About Jan

Almost daily growing up, he wet himself with the waters of a small cove of Long Island Sound swimming, fishing, crabbing, sailing, rowing. His first job was pumping gas for large power boats at a marina. One of the happiest days of his life remains the one on which he passed his driver’s license driving test. He can still parallel park. He attended a Jesuit high school. He joined the Jesuits in 1962, he left the order in 1970 and several months later married Helen with whom he fathered two sons. They divorced in 1981. In 1983, He married Christine. He graduated from Boston College and Yale University. He taught literature at Purdue University and Clarkson University for 40 years. He won five teaching awards. He published books, had articles published by the New York Times Magazine, PMLA, Coevolution Quarterly, Renascence, New Literary History, Modern Language Notes,  Poetics Today, Wicazo Sa Review, and The Black River Review. He's presented numerous public programs on the Civi War.  He managed an astronomical observatory, with Christine he grew a subsistence garden, built a barn, and raised sheep and poultry commercially. He won several fly fishing tournaments. He turns and sells natural edged bowls on a lathe. He built and maintains hiking and ski trails in woods he owns with Christine.