EDITOR'S PAGE

THE BIENNIAL JOSEPH M. SCHWARTZ MEMORIAL ESSAY

IT is with great pleasure that I announce the inauguration of the biennial Joesph M. Schwartz Memorial Essay. This coming spring Renascence will publish the first, commissioned essay on American literature, honoring the memory of a valued colleague and former editor of the journal. This first essay's publication will also be marked by a public reading of the essay at a celebration held at Marquette University.

Dr. Joseph M. Schwartz was associated with Marquette University, as student, graduate student, and professor for over fifty years. He was editor of Renascence from 1978 to 1995 and Senior Editor from 1995 until his death in 2002. Dr. Schwartz served four terms as chair of the Department of English between 1963 and 1975, and served on several university committees. He received a Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence in 1974. As editor of Renascence Dr. Schwartz tirelessly encouraged new and developing scholars, providing his own - or soliciting - detailed and constructive comments for every serious contribution. In this way he sustained the journal's long tradition of nurturing scholarship on Christian approaches in literary criticism.

A scholar on the work of Hart Crane, he also published essays on T. S. Eliot, G. K. Chesterton, Richard Wilbur, Walker Percy, and a number of other figures in modern American literature. In addition to an extensive list of publications, Dr. Schwartz created and starred in local television programs in the 1950s. His accomplishments in the community included serving as president of the Board of Education of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee

In 1997 he received the Distinguished Retiring Editor Award from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ). It was while Dr. Schwartz was editor of the journal that Renascence was transformed from the organ of the Catholic Renascence Society to one of Marquette University's premier scholarly journals.

As the second part of the Schwartz Memorial; in winter, 2005, we shall announce the winner of the first Joseph M. Schwartz Memorial Essay contest. Three judges chosen from the Renascence Associates will have selected the best essay published in Renascence in the previous two years, and that author will receive a cash award of $1,000. The title of the essay itself will be noted here, and the will be reprinted on the Renascence web site.

Individuals interested in contributing to the Joseph M. Schwartz Memorial Essay Fund are asked to contact Marquette University's Office of University Advancement.

ED BLOCK

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