Constellation Similarity Assertions

John Hathaway McGinnis was an editor of the Southwest Review, editor of the Dallas Morning News book page, and was professor of English at Southern Methodist University. Born in Carmichaels, Pennsylvania on December 21, 1883, McGinnis earned his BA in English at Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Missouri in 1904 and moved on to Columbia University to pursue his master’s degree in 1915. From 1907 to 1914 he taught at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. When the president of Southwestern, Robert S. Hyer, was chosen as president of the newly created Southern Methodist University, he chose McGinnis as one of the first professors hired. Before making the move to Dallas, Texas, McGinnis finished his master’s degree at Columbia. In 1915 McGinnis was the first professor to arrive for duty at SMU. He helped develop the early curriculum for SMU with the assistance of Frank Seay, professor of theology, and President Hyer.

At SMU, McGinnis became notorious on campus as a professor who was difficult to please and extremely demanding; however, he also became a favorite of SMU students. Many of his admiring students became respected professors and authors in their own right. Charles W. Ferguson, SMU professor and McGinnis student, said of his mentor after his death that he was "a sign of what man at his best has always been." Henry Nash Smith, a McGinnis student and distinguished professor at UC Berkeley, jokingly wrote a letter for McGinnis’ retirement in 1954. It read: "Greetings to my classmates in the John H. McGinnis Institute of Advanced Studies. Like all the rest of you, I am still trying to work off my incompletes and to learn to write prose which the Boss will accept for credit. Be of good cheer, we will get our degrees some day if we keep working." Yet another famous McGinnis student was Texas author Lon Tinkle.

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