William F. Klein came to the Kenyon English Department in 1968, the last year of Kenyon's history as an all-male school. He was hired particularly to teach a course in Linguistics and the History of the English Language for students who were interested in becoming secondary-school teachers. It is still one of his most popular courses. His graduate study at the University of Chicago under the auspices of the Medieval Studies Committee and the English department provided a background in both classical philology and the Chicago version of "New Criticism." Having survived the "theory" wars in the field of the humanities, he now describes himself as a "Literary Anthropologist," referring to the subject of John Crowe Ransom's last essay for The Kenyon Review in 1959. He continues to teach the history of the English Language, and this year for the first time "Introduction to English Linguistics." He also has taught courses in a variety of periods and forms of English and American literature. He devised a course devoted to "The Modern Short Story" nearly twenty years ago. It remains one of the popular features of the English department's offerings each year.

Education

M.A. and Ph.D. The University of Chicago
B.A. Butler University

Selected Publications

"The Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book" in the Literary Encyclopedia , an online reference resource based in East Anglia University, Robert Clark, general editor.

A Review of The Numerical World of the Gawain-Pearl Poet in The Medieval Review, Fall, 2003.(TMR is an e-mail review accessible at TMR-L@wmich.edu )

Visit the web site of the Kalamazoo Riddle Group .

Courses Taught

English 103/104 Stories and Storytellers
English 225 Chaucer
English 422 Introduction to Anglo Saxon
English 322 The History of the English Language
English 364 The Modern Short Story
English 464 The Short Story Sequence