Department of English
Rolfe 2225
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California 90095
(310) 825-4459

Education:

B.A., Marquette University, 1965
Ph.D., Indiana University, 1970

Academic appointments:   

Assistant Professor of English, UCLA, 1970-76
Professor of English, UCLA, 1976-82
Visiting Professor of English, University of Warsaw (Poland), 1976-77
Professor of English, UCLA, 1982-
Senior Research Fellow, American Council of Learned Societies, 1983-84

Professional activities:    

Chairman, Pacific Coast Region, Committee on Manuscript Holdings, American Literature Section, MLA, 1972-78
Norman Foerster Prize Committee, American Literature Section, MLA, 1979
Regional Judge, "The Victory at Yorktown Essay Contest," U.S. Army, 1981-82
Nineteenth-Century Fiction:  Assistant Editor, 1971-75; Advisory Board, 1976-83; Co-editor (with G.B. Tennyson), 1983-86
Nineteenth-Century Literature:  Co-editor (with G.B. Tennyson), 1986-95; Editor, 1995-1997; Co-editor (with Joseph Bristow), 1997-
Hubbell Prize Committee, American Literature Section, MLA, 1989-91
Director, Ralph Waldo Emerson Society, 1992-95
Member, Editorial Board, The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Harvard University Press), 1996-
Selection Panel, Jacob Javitts Fellowship, US Department of Education, 1998

Professional associations:   

Modern Language Association of America
American Studies Association
American Literature Association
Association for Documentary Editing
Society for Textual Scholarship
Ralph Waldo Emerson Society (charter member)
William Dean Howells Society (charter member)
International Association of University Professors of English (Zurich)

Awards & honors:   

Regents' Faculty Fellowship in the Humanities, University of California, 1971
Fulbright Lecturer, University of Warsaw, Poland, 1976-77
Grants-in-Aid of Research, American Philosophical Society, 1976 and 1981
Senior Fellow, American Council of Learned Societies, 1983-84
Travel Grants, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1985-86, 1988-89

University service:    

Departmental Graduate Committee, 1977-78
Representative, Legislative Assembly of the Academic Senate, 1979-83, 1988-91
Departmental Executive Committee, 1980-81
Departmental Curriculum Committee, 1981-83
Chairman, Charges Committee, Academic Senate, 1981-83
Chairman, English Library Committee, 1983-84
Committee on Grade Appeals, Academic Senate, 1984-86
Chairman, Committee on Grievance Procedures, Academic Senate, 1985-86
English Library Committee, 1985-94
Grievance and Disciplinary Procedures Committee, Academic Senate, 1989-92
Chancellor's Sexual Harassment Evaluation Committee, 1991-93
Executive Committee, College of Letters and Science, 1991-97
Director, American Studies Undergraduate Program, 1992-96
Vice Chair & Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of English, 1993-97
Director, American Literature (Undergraduate) Program, 1996-97
Committee on Shared Programs and Resources, (UCLA-UC Berkeley), 1993-94
Dean's Advisory Group on Administration and Structure of Division of Humanities, 1993-94
Chair, Faculty of the College of Letters and Science, 1995-97
Chair, Department of English, 1997-
Dean's Advisory Committee on Computing, 1998-

Dissertations directed:   

Bruce Delmar Zessin, "Images of the Artist in Nineteenth-Century American Fiction" (UCLA, 1975)
David Downing, "The Poetry of E. A. Robinson: A Critical Reappraisal" (UCLA, 1977)
Helen Saltman, "John Adams' 'Humphrey Ploughjogger' Letters: An Edition and Commentary " (UCLA, 1980)
Harold Hellwig, "Mark Twain's Response to Democracy and Technology: A Computer-Aided Psycholinguistic Analysis of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" (UCLA, 1985)
Randal Allred, "Writing the Civil War: Cultural Myth and War Narrative in DeForest, Bierce, and Crane" (UCLA, 1993)

Public Lectures:

"Huckleberry Finn: Boy-Book"; paper read before the English Association, University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland, 6 December 1976.

"Merry Christmas, Shirley Temple: The Popular American Film Abroad"; paper read before 300 invited guests of Ambassador Richard Davies, Embassy of the U.S.A., Warsaw, Poland, 24 February 1977.

"Los Angeles: The Great American Frontier Town," paper read before the English Teachers' Cooperative, Warsaw, Poland, 20 March 1977.

"Ahoy there, Mr. Starbuck: Critical Problems in Twentieth Century American Literary Interpretations," keynote address, Program sesji naukowej poswieconej literaturze amerykanskiej XX Wieku organizowanej przez kolo naukowe anglistow ul w Skierniewiewicach, Skierniewice, Poland [Polish universities' conference on 20th-century American literature], 18 April 1977.

"The Fireside Poets: What to Make of a Diminished Thing," paper read before the American Literature Section, South Atlantic Modern Language Convention, Atlanta, Georgia, 28 November 1984.

"The Hidden Editorial Hand," paper read before the Conference of Editors of Learned Journals, Modern Language Association Convention, New Orleans, 29 December 1988.

"'Our Legislative Correspondent at Columbus': Howells's Political Journalism, 1857-1858," paper read before the American Literature Association, San Diego, California, 1 June 1996

"After the Fall: Teaching on the Internet at UCLA," plenary address before the ADE (Association of Departments of English, Modern Language Association of America) Summer Seminar, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 6 June 1998

"Howells and Humor in the State House," paper read before the Sexond Quadrennial American Literature Association Conference on American Humor, Cancun, Mexico, 11 December 1998

Publications:

Books:

Associate Textual Editor: Literary Friends and Acquaintance, vol. 32 of "A Selected Edition of W. D. Howells." Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1968.

James Russell Lowell's The Biglow Papers [First Series]: A Critical Edition. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1977.

Letters of W. D. Howells, vol. 4: 1892-1901. Boston: Twayne, 1983.

The Early Prose Writings of William Dean Howells, 1853-1861. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1990.

W. D. Howells, My Mark Twain (editor). New York: Dover Publications, 1997.

Mark Twain, Some Chapters from My Autobiography (editor). New York: Dover Publications, 2000.

Edward Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau as Remembered by a Young Friend (editor). New York: Dover, 1999.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poems, to be published as vol. 9 of "The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson," by Harvard University Press.

"Our Legislative Correspondent in Columbus": William Dean Howells' Legislative Letters to the Cincinnati Gazette and the Cleveland Herald, 1857-1858 (in progress)

Co-Compiler: American Literary Manuscripts, Second Edition, ed. with J. Albert Robbins, et al. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1977.

"James Russell Lowell" in The American Renaissance in New England, ed. Joel Myerson. Detroit: Gale, 1978. Pp. 126-131.

"Oliver Wendell Holmes" in American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies, ed. Leonard Unger. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1979. Pp. 299-318.

"19th-Century Literature" in American Literary Scholarship: An Annual/ 1977, ed. James Woodress. Durham, NC.: Duke University Press, 1979. Pp. 207-243.

"19th-Century Literature" in American Literary Scholarship: An Annual/ 1978, ed. J. Albert Robbins. Durham, N. C.: Duke University Press, 1980. Pp. 223-265.

"James Russell Lowell" in American Humorists, 1800-1950, ed. Stanley Trachtenberg. Detroit: Gale, 1982. Pp. 291-303.

"James Russell Lowell" in The Transcendentalists: A Review of Research and Criticism, ed. Joel Myerson. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1984. Pp. 336-342.

"William Cullen Bryant and the Fireside Poets" in The Columbia Literary History of the United States, ed. Emory Elliott (New York: Columbia University Press, 1987). Pp. 278-288.

"James Russell Lowell" in American Orators Before 1900: Critical Studies and Sources, ed. Bernard K. Duffy and Halford R. Ryan. New York and Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1987. Pp. 271-277.

"James Russell Lowell" in Colonization to the American Renaissance, 1640-1865: Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1988. Pp. 226-237.

"Early Nineteenth-Century American Literature," in The Best in Reference Works, British Literature, and American Literature, edited by David Scott Kastan and Emory Elliott, pp. 648-709. Vol. 1 of The Reader's Adviser, 14th edition. New York: R. R. Bowker, 1994.

"Oliver Wendell Holmes," in Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century, ed. Eric Haralson. Chicago and London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1998.

"Park Benjamin," in American National Biography, ed. John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. 24 volumes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Vol. 2, pp. 570-571.

"James Russell Lowell," in American National Biography, ed. John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. 24 volumes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Vol. 14, pp. 40-43.

"Lowell's 'Agassiz' and Mrs. Alexander," Yale University Library Gazette, 45 (January 1971), 118-122.

"W. D. Howells' 1899 Midwest Lecture Tour: What the Letters Tell," American Literary Realism,11 (Autumn 1978), 265-74.

"'The Real Diary of a Boy': William Dean Howells in Ohio, 1852-1853," The Old Northwest, 10 (Spring 1984), 3-40.

"The Hidden Editorial Hand," Editors' Notes: Bulletin of The Conference of Editors of Learned Journals, volume 8, number 2 (Fall 1989), pp. 9-12.

"Did Emerson Blackball Frederick Douglass from Membership in the Town and Country Club?" New England Quarterly, 65 (June 1992), 295-298.

"After the Fall: Teaching 'English' on the Internet at UCLA," ADE Bulletin, no. 121 (Winter 1999), pp. 47-51.

"Students Can't Warm Up to the Joy of Spring," UCLA Today, vol. 19, no. 16 (22 April 1999), p. 7.

"Faculty Wars," UCLA Magazine, vol. 11, no, 3 (Winter 1999), p. 64

Book Reviews in Journals other than Nineteenth-Century Literature:

Reviews of three books in American Reference Books Annual, vol. 11, ed. Bohdan S. Wynar. Littleton, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1980. Pp. 179, 269, 501.

Review of American Aristocracy by C. David Heymann, American Literature, 53 (November 1981), 546-548.

Review of William Deal Howells: The Realist as Humanist by William Alexander, Modern Fiction Studies, 29 (Winter 1983), 711-712.

Review Articles in Nineteenth-Century Fiction & Nineteenth-Century Literature 

"The Indiana Edition of W. D. Howells": 26 (September 1971), 234-239.
"Recent Books: American Fiction": 28 (March 1974), 497-502.
"Recent Bibliographies": 36 (March 1982), 502-505.
"Recent Bibliographies and Reference Works": 37 (March 1983), 619-621.
"American Fiction: Mark Twain": 38 (December 1983), 358-60.
"Recent Books: American Fiction": 39 (March 1985), 485-488.
"Recent Books: American Fiction": 40 (December 1985), 369-371.
"Recent Books: American Literature": 41 (September 1986), 249-254.
"Recent Books: American Literature": 42 (September 1987), 256-259.
"Recent Books: American Literature": 42 (March 1988), 519-522.
"Recent Books: American Literature": 43 (December 1988), 417-420.
"Recent Books: American Literature": 44 (June 1989), 119-126.
"Recent Books: American Literature": 44 (December 1989), 420-426.
"Recent Books: American Literature": 45 (September 1990), 261-267.
"Recent Books: American Literature": 46 (June 1991), 139-143.
"Recent Books: American Literature": 46 (March 1992), 573-578.
"Recent Books: American Literature": 47 (September 1992), 259-262.
"Recent Books: American Literature": 47 (December 1992), 394-397.
"Recent Books: American Literature": 48 (December 1993), 406-408.
"Recent Books: American Literature": 48 (March 1994), 552-559.
"Recent Books: American Literature": 49 (December 1994), 418-421.
"Recent Books: American Literature": 49 (March 1995), 552-555.
"Recent Books: Children and Literature": 50 (December 1995), 411-412.

Book Notices in Nineteenth-Century Fiction & Nineteenth-Century Literature 

"Books Briefly Mentioned": 38 (December 1983), 363-370.
"Books Briefly Noted": 39 (June 1984), 115-121.
"Books Briefly Noted": 39 (September 1984), 238-244.
"Books Briefly Noted": 39 (December 1984), 365-370.
"Books Briefly Noted": 39 (March 1985), 489-493.
"Books Briefly Noted": 40 (June 1985), 122-128.
"Books Briefly Noted": 40 (September 1985), 251-257.
"Books Briefly Noted": 40 (December 1985), 372-377.
"Books Briefly Noted": 40 (March 1986), 497-500.
"Books Briefly Noted": 41 (June 1986), 129-133.
"Books Briefly Noted": 41 (September 1986), 254-260.
"Books Briefly Noted": 41 (December 1986), 386-392.
"Books Briefly Noted": 41 (March 1987), 521-528.
"Books Briefly Noted": 42 (June 1987), 131-138.
"Books Briefly Noted": 42 (September 1987), 259-265.
"Books Briefly Noted": 42 (December 1987), 399-405.
"Books Briefly Noted": 42 (March 1988), 523-529.
"Books Briefly Noted": 43 (June 1988), 139-147.
"Books Briefly Noted": 43 (September 1988), 278-284.
"Books Briefly Noted": 43 (December 1988), 420-426.
"Books Briefly Noted": 43 (March 1989), 554-560.
"Books Briefly Noted": 44 (June 1989), 126-134.
"Books Briefly Noted": 44 (September 1989), 257-265.
"Books Briefly Noted": 44 (December 1989), 426-434.
"Books Briefly Noted": 44 (March 1990), 577-584.
"Books Briefly Noted": 45 (June 1990), 116-126.
"Books Briefly Noted": 45 (September 1990), 267-277.
"Books Briefly Noted": 45 (December 1990), 401-409.
"Books Briefly Noted": 45 (March 1991), 532-37.
"Books Briefly Noted": 46 (June 1991), 143-151.
"Books Briefly Noted": 46 (September 1991), 297-306.
"Books Briefly Noted": 46 (December 1991), 431-439.
"Books Briefly Noted": 46 (March 1992), 578-586.
"Books Briefly Noted": 47 (June 1992), 133-139.
"Books Briefly Noted": 47 (September 1992), 262-271.
"Books Briefly Noted": 47 (December 1992), 397-404.
"Books Briefly Noted": 47 (March 1993), 528-536.
"Books Briefly Noted": 48 (June 1993), 133-141.
"Books Briefly Noted": 48 (September 1993), 273-285.
"Books Briefly Noted": 48 (December 1993), 409-418.
"Books Briefly Noted": 48 (March 1994), 559-566.
"Books Briefly Noted": 49 (June 1994), 136-145.
"Books Briefly Noted": 49 (September 1994), 275-284.
"Books Briefly Noted": 49 (December 1994), 421-29.
"Books Briefly Noted": 49 (March 1995), 555-62.
"Books Briefly Noted": 50 (June 1995), 131-41.
"Books Briefly Noted": 50 (September 1995), 271-80.
"Books Briefly Noted": 50 (December 1995), 412-22.
"Books Briefly Noted": 50 (March 1996), 552-59.
"Books Briefly Noted": 51 (June 1996), 130-36.
"Books Briefly Noted": 51 (September 1996), 270-79.
"Books Briefly Noted": 51 (December 1996), 419-28.
"Books Briefly Noted": 51 (March 1997), 554-68.
"Books Briefly Noted": 52 (June 1997), 128-39.
"Books Briefly Noted": 52 (September 1997), 272-84.
"Books Briefly Noted": 52 (December 1997), 394-412.
"Books Briefly Noted": 52 (March 1998), 544-61.
"Books Briefly Noted": 53 (June 1998), 130-43.
"Books Briefly Noted": 53 (September 1998), 265-75.
"Books Briefly Noted": 53 (December 1998), 410-18.
"Books Briefly Noted": 53 (March 1999), 552-65.
"Books Briefly Noted": 54 (June 1999), 128-38.
"Books Briefly Noted": 54 (September 1999), 270-81.
"Books Briefly Noted": 54 (December 1999),