Contact Information

Office: 4106 JFSB

Phone: 422-8150

Email: jesse_crisler@byu.edu

Commonly Taught Courses ENG 362, 361, 420, 336

Semester Schedule: Spring/Summer 2013: Not Teaching


Other University Assignments:
Chair, Department Rank and Status Committee
Director, Office for the Study of Christian Values in Literature
Editor, Literature and Belief

Student Consultations:
By appointment only

Biography:

Jesse S. Crisler specializes in American Realism, focusing his research and publications on empirical, bibliographical, biographical, and textual criticism of the authors and texts of this period, with particular interest in literary naturalism. Since joining BYU's faculty in 1994, Professor Crisler has taught courses in American literature, adolescent literature, and literary criticism. He also taught composition and British literature at BYU-Hawaii for eleven years, including five as chair. His books include Frank Norris: A Reference Guide (with Joseph R. McElrath, Jr., Hall, 1974); Frank Norris : Collected Letters (Book Club of California, 1986); John Steinbeck: The Contemporary Reviews (with Joseph R. McElrath, Jr., and Susan Shillinglaw, Cambridge, 1996); and Essays and Speeches of Charles W. Chesnutt (with Joseph R. McElrath, Jr., and Robert C. Leitz, III, Stanford, 1999); An Exemplary Citizen:  Letters of Charlew W. Chesnutt, 1906-32 (with Joseph R. McElrath, Jr., and Robert C. Leitz, III, Stanford, 2002); Frank Norris:  A Life (with Joseph R. McElrath, Jr., University of Illinois, 2006); and Frank Norris Remembered (with Joseph R. McElrath, Jr., University of Alabama, 2013). He has also edited four collections: Essays on Children`s Literature (with Judith Kellogg, U of Hawaii, 1994); Lectures in Honor of David O. McKay (with Jay Fox, BYU, 1996); Eugene England:  Essays on Values in Literature (with Jay Fox and Steven C. Walker, BYU, 2006); and "How I Came to Write":  LDS Authors for Young Adults (with Chris Crowe, 2007). Co-editor of Frank Norris Studies for a decade (1986-1996), he is co-textual editor of The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (with Joseph R. McElrath, Jr., Yale, 2013).  He co-founded the Frank Norris Society, founded the William Dean Howells Society, and is a member of the Stephen Crane, Jack London, Charles Chesnutt, and Hamlin Garland societies. He participated in the first NEH Institute on Children's Literature in 1983 and held a Fulbright lectureship in Finland in 1993. Professor Crisler lives in Provo with his wife, Lou Ann.

Degrees: BA, Trinity U, 1969
PhD, U of South Carolina, 1973

Interests:

Realism and Naturalism