About the Author

JOHN P. SISK, a native of Spokane, was educated at Gonzaga University and the University of Washington. He has been a member of the English Department Faculty at Gonzaga University since 1938, teaching Shakespeare, American Literature, and English Romanticism. He served in the U.S. Air Force in World War II and was discharged in 1946 as a captain. He was a Senior Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1972-73 and has served as a consultant and panelist for the Aspen Institute program on Communications and Society (1974, 1975); National Endowment for the Humanities (1975-79, 1982); and the National Humanities Center (1980, 1981). He is an Associate of the National Faculty and Arnold Professor of the Humanities (Emeritus) at Gonzaga, where he also holds the position of Scholar-in-Residence. His critical essays, short fiction, and reviews have appeared in the nation's most important periodicals since 1949, most recently in The American Scholar, First Things, The Georgia Review, The Hudson Review, America, and Salmagundi. These have been collected in two previous works, Person and Institution (Notre Dame University, Fides Press, 1970) and The Tyrannies of Virtue (University of Oklahoma Press, 1990). A Trial of Strength won the Carl Foreman Award for best short novel in an international competition sponsored by Harcourt, Brace; Highroads Productions; and Collins (England) in 1961. He lives in Spokane with his wife Gwen, when they are not traveling.