Author of Wilbur's Poetry; Mark Twain on the Loose; Literary Wit; and Printer's Devil: Mark Twain and the American Publishing Revolution; translator of Georges Clemenceau, Claude Monet: The Water Lilies and Other Writings on Art;  former President of the Mark Twain Circle of America; former President of the American Humor Studies Association; author of articles on Richard Wilbur, Mark Twain, Robert Lowell, Edith Wharton, Garison Keillor, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and other literary subjects. 2-time Fulbright Professor(universities of Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, and Liège; Fulbright Ambassador; on-screen commentator for the American Passages video series.  Director of the University of Illinois Campus Honors Program 1995-2013.