I first became intrigued with Katharine Lee Bates’ story when I attended Wellesley College and studied English— in the same English Department that Katharine Lee Bates established at the school decades earlier.
I continued my academic career as a published literary critic with an M.A. in American Studies and a Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Boston College and then as a college professor. As coordinator of the English B.A. program and the Women’s Studies program at Pine Manor College, a small formerly all-women’s college about the size of Katharine’s young Wellesley College, I could vividly picture Katharine’s similar life as a teacher and scholar. I understood why Katharine promoted women’s achievements and education—and why she was often frustrated with endless faculty meetings. I have written and published numerous articles and essays on Katharine Lee Bates, and reviewers have praised my sympathetic treatment of Bates’ work and personal life. In addition, I have given many talks and interviews surrounding the life of Katharine, including on the A&E Network, Monitor Radio, BNN News, as well as for the Falmouth Historical Society with panelist Lynn Sherr. In addition to my fascination with Katharine Lee Bates, I am also a Nathaniel Hawthorne scholar and have published two books on this subject: Hawthorne and Women: Engendering and Expanding the Hawthorne Tradition as well as Hawthorne's Early Narrative Art: Its Origins in Eighteenth-Century Anglo-Scottish Aesthetics. My essays and articles on Nathaniel Hawthorne and other American and British authors have appeared in Genre, The Chicago Tribune, The Essex Institute Historical Collections, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Nathaniel Hawthorne Review. I was born in Indianapolis, traveled East to pursue my academic career, and my home is now in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I am now Professor Emerita of English at Pine Manor College. |
MY BOOKSKatharine Lee Bates: From Sea to Shining Sea
Hawthorne and Women: Engendering and Expanding the Hawthorne Tradition Hawthorne's Early Narrative Art CURRICULUM VITAE
KLB book research"A Garden of Delight" — Following Katharine Lee Bates in Spain
On Sabbatical with Katharine Lee Bates in Egypt 
In Colorado Springs, Colorado, I saw Pikes Peak’s “purple mountain majesties.”
Following KLB to Egypt.
William Bates Jr. describes to me his memories of his great-aunt Katharine.
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