Anthony Esolen

Anthony Michael Esolen

Department of English
Providence College
Providence, RI  02908

26 Ames St.
Coventry, RI 02816
(401) 828-2282
(401) 865-2227

PROFESSIONAL HISTORY

Professor, Providence College (1996-present)
Associate Professor, Providence College (1992-1996)
Assistant Professor, Providence College (1990-1992)
Assistant Professor, Furman University (1988-1990)
Special Lecturer, North Carolina University (1987-1988)

EDUCATION

Ph.D. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1987)
Dissertation: A Rhetoric of Spenserian Irony (S. K. Heninger, director)
Major: Renaissance English Literature
Minor: Latin
Doctoral Written Examinations in Medieval, 18th Century and 19 Century British Literature

M.A. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1983)

A.B. Princeton University (1981), summa cum laude

Languages: Italian, Latin, German, Anglo-Saxon, French, New Testament Greek

HONORS

“Manna for All Seasons,” published in The Best American Spiritual Writing, 2005, ed. Philip Zaleski (forthcoming).

American Christian Press, annual awards, honorable mention for the feature article, “A Requiem for Friendship” (Touchstone, September, 2005).

American Christian Press, annual awards, third place prize for the feature article, “A Geography of Kind” (Touchstone, April, 2004).

Nominated by Johns Hopkins University Press for several awards for translation, for Lucretius: De Rerum Natura (1995)

“Northwestern Mathematics,” poem published in The Best American Poetry, 1994, ed. A. R.     Ammons.

Nomination for Pushcart Award for poetry published in the journal Fine Madness, 1992

First Prize, American Academy of Poets Competition, University of North Carolina (1983)

Morehead Graduate Fellowship (1981-1985)

F. Scott Fitzgerald Award, Princeton (1981)

BOOKS

Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child (ISI Press, under contract for 2009)

Translation of 105 of the Latin Psalms for the new English-Latin Breviary (Baronius Press, forthcoming in 2008).

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization (Regnery, 2008).

Etienne Gilson: Dante the Philosopher (I have written a 30-page introduction to the work, reprinted by Alethes Press, forthcoming).

Ironies of Faith: The Deep Laughter at the Heart of Christian Literature (ISI Press, 2007).

Dante: Paradise (New York: Modern Library, 2004).

Dante: Purgatory (New York: Modern Library, 2003).

Dante: Inferno (New York: Modern Library, 2002).

Torquato Tasso: Jerusalem Delivered (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000).

Lucretius: De Rerum Natura (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995).

Peppers (Baltimore: New Poets Series, 1991).

SCHOLARLY ARTICLES AND PRESENTATIONS

“The Man That Hath No Humor in His Soul,” an article on Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, to appear in the new Ignatius Press edition of the play (forthcoming, 2009).

“Envy: The Social Disease,” to be presented at a conference on medieval psychology hosted by the Atlantic Theological Society (June, 2008), and to be published in the Society’s annual proceedings.

“Condescension in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice,” to appear in the new Ignatius Press edition of the novel (forthcoming, 2009).

“A King of Shreds and Patches,” an article on Hamlet, to appear in the new Ignatius Press edition of the play (forthcoming, Fall 2008).

“Be Ye Holy: Sanctification in Dante’s Purgatorio,” presented to the Atlantic Theological Society (May 2007), and published in Catholic World Report (2007).

“Highways and Byways: Sympathetic Parody in Spenser’s Faerie Queene,” Connotations: A Journal of Critical Debate (summer, 2005).

“Dante and the Resurrection of the Flesh,” presented at Providence College, April 2004, at a symposium on Dante, and published in 2005 by Touchstone.

“Synoptic Dante,” Faith and Reason, Spring 2004.

“Torquato Tasso and the Romance of Christian Heroism,” Providence: Studies in Western Civilization, Fall 2001; presented at Providence College, April 2001, at a symposium on Christian Heroism

“Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered,” Providence: Studies in Western Civilization, Fall 1999.

“‘The Isles Shall Wait for His Law’: Isaiah and The Tempest,” Studies in Philology, Spring 1997.

“Pinsky’s Dante,” Providence: Studies in Western Civilizaiton, Spring 1996.

“Lucretius in The Faerie Queene: Atomism, Astronomy, and Anarchy,” Spenser Studies XI, 1994.

“Spenser’s Alma Venus: Energy and Economy in the Bower of Bliss,” English Literary Renaissance, Spring 1993.

“The Disingenuous Poet Laureate: Spenser’s Adoption of Chaucer,” Studies in Philology, Fall     1990.

“Spenserian Irony and the Clash of Narrative Worlds,” Thalia: Studies in Literary Humor, November 1989.

“Irony and the Pseudophysical in The Faerie Queene,” Spenser Studies VIII, 1988.

“Spenserian Chaos,” presented at the Carolinas Symposium on British Studies, Appalachia State University, 1990.

“Astarte and the Lucretian Venus in Spenser’s Faerie Queene,” presented at the Medieval-Renaissance Conference, Clinch Valley College of the University of     Virginia, 1989.

“Spenser, Chaucer, and the Definition of Poet Laureate,” presented at the Carolinas Symposium on British Studies, James Madison University, 1988.

“Spenser’s Fowre Hymnes and Dante’s Paradiso,” presented for the Philological Association     of the Carolinas, University of North Carolina, 1984.

Book Reviews: Philip Lawler, The Faithful Departed (Catholic World Report, May, 2008); J.D. Reed, Virgil’s Gaze, and Robert Fagles, Virgil’s Aeneid (Claremont Review of Books, Fall, 2007); John Scott, Understanding Dante (Claremont Review of Books, Summer, 2006); David Young, The Poetry of Petrarch (Claremont Review of Books, Summer, 2005);      Anthony Grafton, Commerce with the Classics (Providence, Fall 1999); Humphrey Tonkin, The Faerie Queene (Spenser Newsletter, Fall 1991); S. K. Heninger, Sidney and Spenser: The Poet as Maker (Shakespeare Yearbook, Spring 1991); Thomas P. Roche, Jr., Petrarch and the English Sonnet Sequence (Spenser Newsletter, Spring 1990); Jane Hedley, Power in Verse (Spenser Newsletter, Spring 1989).

GUEST LECTURES

Dante (many lectures on topics in The Divine Comedy)
The Forgotten Virtue of Piety
Catholicism and the Anticulture
Dickens
Shakespeare’s Tempest
The Cloud of Unknowing
Pearl
Gerard Manley Hopkins
George Herbert
St. Bernard, The Love of God
The Second Shepherd’s Play
Torquato Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered
Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens
The education of boys
The Catholic liturgy
John Milton

These lectures have been held or are scheduled to be held at the following schools and churches:

Biola University
Catholic University
Christendom College
Communion and Liberation, national meeting
Faulkner University
Grove City College
Hampden-Sydney College
Intercollegiate Studies Institute
Our Lady of Ephesus Priory (Starrucca, Pa.)
Patrick Henry College
Princeton University
Providence College
Saint Francis Xavier College (Antigonish, Nova Scotia)
Saint Gregory’s Academy (Elmhurst, Pa.)
Saint Rita’s Church (Alexandria, Va.)
Saint John the Evangelist (Stamford, Conn.)
Saint John Fisher Seminary (Stamford, Conn.)
Saint Joseph’s Church (Attleboro, Mass.)
Saint Joseph’s Church (Plainville, Mass.)
Saint Mary’s Church (Corvallis, Ore.)
Saint Thomas University (Houston)
Thomas Aquinas College
University of Dallas
University of Minnesota
University of Virginia
Yale University

I have also filmed 12 broadcasts on Dante’s Divine Comedy, for NACEPF, a Roman Catholic satellite television and radio network.

ARTICLES FOR MONTHLY THEOLOGICAL JOURNALS

For Touchstone Magazine:
The Final Past Time (June, 2008)
The Lost Cornerstone (May, 2008)
Finders Weepers (December, 2007)
Child Everlasting (December, 2007)
The Mass Upended (November, 2007)
Pilgrims Planted (November, 2007)
A Time to Move On (October, 2007)
Esther’s Guarded Condition (July/August, 2007)
Heaven Knows (June, 2007)
Our Sorry Freedom (June, 2007)
Filthy Rich (March, 2007)
Davey’s Song (January/February, 2007)
Thank God We’re Not Equal (November, 2006)
Hearts Uplifted (October, 2006)
Dozens of Cousins (July/August, 2006)
Over Our Dead Bodies (June, 2006)
Caedmon’s Edge (May, 2006)
State of Separation (May, 2006)
Body & Soul Uplifted (April, 2006)
No More Hims of Praise (March, 2006)
A Mighty Child (December, 2005)
An Ironic Folly (November, 2005)
Sins & Sensibility (November, 2005)
XXX-Communicated (October, 2005)
A Requiem for Friendship (September, 2005)
Chest Errors (July/August, 2005)
Where Went the Neighborhood? (May, 2005)
A Manna for All Seasons (April, 2005)
Dog-Eared Pursuits (March, 2005)
The Lovely Dragon of Choice (October, 2004)
Pi in the Sky (July/August, 2004)
Servants of the Day (June, 2004)
A Geography of Kind (May, 2004)
Shooting the Rapids (March, 2004)
What Sports Illustrate (October, 2003)
For Crisis Magazine (now Inside Catholic):
An Open Letter to Pope Benedict (April, 2008)
Piety? Who Needs Piety? (February, 2008)
Culture of Divorce, Culture of Death (January, 2008)
The Sisters of Ephesus (January, 2007)
The King’s Anguish (August, 2006).
Kneeling at the Gates of Paradise (April, 2006).
A Priesthood of Fathers (December, 2005).
The Demise of a Catholic Town (June, 2005).
A Village Called Wakefield (March, 2005).
Over the Rails America, (November, 2004).
Our Peculiar Institution: The New Slavery (September, 2004).
Victims Unseen (March, 2004).
I have written many other articles, for Catholic World Report, Latin Mass, Angelus, Catholic Men’s Quarterly, This Rock, and monthly essays on poetry and the liturgy for Magnificat (2007, and forthcoming in 2009 and 2010).

Poems: I have published over 100 poems in various journals in the United States, Canada, England, and Australia.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Professor, Providence College, 1995-present
Associate Professor, Providence College, 1991-1995
Assistant Professor, Providence College, 1990-1991
Assistant Professor, Furman University, 1988-1990
Lecturer, University of North Carolina, 1987-1988
Instructor, University of North Carolina, 1985-1987

Courses taught in recent years: Development of Western Civilization 101 and 102 (a five-credit, year-long course for freshmen, covering history, literature, art, religion, and philosophy, from ancient Mesopotamia to Milton); Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Restoration Drama; Spenser; Sixteenth Century English Literature; Dante; Milton; Literature and Labor; Shakespeare: Romances; Shakespeare: Histories; Shakespeare: Comedies; Shakespeare: Tragedies; Anglo-Saxon; Arthurian Legend; Introduction to Literature.