Overview
Like many students of my generation, I had little formal training in American literature, so it was a minor act of personal rebellion in 1970 when I decided, in the middle of my graduate studies, to become an Americanist. It seemed a wonderfully young field, unencumbered by tradition, with little past at its back. My first attraction (or obsession) involved specific authors, notably Hawthorne and Whitman.
Beginning my career as a professor in 1972, I found increasingly that the form of study I …
Current Appointments & Affiliations
William Preston Few Distinguished Professor Emeritus
·
2022 - Present
English,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Professor Emeritus of English
·
2022 - Present
English,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Recent Publications
Prophets in America circa 1830: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nat Turner, Joseph Smith
Chapter · January 1, 2009 This chapter finds that by contextualizing Smith's history as prophetic autobiography alongside Nat Turner's, uncannily similar aspects emerge. As a result, what the chapter calls a history of prophetism takes shape that delineates some of the forms and tr ... Full text CiteThe Cambridge History of American Literature
Chapter · 2005 Introduction. The American Literary field, 1860–1890 ... CiteTaking democracy to school
Chapter · December 1, 2004 CiteEducation, Training & Certifications
Yale University ·
1972
Ph.D.
Yale University ·
1970
M.Phil.
Yale University ·
1968
B.A.