Steven P. Harthorn, Ph.D.

Steven P. Harthorn, Ph.D.

Chair, Department of English & Literature Professor of English

Ph.D. in English at University of Tennessee
M.A. in English at University of Tennessee
B.A. in History and English at Calvin College

CONTACT INFORMATION
location

Nazareth Hall, N3139
3003 Snelling Ave. N
St Paul, MN 55113

phone

651-628-3260

Steven Harthorn joined the English and Literature faculty at Northwestern in 2015. Previously, he taught at Williams Baptist College and the University of Tennessee. He enjoys helping students become literary tourists of the past, putting them in touch with fascinating perspectives and beautiful, profound forms of expression.

 

Dr. Harthorn serves on the board of the James Fenimore Cooper Society as Executive Director for Publications and Corresponding Secretary. His scholarship often focuses on literary history, drawing on primary sources such as period reviews, publishing records, correspondence, and unpublished manuscripts. He is at work on a scholarly edition of Cooper’s last novel, The Ways of the Hour (1850).

Specialty Areas

  • American Literature
  • The Novel
  • Literary History
  • Medieval Literature
  • James Fenimore Cooper

Other Areas of Interest

  • Young Adult Literature
  • History of the Book
  • The Nineteenth Century

Selected Recent Publications

Editor, James Fenimore Cooper Society Journal, 2015-present; James Fenimore Cooper Society Newsletter, 2006-2015.

“‘America; A Vision’: A Manuscript Draft of James Fenimore Cooper’s ‘Point de Bateaux à Vapeur—Une Vision’ (1832).” With Jordan A. Jantz. James Fenimore Cooper Society Journal 32.1 (Spring/Summer 2021): 63-83.

“Prison Philanthropy Journals and Cooper’s The Ways of the Hour.” James Fenimore Cooper Society Journal 30.1 (Spring 2019): 15-26.

Introductory Letters: Vol. 1 & Vol. 2. The Last of the Mohicans; A Narrative of 1757. By James Fenimore Cooper. 1826. New York: Charles Winthrope & Sons, 2015. 2 vols.

“’Plunder,’ ‘Fixens,’ and Bee Hunting: Cooper’s Manuscript Notes for The Prairie.” James Fenimore Cooper: His Country and His Art 19 (2013).

“An Unfired Shot in the Literary Battle of Lake Erie: Cooper’s Unpublished Reply to Alexander Slidell Mackenzie.” Literature in the Early American Republic 5 (2013): 1-100.

The Pathfinder and Cooper’s Return to Popular Literature.” In Leather-Stocking Redux; or, Old Tales, New Essays. Ed. Jeffrey Walker. New York: AMS Press, 2011. 193-224.