Benjamin Franklin Fisher.

Benjamin Franklin Fisher IV received his M.A. and Ph. D. degrees from the English Department at Duke University in 1963 and 1969, respectively. Fisher, an Edgar Allan Poe scholar, has published multiple books on the writer, including The Very Spirit of Cordiality: The Literary Uses of Alcohol and Alcoholism in the Tales of Edgar Allan Poe in 1978, Poe and Our Times: Influences and Affinities in 1986, and Poe and His Times: The Artist in His Milieu in 1990. In 1993, Fisher was awarded a Governor's Citation from the State of Maryland for his contributions to Poe studies. Fisher is also the author and editor of numerous other books and articles on Gothic and Victorian Literature, especially the works of Mary Wilkins Freeman, Frederick Irving Anderson, Edith Wharton, Stephen Crane and Frank Norris. He served on the faculties of the University of Pennsylvania and Hahnemann Medical College before joining the English Department of the University of Mississippi in 1979.

Fisher has been active in the leadership of numerous literary societies and professional organizations, including the Poe Studies Association, which awarded him Honorary Membership for his service. He has also been active in the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, the Tennyson Society, William Gilmore Simms Society, Nathaniel Hawthorne Society, Frank Norris Society and the (A.E.) Housman Society. Fisher served as Secretary-Treasurer for the American Literature Section of the Modern Language Society (MLA) and as an Executive Committee member of the South Central MLA (SCMLA). In addition to serving as editor of the University of Mississippi Studies in English from 1979 to 1995, Fisher also serves on the editorial boards of Poe Studies, Victorian Poetry, English Literature in Transition, American Humor Studies, Gothic Studies, and the Simms Review.

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