Dewey Ganzel Papers, 1947-2004, n.d.
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Administrative/Biographical History
Dewey Alvin Ganzel was born July 5, 1927, in Albion, Nebraska to Dewey Ganzel Sr. and Frances Gross Ganzel (later DeForest). In 1937, Ganzel moved to New York City and lived with his family while his father completed a doctoral degree at New York University. He returned to Nebraska in 1940 and graduated from high school in 1944 in McCook.
Ganzel received the highest score on the state Board of Regents examination in 1944 and spent a year at the University of Nebraska before enlisting in the United States Navy, where he was stationed in Hawaii. After his discharge as a Hospital Apprentice First U.S.N.R. in December 1946, he returned to the University of Nebraska to finish his undergraduate degree in 1949. He taught high school English in Nebraska City from 1949 until 1952, when he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. The Fulbright took Ganzel to Government College in Lahore, Pakistan, where he taught English from 1952 to 1953.
Upon returning to the United States, Ganzel enrolled in the Ph.D. program at the University of Chicago from 1953 to 1958, earning his Ph.D. in English literature with a dissertation on the dramas of Edward Bulwer-Lytton, a 19th-century English playwright, novelist, and member of Parliament. While at the University of Chicago, Ganzel met Carol Henderson, who was earning her master’s degree. They were married in 1955.
Ganzel began teaching at Oberlin College in 1958 and remained until his retirement in 1997. While at Oberlin, Ganzel taught courses in Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, and other subjects. Ganzel’s leadership of the English department at Oberlin was responsible for the department’s growth and commitment to diversity and equality.
Ganzel’s scholarship was not limited to teaching in the classroom, and he published two books while at Oberlin. Mark Twain Abroad: The Cruise of the Quaker City (University of Chicago Press, 1968) was written after an Oberlin College summer grant supporting research on Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad. Mark Twain Abroad… demonstrates how Mark Twain transformed his experiences aboard the Quaker City cruise ship into Innocents Abroad. Ganzel switched his research focus and published Fortune and Men’s Eyes: The Career of John Payne Collier (Oxford) in 1982. Collier was a Shakespearean scholar accused of forgery in several documents, especially an annotated Second Folio of Shakespeare. Ganzel’s research led him to believe that the forgery was planted by a rival scholar, and he exonerated Collier in Fortune and Men’s Eyes.
Active in the Oberlin community as well as the College, Ganzel was first elected to the Oberlin City Council in 1973, serving as the Council Chair (much like a mayor) in 1976. He remained on the council for eight years and was especially active in city planning. Many of the public buildings in Oberlin, including the police station and public library, resulted from Ganzel’s interest in modern architecture and desire for creative and sensible city planning.
Ganzel and his wife traveled abroad a great deal and lived in London several times. Their stay in 1955 to 1956 was financed by a second Fulbright. He returned to London from 1964 to 1965 and in 1978, 1985, and in 1995 he was on the faculty of the Oberlin-in-London program.
Dewey Ganzel married Carol Henderson (1931-2019) in July 1955. They had three daughters: Rebecca Ganzel Thompson (b. 1959), Catherine Sarah (Ganzel) Lott (b. 1960), and Emily Frances Ganzel (b. 1963). A son, David Henderson Ganzel, died at age two months in 1958. Dewey Ganzel died January 31, 2011, at Kendal at Oberlin due to complications of Parkinson’s disease.
Author: Louisa C. Hoffman Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative Information
The Dewey Ganzel papers are a collection of records that primarily document his time as faculty member at Oberlin College with course materials, gradebooks, and lectures. Ganzel worked closely with Oberlin College Professor of English Robert Longsworth, especially with the growth of the English department, and also collaborated with Professor of History Geoffrey Blodgett, which is documented in the correspondence series. He was also a faculty member in the Oberlin-in-London Program, which is documented in the collection.
The main documentation of Ganzel’s time at Oberlin is in the course materials series. As a professor for almost 40 years, Ganzel kept syllabi, class exercises, and notes on the many classes that he taught, including courses on Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and several fiction and writing courses.
Also included in the collection are writings by Ganzel, both published and unpublished, with a large number of them covering Samuel Clemens. The papers do not include any of Ganzel’s research for his book on Innocents Abroad and Mark Twain for his book Mark Twain Abroad: The Cruise of the Quaker City, or his research for his book on John Collier, the Shakespearian scholar who was accused of forgery of a Second Folio.
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Series 1. Correspondence, 1958-72, 1975, 1978, 1980-89 [span], 1992, 2004, n.d.
The correspondence series consists of academic, personal, and professional correspondence. Included are letters written by Dewey Ganzel to and from Oberlin College and non-Oberlin College faculty, staff, and students, as well as correspondence to and from publishers regarding Ganzel’s book projects.
Series 2. Course Materials, 1966, 1969-70, 1973-74, 1977-79, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1989, 1991-95, 2002, n.d.
The course materials include of bibliographies, exams, lecture notes and outlines, student evaluations and rosters, and syllabi from some of Dewey Ganzel’s frequently taught classes. This series also contains materials from Ganzel’s classes taught in the Oberlin-in-London program.
Series 3. Gradebooks, 1958-60* (Restricted)
Consists of three gradebooks (restricted) from Dewey Ganzel’s introductory level English courses taught at Oberlin.
Series 4. Writings by Dewey Ganzel, 1947-48, 1953, 1955, 1958, 1961-62, 1964-65, 1967-68, 1971, 1984, 1988, n.d.
This series is divided into two subseries. Subseries I contains published writings (copies and reprints) mostly covering topics about Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain. Subseries II contains unpublished writings from Dewey Ganzel’s academic work as an undergraduate and Ph.D. student.
Series 5. Lectures and Talks, 1968, 1970, c. 1992-93, n.d.
This series contains notes from lectures and talks given by Dewey Ganzel at Oberlin and elsewhere on a wide range of topics including literature and Oberlin College events and procedures.
Series 6. Topical Files, 1956, 1965, 1979-80, 1985
The topical files are comprised of three files. The first file contains a copy of a letter written by E.E. Cummings addressed to Miss Copley critiquing a typescript poem. The second file contains information about “The American City” television program that Dewey Ganzel, Geoffrey Blodgett, and William Hellmuth (Oberlin faculty) participated in. Ganzel was one of the donors for the Oberlin College Letterpress, and this series also contains some examples of invitations that he created with the printing press.