Alan B. Howes was born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont on September 20, 1920. He attended high school at Burr and Burton Seminary in Manchester, Vermont, graduating in 1937. He earned his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in American Literature from Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont in 1941 and 1943, respectively. In 1945 he was drafted into the U.S. Army and attended the Army Specialized Training Program at Yale from 1945 to 1946. Howes served two years in Japan, the first with the Army and the second with the Civil Service as Chief of the Public Information Office of the Legal Section, SCAP. Returning to Yale in 1948, he began doctorate work in English. While his doctorate work was not yet finished, he taught at the University of Connecticut and as a guest professor from 1951 to 1953 at the Kamakura Branch of Yokohama National University. Howes received his PhD from Yale in 1955. His dissertation was entitled, "Laurence Sterne's Literary Reputation in England," and was published as "Yorick and the Critics" by Yale University Press and reprinted by Archon Books in 1971.
Howes joined the University of Michigan faculty in the Department of English as instructor in 1955 and became a full professor in 1969. Titles of courses taught include Gothic Myth in Literature and Film, Madness in Literature, Freshman Writing and Literature, Evil in Literature and Film, British-American Literature 1600-1830, History of the Novel to 1850, and Changing Attitudes Toward Nature. His teaching career at the university continued until 2001, when he retired at age 80.
Howes was particularly interested in training current and future English teachers, an interest that led to his involvement with the NDEA Summer Institute for English Teachers and the Professional Semester. The NDEA Summer Institute for English Teachers was a joint program between the University of Michigan and the Southfield School System and sought to improve the teaching skills of English teachers, particularly at the high school level, while giving the University of Michigan Department of English a body of experience helpful in refining its programs for the training of future teachers. About half of the participants were from the Southfield School System, while the other half came from schools across the country. Howes worked with the School of Education to create the Professional Semester in 1974. The Professional Semester's goal was to "teach students how to teach high school" and it combined practical and theoretical aspects of teaching (Robboy and Shaw, Michigan Daily , November 23, 1988, in Professional Semester-News Clippings folder). Enrolled students would normally meet for 14 hours a week, except for five weeks in the middle of the term, when the weekly hours would be cut to six or eight and they would spend 60 hours observing classes in local schools. Student involvement in planning was a major aspect of the program. The Professional Semester was an alternative way to satisfy most of the requirements for the secondary teaching certificate in English as it met requirements for a course in language, a course in composition, a course in the teaching of English, observation in the schools, and three "multicultural courses" incorporating ethnic or non-Western cultural materials (from paper on Professional Semester in Professional Semester-Program Description and History folder).
Howes' most noteworthy achievement was probably his role as cofounder and teacher of the New England Literature Program (NELP) from 1975-1990, after which he continued to serve as guest lecturer. This program was created to allow UM students and staff to study New England authors and poets such as Hawthorne, Emerson, Dickinson, Frost and Thoreau in the environment in which their works were created and to experiment with their own writing in journals. NELP was held every year for six weeks in May and June on the shores of New Hampshire's Lake Winnipesaukee and included excursions such as hikes on local mountains and trips to the Maine seashore. Students participating in NELP earned eight academic credits.
From the guide to the Alan B. Howes papers, 1940-2006, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)
