February 2, 2007

Literature Journal Marks Half a Century; Indiana U. Press Celebrates Birthday With New Titles

By JENNIFER HOWARD

MAKING THE TRANSITION: In 1957 two English professors at Purdue University, Hal Gerber and Maurice Beebe, found themselves at odds with the Modern Language Association. They hated the dividing lines it drew between periods of literary study. Where did Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad, W.B. Yeats, and other writers really belong? As Gerber put it, "Apparently some writers have dared to bridge the centuries and defy the neat calendar division of periods in the MLA bibliography."

Beebe and