Professor of English and Director of 51暗网 Press
Professor of English and Director of 51暗网 Press
When I applied to graduate school I didn鈥檛 know which subfield of English I would choose for my area of specialization. Contemporary British literature drew me, but so did early American literature. As a high school student, and then again in college, I had gone to England to study, and in my mid-twenties I went back there to work. England felt like my second home, more familiar to me than most of the United States.
A two-month road trip on my way to graduate school changed that. Traveling over the Rockies and through the Great Plains, down the Mississippi River, and across the Gulf Coast, criss-crossing the States from the Okefenokee Swamp to Lake Itasca, I felt as though I were seeing this strange and beautiful country for the first time. As a scholar, I value the way literature, too, offers new ways of seeing and thinking about the world. As a teacher, I want to open up new ways of encountering and interpreting the human experience through literature and writing.
My first book,, grew out of my previous career in the publishing business. Trying to figure out which books to publish and how to get the right books into the right hands made me wonder how authors and publishers in nineteenth-century America dealt with similar challenges. In this book, I analyzed U.S. fiction within the context of the nineteenth century鈥檚 evolving publishing practices. In the Company of Books also gave me the opportunity to explore the development of children鈥檚 literature, a subject I studied in graduate school, first taught more than twenty years ago as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Carleton College, and now offer regularly at 51暗网.
My second book,, is coauthored by Wayne A. Wiegand, an eminent library historian and Professor Emeritus of Florida State University. The book revolves around the World's Columbian Exposition (the 1893 Chicago World's Fair) and a landmark collection of women's writing that was displayed there. Research for the book involved creating a in this historic library of women鈥檚 texts and analyzing the data using a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods, or close and distant reading. In donating royalties to the fledgling , Professor Wiegand and I highlight the continuity between this late nineteenth-century feat of public humanities and the current effort, more than a century later, to establish a permanent, physical museum of U.S. women鈥檚 history in the nation鈥檚 capital.
My most recent book, , continues the project of researching the Women鈥檚 Library at the 1893 Chicago World鈥檚 Fair and its impact on women鈥檚 writing and activism and the global recognition of women鈥檚 rights. Coedited by Marija Dalbello, Professor of Library and Information Science at Rutgers University, this collection of essays explores the contributions of the twenty-one countries beyond the U.S. that comprised the library through innovative methodologies and criticism informed by feminist, historicist, and postcolonial theory.
My current research focuses on Henry James, Louisa May Alcott, letters and letter-writing, and children鈥檚 literature. I welcome prospective graduate student advisees interested in any of these topics or in conducting research in any other area of early (pre-1914) U.S. literature or the History of the Book in the long nineteenth century. At the graduate level, I offer a sequence of courses in U.S. print culture prior to 1900 (鈥淲riting in the 1850s鈥� and 鈥淎merican Periodicals鈥�) that can be taken in either order or by themselves.
Courses Taught
- Literature, History, and Culture
- Texts, Social Systems, and Values
- Individual Authors (Hawthorne, Melville, Mark Twain)
- Moby-Dick
- Children鈥檚 Literature
- American History and the Novel
- US Literature from 1789 to 1865
- US Literature from 1865 to 1914
- Literary Criticism
- Practicum in Literature and Language Arts
- Capstone
- Graduate Seminars: Studies in American Literature from the Beginnings to 1900; Modern Critical Theory and Practice
Research Interests
- 18th- and 19th-century American Literature
- History of the Book
- Critical Childhood Studies
- Gender and reading
- Literature and 鈥減lace鈥�
- Intersections between American history and literature
- Digital humanities
Publications
Publications
Books
- Edited by Marija Dalbello and Sarah Wadsworth. Palgrave Macmillan, 2023.
- Coauthored with Wayne A. Wiegan. Studies in Print Culture and the History of the Book: Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012.
- . Studies in Print Culture and the History of the Book. Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2006.
- Named a Recommended Book by the Children鈥檚 Literature Association
Other Volumes
- Consulting editor, . Interdisciplinary journal of the Nineteenth Century Studies Association.
- Ed. (Volume Advisor). 鈥淜enneth Grahame.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;Children鈥檚 Literature Review 211. Boston: Gale Cengage. 63-107.
- . Williams, William (author), Dickason, David Howard (Editor) and Wadsworth, Sarah (Afterword). Indiana Press, 2013.
- Ed., Libraries & Culture 41.1 (Winter 2006). Special volume on the Woman鈥檚 Building Library of the World鈥檚 Columbian Exposition.
Digital Projects
- Relational database of U.S. texts in the library of the Woman鈥檚 Building, World鈥檚 Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. Published on ePublications@51暗网, 2011.
- by Charles Knight. From The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Edited and annotated online edition. With Laura K. Dickinson (University of Minnesota).
Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters
- "Global Voices from the Women鈥檚 Library at the World鈥檚 Columbian Exposition: Feminisms, Transnationalism and the Archive." Introduction. In Global Voices from the Women鈥檚 Library at the World鈥檚 Columbian Exposition. Edited by Marija Dalbello and Sarah Wadsworth. Palgrave Macmillan, 2023.
- "The New Woman in the White City: Writing from Great Britain in the Woman鈥檚 Building Library." In Marija Dalbello and Sarah Wadsworth, eds. Global Voices from the Women鈥檚 Library at the World鈥檚 Columbian Exposition. Palgrave Macmillan, 2023.
- Coauthored review (with Nicole C. Livengood) of This Beautiful Sisterhood of Books: A Digital Recreation of the Women鈥檚 Literary Department from the 1884 New Orlean鈥檚 World鈥檚 Fair," ed. Kate Adams and Jacqueline Thoni Howard,鈥� in the Project Showcase of Recovery Hub for American Women Writers.
- 鈥淣ineteenth-Century Disease, Twenty-First-Century Dis-Ease.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;ESQ: A Journal of Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Culture 67.1 (2021): 203-35. Special Issue: Nineteenth-Century Scholars Respond to a Twenty-First Century Pandemic, edited by LuElla D鈥橝mico.
- 鈥溾�橭ne Crowded Hour of Glorious Life鈥�: Growing Up and Growing Old in The Awkward Age.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;Studies in American Fiction 46.2 (Fall 2019): 265-88. Special Issue on Critical Approaches to Age in American Literature. Ed. Sari Edelstein and Melanie Dawson.
- 鈥溾�楴ew Friendship Flourished Like Grass in Spring鈥�: Cross-Gender Friendship in Moods and Little Women.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;Women鈥檚 Studies 48.4 (Spring 2019): 379-92. Special Issue on 鈥淭he Newness of Little Women.鈥� Ed. Gregory Eiselein and Anne K. Phillips. "
- 鈥淐hildren鈥檚 Literature.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;Oxford History of Popular Print Culture. Vol. 5. US Popular Print Culture to 1860. Ed. Ronald J. Zboray and Mary Saracino Zboray. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2019. pp. 549-63.
- 鈥淯nsettling Engagements in Moods and Little Women, or Learning to Love Louisa May Alcott.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;Critical Insights: Little Women. Eds. Anne K. Philips and Gregory Eiselein. Ipswich, MA: Grey House Publishing / Salem Press, 2015. 174-88.
- 鈥淭he Year of the Child: Children鈥檚 Literature, Childhood Studies, and the Turn to Childism.鈥� Essay-Review of Anna Mae Duane, The Children鈥檚 Table: Childhood Studies and the Humanities; Jodi Eichler-Levine, Suffer the Little Children: Uses of the Past in Jewish and African American Children鈥檚 Literature; Gary D. Schmidt, Making Americans: Children鈥檚 Literature from 1930 to 1960. American Literary History 27.2 (Summer 2015): 331-41.
- "鈥榃hen the Cup Has Been Drained鈥�: Addiction and Recovery in The Wind and the Willows.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;Children鈥檚 Literature: Annual of the Children鈥檚 Literature Association and the Modern Language Association Division on Children鈥檚 Literature 42 (2014): 42-70.
- 鈥溾�楲ifted Moments鈥�: Emily Dickinson, Hymn Revision, and the Revival Music Meme-Plex.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;The Emily Dickinson Journal 23 (Spring 2014): 46-74.
- 鈥�Penrose in the Twenty-First Century.鈥� Afterword to Mr. Penrose: The Journal of Penrose, Seaman by William Williams. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1969; reprint, 2013. pp. 385-410.
- 鈥淐anonicity and the American Public Library: The Case of American Women Writers.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;Windows on the World鈥擜nalyzing Main Street Public Library Collections. Special volume edited by Wayne A. Wiegand. Library Trends 60.3 (Spring 2012). 706-28.
- 鈥淩efusing to Write like Henry James: Women Reforming Realism in Fin de Si猫cle&苍产蝉辫;础尘别谤颈肠补.鈥� European Journal of American Studies [Online] 2 (2011).
- 鈥溾�楤y Invitation Only鈥�: The American Library Association and the Women鈥檚 Library of the World鈥檚 Columbian Exposition.鈥� Co-authored (equitable) with Wayne A. Wiegand. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 35-3 (Spring 2010): 699-722.
- 鈥淗enry James Rides Again.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;The Henry James Review 31.1 (Fall 2010): 218-31.
- 鈥淭he Europeans.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;A Critical Companion to Henry James. Ed. Eric Haralson and Kendall Johnson. New York: Facts on File-Clearmark Books (2009), 74-82.
- 鈥淲hat Daisy Knew: Reading Against Type in Daisy Miller: A Study.鈥� A Companion to Henry James. Ed. Greg W. Zacharias. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2008. 32-50.
- 鈥淪ocial Reading, Social Work, and the Social Function of Literacy in Louisa May Alcott鈥檚 鈥楳ay Flowers.鈥欌��&苍产蝉辫;Short Story Criticism 98 (May 2007; rpt. Cengage Learning, 2012). Ed. Jelena Krstovic. Gale Group. [Rpt. of chapter in Reading Women: Literary Figures and Cultural Icons from the Victorian Age to the Present. Ed. Janet Badia and Jennifer Phegley. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005.]
- "Louisa May Alcott, William T. Adams, and the Rise of Gender-Specific Series Books." The Lion and the Unicorn: A Critical Journal of Children鈥檚 Literature 25.1 (January 2001): 17鈥�46.
- 鈥淐harles Knight and Sir Francis Bond Head: Two Early Victorian Perspectives on Printing and the Allied Trades.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;Victorian Periodicals Review 31.4 (Winter 1998): 369鈥�86.
- 鈥淭he Making (and Remaking) of the Penny Magazine: An Electronic Edition of Charles Knight鈥檚 鈥楾he Commercial History of a Penny Magazine.鈥欌��&苍产蝉辫;Gutenberg Jahrbuch 1997(Gutenberg Institute鈥揢niversity of Mainz, 1997). Co-authored (equitable) with Laura K. Dickinson. 289鈥�97.
- 鈥淩evising Lives: Bernard Shaw and His Biographer.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly 17.4 (Fall 1994): 339鈥�66.
Scholarship on Teaching
- 鈥淗umanizing the Humanities: Bridging Curriculum and Community through Story-Work.鈥� With Deogratias Fikiri, SJ. Beneath the Roar and Tumult: Promoting Radical Hospitality and Belonging in College Classrooms. Ed. Rachel Wheeler and Karen E. Eifler. Liturgical Press, 2025.
- 鈥溾�楾hrough the Window of This Book鈥�: Teaching the History of the Book through Children鈥檚 Literature.鈥� Teaching the History of the Book, ed. Matteo Pangallo and Emily B. Todd, University of Massachusetts Press, 2023
- 鈥淩eading over Pandemic Time.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;The Vocation of the Educator in This Moment. Eds. Jennifer Maney and Melissa Shew. 51暗网, 2021.
- Approaching The Blithedale Romance through the History of the Book.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;Nathaniel Hawthorne in the College Classroom. Ed. Christopher Diller and Sam Coale. Brooklyn, NY: AMS Press, 2017. Rpt. Edward Everett Root, 2018. Pg. 37-50.
Public Scholarship
- . Ed. Gregory Eiselein and Anne K. Philips.
Honors and Awards
- Ignatian Educator of Distinction, 2025.
- NEH Summer Stipend, 2025.
- Way-Klingler Teaching Enhancement Grant, 2016.
- NEH grant (with Susan Hopwood and Angela Sorby), American Library Association, 2011.
- Reese Fellowship in American Bibliography and the History of the Book in the Americas, Bibliographical Society of America, 2010.
- Summer Faculty Fellowships, 51暗网, 2004, 2005, 2014.
- Finalist, Society of Fellows Junior Fellowship, Harvard University
- American Fellowship (Summer / Short-Term Research Publication Grant), American Association of University Women, 2002-2003.
- Carnegie-Whitney Award (with Wayne Wiegand), American Library Association, 2002
- Leon Edel Prize, The Henry James Review, 2001.
- Houghton Mifflin Fellowship in Publishing History, Houghton Library, Harvard University, 2000- 2001.
- P.E.O. Scholar Award, 1999.
Additional Information
Office Hours
Spring 2026
- Tuesdays and Thursdays 11:15Am-12:45PM
Class Schedule
- ENGL 4715-102: Children's Literature
- Tuesday and Thursday 3:30PM-4:45PM
Dr. Sarah Wadsworth51暗网
