William Veeder

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William Veeder, is a scholar of 19th century American and British literature, and a professor in the Department of English at the University of Chicago. He is particularly known for his ground-breaking study of the infulence of contemporary fiction on the early and middle novels of the American-British novelist Henry James.

Professor Veeder's other interests include the American and English Gothic. His critical methodology is primarily rooted in psychoanalysis and gender theory, but he is also a strong advocate of close reading, a critical approach whereby "one gets to content through form". [1]

Professor Veeder currently teaches Introduction to Fiction, American Gothic Literature, Literature of Three Americas (soon to be discontinued), and Henry James: The Fiction of Crisis. He has also been working for years on a historical novel about Ambrose Bierce and Emma Franscis Dawson.

Professor Veeder was born on September 14, 1940 in Denver, Colorado to Virginia Holderness and William H. Veeder. He grew up in Arlington, Virginia.

Professor Veeder's publications include:

1. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: After One Hundred Years. Edited by William Veeder and Gordon Hirsch. University of Chicago Press, 1988.
2. Mary Shelley & Frankenstein: the Fate of Androgyny. University of Chicago Press, 1986.
3. The Woman Question: Society and Literature in Britain and America, 1837-1883. Elizabeth K. Helsinger, Robin Lauterbach Sheets, William Veeder. University of Chicago Press, 1989, c1983.
4. Henry James, the Lessons of the Master: Popular Fiction and Personal Style in the Nineteenth Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975.
5. Essays on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Anglo-American gothic texts; psychoanalysis; gender issues; popular culture.