University of Idaho, 1978.

Interesting Quotations• Whereas convictions depend on

speed-ups, justice requires delay.• The nature of people demands that

most of them be engaged in the most• frivolous possible activities—like

making money.• We look at the present through a

rear-view mirror. We march backwards into

• the future.

• Spaceship earth is still operated by railway conductors, just as NASA is

• managed by men with Newtonian goals.

• Invention is the mother of necessities.

• Mud sometimes gives the illusion of depth.

• Why is it so easy to acquire the solutions of past problems and so difficult to solve current ones?

• Today each of us lives several hundred years in a decade.

• Today the business of business is becoming the constant invention of new business.

• Tomorrow is our permanent address.• All advertising advertises advertising.• The answers are always inside the

problem, not outside.• This information is top security. When you

have read it, destroy yourself.• The specialist is one who never makes

small mistakes while moving toward the grand fallacy.

• The missing link created far more interest than all the chains and explanations of being.

• When a thing is current, it creates currency.• Men on frontiers, whether of time or space,

abandon their previous identities. Neighborhood gives identity. Frontiers snatch it away.

• The ignorance of how to use new knowledge stockpiles exponentially.

• At the speed of light, policies and political parties yield place to charismatic images.

• “I may be wrong, but I’m never in doubt.”

Published Books• 1934-George Meredith as a Poet and

Dramatic Parodist.• 1941-The Place of Thomas Nashe in the

Learning of his Time.• 1951-The Mechanical Bride; Folklore of

Industrial Man.• 1956-Alfred Lord Tennyson: Selected

Poetry.• 1960-Explorations in Communication: An

Anthology.

• 1962-The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man.

• 1964-Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man.

• 1965-Voices of Literature, Book Two: The Second of a Two-Volume Anthology for High Schools Compiled and with Notes and Commentary

• 1967-Verbi-Voco-Visual Explorations. [Explorations 8 as a book].

• -Something Else Press.• -The Medium is the Massage.• 1968-War and Peace in the Global Village: An

inventory of some of the current spastic situations that could be eliminated by more feedforward.

• - Through the Vanishing Point: Space in Poetry and Painting.

• 1969-The Interior Landscape: The Literary Criticism of Marshall McLuhan 1943-1962.

• -Counterblast.• 1969-1970-The McLuhan Dew-Line

Newsletter..

• 1970-Culture Is Our Business. • 1972-Take Today: The Executive as Drop

Out.• 1977-City as Classroom: Understanding

Language and Media.•  1980-Media, Messages and Language:

The World as Your Classroom.• 1987-Letters of Marshall McLuhan.• 1988-Laws of Media: The New Science.• -The Global Village: Transformations in

World Life and Media in the 21st Century.• 1989-Marshall McLuhan: The Man and

his Message.• 1995-Essential McLuhan.

Work Cited• Marchand, Philip. "Marshall McLuhan." The Official Site

of Marshall McLuhan. Quiet PC, July 2002. Web. 17 Apr. 2010. <http://www.marshallmcluhan.com/marchand.html>.

• "Marshall McLuhan." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, 16 Apr. 2010. Web. 17 Apr. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan>.