man of letters

noun

1. a man engaged in literary pursuits, especially a professional writer.

2. a man of great learning; scholar.

Word History and Origins

Origin of man of letters¹

First recorded in 1635–45

Example Sentences

Mallon, a distinguished man of letters, moved to Manhattan at 32, holding a PhD from Harvard and a dissertation that became his acclaimed 1984 book, “A Book of One’s Own.”

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In a climate that Mr. Snyder helped create, he billed himself as a businessman rather than as a man of letters.

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Indeed, to those who have known only the courtly, controlled man of letters with the encyclopedic knowledge of classical music, the account may come as a shock.

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Lives Lived: Paul Johnson, a prolific journalist, biographer and historian prized by conservatives, fashioned himself a man of letters in the great British tradition.

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“He really is that European idea of a man of letters,” said one of his former students, the poet Mary Jo Bang, in a 2017 interview with the Paris Review.

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