Beyond the Tenure Track: Fifteen Months in the Life of an English Professor

Phelan ( Worlds from Words ), who teaches English at Ohio State, kept a journal from January 1987 to March 1988 in an attempt to explain ``his version of academic life,'' but there is not much of merit to be gleaned from this self-absorbed and often tediously whining record. Readers familiar with the workings of a university will discover little they don't already know or at least suspect. Others will no doubt bog down in details of committee meetings, conferences with students and Phelan's comments on specific novels and authors. What analysis and criticism of academia he proffers is fairly innocuous. This is hardly surprising: he could be in his job another 30 years. Readers do get a liberal dose of the author's personal life and habits: he likes to spend time with his wife, a professor of sociology, and children; is capable of procrastinating and even missing a deadline (not his fault, of course); runs and plays basketball (and seems to get quite cranky when he can't). Such information should be invaluable to one audience--Ohio State English students who may find it expedient to become experts on the attitudes and foibles of Professor Phelan. (May)