I. Education and Professional Career

Born in San Francisco, California, on January 7, 1935. Graduated from the Fay School, Southborough, Mass., in 1949. Graduated from the Kent School, Kent, Connecticut (1953), from which he was awarded an English Speaking Union Scholarship to study at Uppingham School, England. He was graduated in June, 1957, from Princeton University, Phi Beta Kappa, with High Honors in English. Supported by a Danforth Fellowship he studied English and American literature at Harvard University, from which he received his A.M. in 1960 and his Ph.D. in 1962. He wrote his dissertation on George Bernard Shaw.

From 1961 to 1964 he served as Instructor in English at Bates College, Lewiston, Maine, and in 1964 he came to Davidson College, North Carolina, as Assistant Professor of English. He was promoted to Associate Professor of English in 1967, and to Professor in 1979. From 1989 to 1996 he served as chair of the Department, and in 1990 was named the Charles A. Dana Professor of English. He retired from full time teaching in 2001, and now serves as Charles A. Dana Professor of English Emeritus.

In addition to teaching English, he has served as Director of the Second Year Humanities Program. He is married to the former Susan Dudley of South Orange, New Jersey. They have three sons -- David, Stephen, and Andrew, and seven grandchildren.

II. Honors, Awards, and Vititing Positions

During his thirty years at Davidson Professor Abbott has received a number of honors and awards. In 1966 he was awarded a scholarship by the English Speaking Union in Charlotte to study Shakespeare and Elizabethan drama at Stratford-upon-Avon. In 1969 he was given The Thomas Jefferson Award, Davidson's highest award to a member of the faculty. Dr. Abbott was the first younger member of the faculty to be recognized in this fashion. In 1975 he received two awards: a first place award from the North Carolina Press Association for his columns on prison conditions in the weekly Mecklenburg Gazette, and a first prize for fiction by Crucible Magazine in its annual competition among North Carolina writers. The Abbotts spent the summer of 1976 in Oxford, England, where Dr. Abbott was director of the Davidson-Mary Baldwin summer session at St. Anne's College. They spent the spring and summer of 1977 in Melbourne, Australia, where Dr. Abbott was visiting lecturer in American literature at Monash University, Melbourne. In 1978 he was a William Atherton Scholar in poetry at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in Middlebury, Vermont. In 1979 he participated in an NEH Seminar on Modern Drama at Princeton University, and in 1982 in a second NEH summer seminar on Avant Garde Theatre at New York University. Growing out of these two seminars is his book, The Vital Lie: Reality and Illusion in Modern Drama, published in 1989 by the University of Alabama Press. In the same year, his book of poems, The Girl in the Yellow Raincoat, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. During the summer of 1988 Dr. Abbott served as resident-director of the Davidson Summer Programme at Wolfson College, Cambridge. In 1989 his poem, "Longings" won Crucible Magazine's first prize for poetry, and in 1990 his poem, "The Poet, the Lovers and the Nuns" won Crucible Magazine's Sam Ragan Award. His second book of poems, A Small Thing Like A Breath, was awarded second place in the Oscar Arnold Young Book Contest of the Poetry Council of North Carolina in 1994. In 1996 he received the Sam Ragan Award from St. Andrews Presbyterian College for service to the arts community of North Cazrolina, and in 1997 he received the Hunter-Hamilton Love of Teaching Award for his teaching at Davidson College. In 2000 his third book of poems, The Search for Wonder in the Cradle of the World, was published by St. Andrews Press. In 2003 he won the Novello Festival Award for his first novel, Leaving Maggie Hope, which was published in September of 2003 and named the winner of the Gold Award for literary fiction by ForeWord Magazine.

III. Teaching Interests

As a teacher, Professor Abbott's interests have been wide-ranging. In addition to his English specialties, modern drama and creative writing, he has participated in a number of inter-disciplinary programs. In 1967 he joined Davidson's Humanities program, in 1970 he designed with religion professor Daniel D. Rhodes a course in American Literature and Religion, and from 1976 to 1979 served as a faculty member at the Center for Special Studies at Davidson, where the college's inter-disciplinary programs are maintained. He has taught the following courses:

English 101                  Composition
English 110                  Introduction to Literature
English 220                  The Study of Literature
English 151                  Shakespeare
English 354                  English Drama to 1700
English 261                  Modern Drama
English 291                  Literature and Religion
English 203                  Creative Writing
English 201                  Advanced Composition
English 385                  American Drama Since 1945
English 495                  The Senior Colloquium
Humanities 150-151     The Western Tradition to the Renaissance
Humanities 250-251     The Western Tradition Since the Renaissance
Center 261                  The Black Experience in Literature
Center 291                  Contemporary British Drama
Center 254                  American Drama of the '20's and '30's
Center 259                  American Drama since 1945

IV. Campus and Community Service

Dr. Abbott has been an active participant in all phases of campus and community life. He has served as Chairman of the Davidson Community Relations Committee, as director of the adult elective program in the Davidson College Presbyterian Church, he has directed several plays for the Davidson Community Players, including The Dining Room, Tea and Sympathy, Inherit the Wind, The Miracle Worker, and A Man for All Seasons. He has given lectures to church groups and literary organizations in Charlotte, Statesville, and other neighboring communities, he has coached baseball for the North Mecklenburg YMCA, and has served on most of the major committees of the faculty including Admissions, Educational Policy, and Professional Affairs. He was President of the Charlotte Writers' Club for 1987-'88, and was President of the North Carolina Writers Network from 1990-'92. Appointed by Governor James G. Martin, he served on the North Carolina Awards Committee from 1985-'92. In 1996 he served as Chair of the North Carolina Writer's Conference. He is an elder in the Davidson College Presbyterian Church.