Eugene Current-Garcia (1908-1995) was a professor at

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...

and became Auburn's Hargis Professor Emeritus of American Literature. He was a founding editor of the Southern Humanities Review and a noted scholar of

Southern literature Southern United States literature consists of American literature written about the Southern United States or by writers from the region. Literature written about the American South first began during the colonial era, and developed significan ...

. He was named the first Phi Kappa Phi American Scholar in 1994, the first year of that biennial award.

Education

Eugene Current-Garcia received his A.B. in 1930 and M.A. in 1932 at Tulane University and a Ph.D. in American literature at Harvard University in 1947.

Academic career

He taught at the University of Nebraska from 1936 to 1939 and

Suffolk University Suffolk University is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. With 7,560 students (includes all campuses, 7,379 at the Boston location alone), it is the eighth-largest university in metropolitan Boston. It was founded as a l ...

from 1939 to 1942. He taught at Louisiana State University from 1944 to 1947 and Auburn University from 1947 to 1993. He was a

Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

lecturer at the University of Salonika, Greece during 1956-1958. He wrote the ''Bibliographical Guide to the Study of Southern Literature'' published by the

Louisiana State University Press The Louisiana State University Press (LSU Press) is a university press at Louisiana State University. Founded in 1935, it publishes works of scholarship as well as general interest books. LSU Press is a member of the Association of American Univer ...

in 1969.

The Eugene Current-Garcia Award

The Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Alabama's Distinguished Literary Scholar is awarded annually at the Monroeville Literary Festival. Winners are selected by the Association of College English Teachers of Alabama, and include: 2018 Dr. David Cowart, 2017 Kirk Curnutt, 2016 Frye Gaillard, 2015 Eric Sterling, 2014

Wayne Flynt James Wayne Flynt (born October 4, 1940) is University Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at Auburn University. He has won numerous teaching awards and been a Distinguished University Professor for many years. His research focuses ...

, 2013 Sue Brannan Walker, 2012 William A. Ulmer, 2011 David Sauer, 2010

Ralph Voss Ralph Voss (30 March 1860 – 16 November 1900) was an English cricketer. Voss was a right-handed batsman, although his bowling style is unknown. He was born at Croydon, London. Voss made three first-class appearances for Surrey, the fir ...

, 2009 John H. Hafner, 2008 Norman MacMillan, 2007 Elaine W. Hughes, 2006 Nancy Grisham Anderson, 2005 Robert Halli (Dr. Bob Halli), 2004 Benjamin Buford Williams, 2003 J. William Hutchings, 2002

Trudier Harris Trudier Harris (born February 1948) is an American literary scholar, author, and Professor Emerita at the University of Alabama. She was the J. Carlyle Sitterson Distinguished Professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Biography Ha ...

, 2001 Bert Hitchcock, 2000 Don Noble, 1999

Philip Beidler Philip Douglas Beidler (October 29, 1944 – April 20, 2022)Ancestry.com. ''Virginia, U.S., Divorce Records, 1918-2014'' atabase on-line Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. was a professor of American literature at the University ...

, and 1998 Claudia Durst Johnson.

Publications

Books by Current-Garcia include: ''O. Henry'' in 1965 and ''O. Henry: A Study of the Short Fiction'' in 1993, part of Twayne's ''Studies in Short Fiction''. As part of the same series he wrote ''American Short Stories; 1820 to the Present'' in 1952, and in 1985 he wrote ''The American Short Story before 1850: A Critical History.'' Other books include ''Realism and romanticism in fiction : an approach to the novel'', published in 1962, and the joint publication, ''What is the Short Story?'' in 1961. Twayne publishing was acquired by

Gale (publisher) Gale is a global provider of research and digital learning resources. The company is based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, west of Detroit. It has been a division of Cengage since 2007. The company, formerly known as Gale Research and the Gale Gro ...

in 1999 and is one of the imprints of Gale and its parent company

Cengage Learning Cengage Group is an American educational content, technology, and services company for the higher education, K-12, professional, and library markets. It operates in more than 20 countries around the world.(Jun 27, 2014Global Publishing Leaders ...

. Eugene Current-Garcia, Hargis Professor Emeritus of American Literature at Auburn University, first entered the pages of

Alabama Heritage Magazine ''Alabama Heritage'' () is a nonprofit educational quarterly history magazine first published during the summer of 1986. It is published by the University of Alabama, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the Alabama Department of Archiv ...

in spring 1987, when he published "Mr. Spirit and His Alabama Wits," an article about Southwestern humorists

Johnson J. Hooper Johnson Jones Hooper (June 9, 1815 – June 7, 1862) was an American lawyer and writer from Alabama known for his humorist works set in what was then known as the Southwest of America, particularly the collection of stories published as ''Adv ...

and John Barr. In his second article for

, Current-Garcia focused his attention on nineteenth-century Alabama wit

Joseph Glover Baldwin Joseph Glover Baldwin (January 21, 1815 – September 29, 1864) was an American attorney and humor writer who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California from October 2, 1858, to January 2, 1864. Biography Born in Winchester ...

. Professor Current-Garcia was especially interested in Southern humorous writers. He wrote "Newspaper Humor in the Old South, 1835-1855" for The Alabama Review. "Southern literature is greatly indebted to these humorists," said Current-Garcia. "The foremost writer we have in modem fiction is William Faulkner, who drew a great deal from Southwestern humor." Current-Garcia was also co-editor of ''American Short Stories'', for several decades the preeminent short story anthology used in colleges and universities. First published in 1952 by Scott, Foresman & Company, ''American Short Stories'' was co-edited with fellow Auburn professor Bert Hitchcock. In 2001, Hitchcock was the recipient of the ''Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Distinguished Alabama Literary Scholarship'' from the Association of College English Teachers of Alabama.

Biography

Eugene Current-Garcia was born July 8, 1908, in New Orleans, Louisiana. His parents were Joseph Robustiano and Bertha (Ehrhardt) Current-Garcia. He married Alva Garrett on June 18, 1935, and they had three children. He joined the Auburn faculty in 1947 after completing his studies at Tulane and Harvard. He became Hargis Professor Emeritus of American Literature at Auburn University. He died January 1, 1995.

References

External links

Monroeville Literary Festival
{{DEFAULTSORT:Current-García, Eugene Auburn University faculty University of Nebraska faculty Suffolk University faculty Tulane University alumni Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni 20th-century American writers Louisiana State University faculty People from New Orleans American academics of English literature 1908 births 1995 deaths