October 26, 2001

Singling Out One Job Hunter Among Thousands

To the Editor:

As someone who has been seeking an academic job in the United States (in U.S. history) with Ph.D. in hand for six years, I deeply sympathize with Robert E. Belknap's one year of job-hunting woe ("Literary Lists Are (1) Interesting (2) Important (3) Everywhere," September 28). I wonder, however, about the propriety of The Chronicle's taking one person from among the many thousands of academic-job seekers and giving special coverage to his particular merits.

How