A Slant of Light

Jack Wheatcroft (1925–2016) had a transformative impact on five decades of Bucknell students. This collection of essays is a testimony to an extraordinary teacher, writer, and innovator and trailblazer in creating a community and infrastructure of literary culture at a distinguished liberal arts college.

Jack Wheatcroft (1925-2016) had a transformative impact on five decades of Bucknell students (1952-1996). He served the institution with great generosity of a kind that was rare for a teacher so immersed in his writing. He founded the Bucknell Seminar for Undergraduate Poets, the Philip Roth Visiting Writers Residency, and the magnificent Stadler Center for Poetry. He over saw the restoration of Bucknell Hall for the Stadler Center and today it is one of the most beautiful and distinguished buildings and centers on campus. He was largely responsible for the creation of Bucknell University Press. Jack Wheatcroft’s life and the evolution of Bucknell University in the twentieth century are inextricable. He was formative in helping to create and nurture a community of artists and intellectuals that helped to propel Bucknell into national prominence. Over fifty years, Jack Wheatcroft published twenty-six books of poetry, fiction, and plays. The essays in this festschrift, by former students (who have gone on to be writers and teachers themselves), colleagues, and friends are a testimony to an extraordinary teacher, writer, innovator, and trailblazer in creating a community and infrastructure of literary culture at a distinguished liberal arts college.

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Peter Balakian and Bruce Smith

1 Jack Wheatcroft

Philip Roth

2 Jack Wheatcroft, In Memoriam

Betsy Sholl

3 “History Became the Words”: Trans/Scribing Conscience

in John Wheatcroft’s Answering Fire

Cynthia Hogue

4 Collections of Stories, Years Later

John Ramsay

5 Remembering John Wheatcroft

Matthew Stevenson

6 Sundays

Tom Gardner

Images of Jack, Figures 1-4

7 Dear Katherine

Jane Maas

8 Remembering Jack

Gary Sojka

9 Memories of Jack Wheatcroft

Jan Balakian

10 Jack Wheatcroft

Dennis O’Brien

11 Marginalia

Teresa Leo

12 Bucknell’s Boy of Summer

Kurt Landefeld

Images of Jack, Figures 5-8

13 Jack

Philip Brady

14 Rhyming Forward and Back

Dierdre O’Connor

15 Jack Wheatcroft and The Stadler Center for Poetry

Anne Rogers Poliakoff

16 Jack, Some Scenes

Peter Balakian

17 Jack Wheatcroft: Recreant at Lewisburg

Bruce Smith

18 Late Afternoon, Bucknell Hall

Shara McCallum

Published Works of John Wheatcroft

About the Contributors