Joseph Twadell Shipley

Joseph Twadell Shipley (August 19, 1893 in Brooklyn – May 11, 1988 in London) was an American drama critic, author, editor and associate professor of English at Yeshiva College in New York City.

Shipley graduated from City College in 1912. He received a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Columbia in 1931 with the thesis The quest for literature; a survey of literary criticism and the theories of the literary forms.

Shipley taught English at Stuyvesant High School from 1914 to 1957, and also taught at City College and Brooklyn College. He was secretary to the president of Yeshiva college, assistant professor and then associate professor at Yeshiva college in the period 1928 to 1944.

Shipley became drama critic of The Call in 1918. The Call later became The New Leader and Shipley was drama critic in this paper until 1962. His theater reviews were broadcast on the radio station WEVD in New York on his program First Nights from 1940 to 1982. He was president of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle 1952-1954 and was secretary for the group for 16 years, until 1982.

He was the author or editor of 27 books. He published a book about Eugene O'Neill in 1928 and was among the first to write about O'Neill. His last book: Origins of English Words, was published in 1984 by Johns Hopkins University Press.

Shipley was an honorary overseas member of the Critics Circle in London, and was in 1977 awarded the Townsend Harris Medal by City College for his distinguished career in criticism.