John Edgar Tidwell is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Kansas. He describes his work this way: “When I looked back on my career, I discovered that my teaching often intersected with my research, thus enabling one to shape and inform the other. It is in this spirit that I considered American literature indispensable in contextualizing African American literature. Neither could be studied in isolation. Both provided a fuller discussion of the other. Over the years, I have conducted considerable research into Sterling A. Brown, Frank Marshall Davis, and Langston Hughes—all poets who were pivotal figures in the history of African American writing. Much of what I have published has been foundational scholarship, restoring and extending these powerful voices to current discussions of African American and American cultural expression.”  Among his several publications are After Winter: The Art and Life of Sterling A. Brown, Writings of Frank Marshall Davis: A Voice of the Black Press, and Montage of a Dream: The Art and Life of Langston Hughes.