Richard M. Cook is an American academic who specializes in

American literature American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also inc ...

. He was a recipient of a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 2009 and is the author of a biography of the critic

Alfred Kazin Alfred Kazin (June 5, 1915 – June 5, 1998) was an American writer and literary critic. He wrote often about the immigrant experience in early twentieth century America. Early life Like many other New York Intellectuals, Alfred Kazin was t ...

. Cook teaches American literature at the

University of Missouri–St. Louis The University of Missouri–St. Louis (UMSL) is a public research university in St. Louis, Missouri. Established in 1963, it is one of four universities in the University of Missouri System and its newest. Located on the former grounds of Bel ...

. He is also the recipient of fellowships from the

Fulbright Foundation 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 ...

and the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

Early life and education

He obtained a B.A. from

Franklin and Marshall College Franklin & Marshall College (F&M) is a private liberal arts college in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It employs 175 full-time faculty members and has a student body of approximately 2,400 full-time students. It was founded upon the merger of Frankli ...

and a Ph.D. from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Alfred Kazin

Cook's ''Alfred Kazin: A Biography'' is a 2008 life of the Jewish American literary critic. William Grimes felt that Cook's biography was excessively fair-minded, bending over backwards to give the frequently unpleasant Kazin the benefit of the doubt in most cases, despite criticising Kazin for his treatment of women. Grimes felt the book suffered from the fact that Kazin's life largely comprised minutiae of book reviewing, temporary employment, grant applications, and academic conferences. The Washington Post called it "excellent". He also edited ''The Journals of Alfred Kazin'' published in 2011.

Other work

He wrote ''Carson McCullers'', a 1975 book-length study of the American novelist.

References

External links

Page at University of Missouri - St Louis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, Richard M. University of Michigan alumni Franklin & Marshall College alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people)