Eugene Paul Nassar

Eugene Paul Nassar (born 20 June 1935), Professor of English Emeritus of Utica College, Utica, New York, is the author of several books of literary criticism in the close analysis tradition of his teachers, John Crowe Ransom at Kenyon College, Christopher Ricks at Oxford University, Arthur Mizener of Cornell University, and his critical model and mentor, Cleanth Brooks. He has long studies of the figural images in Wallace Stevens,^[1] the lyric passages in The Cantos of Ezra Pound,^[2] and of Hart Crane’s The Bridge, along with numerous essays in criticism of poems, drama and fiction. He has also an anthology of the illustrations to Dante’s “Inferno,”^[3] various essays in sociological criticism, essays and reviews in many journals, and he has edited several books. He has held the Rhodes Scholarship and a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. A memoir of growing up in a Lebanese Christian family in the Italian-American neighborhood of East Utica, NY, is entitled Wind of the Land.^[4] Dr. Nassar is the founder and former Director of the Ethnic Heritage Studies Center at Utica College. His Papers, which include many items—such as notices and reviews of his work—not available elsewhere, are housed in the Archives of Utica College.

Books

As author

• Wallace Stevens: An Anatomy of Figuration. Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, (1965). 2nd printing in 1968.
• The Rape of Cinderella: Essays in Literary Continuity. Indiana Univ. Press, (1970)
• Selections from a Prose Poem: East Utica, Munson-Williams-Pro,ctor Museum(1971)
• The Cantos of Ezra Pound: The Lyric Mode. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, (1975). 2nd printing, 1976.
• Wind of the Land: Two Prose Poems. A.A.U.G. (1979)
• Essays: Critical and Metacritical. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press, (1983)
• Illustrations to Dante's Inferno. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press, (1994)
• A Walk Around the Block: Literary Texts and Social Contexts. E.H.S.C. (1999)
• Local Sketches. E.H.S.C. (2003)
• My World, My Time: More Local Sketches E.H.S.C. (2012)

As editor

• Grace Ione Spencer: Portrait of an Uncommon Woman. with Harry Jackson. Utica College, 1977.
• The Family Structure in Islam. Hamudah Abdalati. The American Trust, 1977.
• Vignettes of Old Utica. Judge John Walsh. Utica Public Library, 1982.
• Annotated Index to the Syrian World, 1926-32. with John Moses. I.H.R.C., Univ. of Minnesota, 1994.
• Ethnic Utica. with James Pula. E.H.S.C., Utica College, 1994, 2nd ed. 2001.
• History of Utica College: The First Twenty-Five Years. Harry Jackson. Utica College Archives.
• Welsh Imprints of Central New York. E.H.S.C., Utica College 1996, 2nd ed. 1998.
• Mount Allegro. Jerre Mangione. Syracuse University Press 1998.
• Fiorentino. E.H.S.C. 2003.
• Rufie: A Political Scrapbook. E.H.S.C. 2009
• The Graphic Art of Robert Cimbalo. E.H.S.C.,2010

Articles

Articles appeared in: College English, Renascence (2), Paideuma, Mosaic, American Oxonian, Melus, Syracuse Scholar (2), New York Folklore, Bulletin of Research in the Humanities, Dictionary of American Immigration History, Virginia Quarterly Review, Dante Studies(3).Dante Encyclopedia, Ambassador. Mohawk Valley History (7), Utica Observer-Dispatch (42).

Reviews appeared in: Essays in Criticism (2), Wallace Stevens Journal, Modern Age (5), Sewanee Review, Italian America.

See also

• Peter Quince at the Clavier

References

External links

• Vanderbilt Library Special Collections
• Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry Prize
• The Eugene Paul Nassar Ethnic Heritage Studies Center
• List of Rhodes Scholars