Later, Kenner said of McLuhan, "I had the advantage of being exposed to Marshall when he was at his most creative, and then of getting to the far end of the continent shortly afterward, when he couldn't get me on the phone all the time.
"[2] Later, when McLuhan wrote that the development of cartography during the Renaissance created a geographical sense that had never previously existed, Kenner sent him a postcard reading in full: "Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, Yours, Hugh.
"[3] In 1950, Kenner earned a PhD from Yale University, with a dissertation on James Joyce, written under the supervision of Cleanth Brooks.
[5] Kenner played an influential role in raising Ezra Pound's profile among critics and other readers of poetry.
His books include an appreciation of Chuck Jones, an introduction to geodesic math, and a user's guide for the Heathkit H100/Zenith Z-100 computer;[8] in his later years he was a columnist for both Art & Antiques and Byte magazine.