John Elder, professor of English and Environmental Studies, receives 2005 Guggenheim Fellowship
MIDDLEBURY, Vt.—John Elder, professor of English and Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, has been selected to receive a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, one of just 186 scholars nationwide to be chosen from among more than 3,000 applicants. This year's 81st annual awards from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation were announced April 7.
Elder plans to use the fellowship award during a sabbatical in 2006-07, when he expects to complete work on a book tentatively titled In Hardwood Groves. Elder says the book will complete a narrative cycle that began with the 1998 publication of Reading the Mountains of Home, in which "the environmental history of the Green Mountains provided a context for re-reading Robert Frost's great poem, 'Directive.' " Combining natural history, literary criticism, conservation and personal memoir, the book has been described as a pioneering work in a new school of "narrative criticism." The cycle continues with a recently completed manuscript, Pilgrimage to Vallombrosa, in which Elder describes a journey to Italy, following in the footsteps of George Perkins Marsh, a 19th century writer and conservationist from Vermont.
Elder says the third volume in the series, In Hardwood Groves, will be "about the importance of forestry in general and maple-syrup production in particular to the history and character of Vermont." The book will combine four narrative strands: the dramatic evolution of Vermont's forests from the end of the 18th century to the present; how maple sugaring originated with the Abenaki people, was adopted and adapted by European settlers, and is practiced today; a personal memoir about becoming involved in small-scale forestry and sugaring; and "reflections upon several possible futures for the forests of Vermont, especially in relation to global climate change. Sugaring is the microcosm through which I consider the character and destiny of northern New England."
Elder graduated from Pomona College in 1969 and completed his Ph.D. in English at Yale University in 1973; he joined the Middlebury faculty that same year. He was granted a split appointment in English and Environmental Studies in 1987, and has since served at various times as both director of the Environmental Studies program and chair of the English Department.
Professor Elder becomes the sixth Middlebury faculty member to earn a Guggenheim Fellowship since 1987. Four of the previous awards went to members of the English Department: Sydney Lea (1987), Terry Hummer (1992), Jay Parini (1993), and Robert Cohen (2003). Michael Collier, director of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, received a Guggenheim in 1995.
Guggenheim Fellows, according to the foundation, "are appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment." The 2005 fellows, who will receive awards totaling just over $7.1 million, include writers, painters, sculptors, photographers, film makers, choreographers, physical and biological scientists, social scientists, and scholars in the humanities. Many work at colleges and universities, with 79 institutions represented by one or more fellows; 47 of the new fellows have no academic or university affiliation.
More information on the Guggenheim Foundation, and a full list of 2005 Guggenheim Fellows, can be found at the foundation's web site.