Research in Western American Literature: 1984–1985

RICHARD H. CRACROFT Brigham Young University ResearchinWesternAmericanLiterature: 1984-1985 Strip mining of Dissertation Abstracts International and other secret caches together with notices kindly sluiced in by wise and scholarly thesis and dissertation committee chairmen and relieved students, has uncovered 64 M.A. theses and Ph.D. dissertations. Of these pannings, at least 22 are historical (primarily Indian tribal histories), while some 28 aremain-shaft digsinto suchrichbonanzasofwesternAmerican literatureasMarkTwain (8), Willa Cather (2), James Fenimore Cooper (2), Zane Grey (1), and Sam Peckinpah (old claimjumper that he is) and related western film studies (4). And, Eureka!, there seems to be an increase in pocket claims staked out around such rich contemporary veins as James Welch, Edward Abbey and John Nichols, as well as continued digging, usually in partnership, in the tailings of N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the western plays of Sam Shepard, Jean Stafford, and even among the gems of that transplanted westerner, May Swenson. So burro your precious nuggets of completed M.A., Ph.D., Ed.D. or D.A. studies dealing with western Americana, its literature, language, cul­ ture and historyto Richard H. Cracroft, Dean and Grizzled Chief Assayer, College of Humanities, 2054 JKHB, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 84602. COMPLETED M.A. THESES: Ellis, Reuben Joseph Armed Creativity and New Age Agrarianism: A Study of the Back-to-theLand Movement in John Nichols’The New Mexico Trilogy (M.A.) University of Idaho, 1985. 342 Western American Literature Lorbiecki, Marybeth C. The Mystical Presence of the Earth: Two Significant Novels of the Con­ temporary Southwest: House Made of Dawn and BlessMe, Ultima (M.A.) Mankato State University, 1985. Wilson, Steven Lawrence Ferlinghetti: An Annotated Handlist to 1983 (M.A.) Texas Christian University, 1984. COMPLETED Ph.D. AND D.A. DISSERTATIONS: Al-Ghalith, Asad Mohammed The Function of Light Imagery in the Fiction of Willa Cather (Ph.D.) WestVirginia University, 1984. Bagnall, Norma Hayes Herdnel Children’s Literature in Texas: A History and Evaluation (Ph.D.) Texas A&M University, 1984. Beilke, William Edward Colorado’s First Oil Shale Rush, 1910-1930 (Ph.D.) University of Colorado at Boulder, 1984. Bennett, Richard Edmond Mormons at the Missouri: A History of the Latter-day Saints at Winter Quarters and at Kanesville, 1846-52: A Study in American Overland Trail Migration (Vols. I, II) (Ph.D.) Wayne State University, 1984. Bottles, Scott Lee The Making of the Modern City: Los Angeles and the Automobile, 19001950 (Ph.D.) University of California, Los Angeles, 1984. Brown, Carolyn Schmidt Petrified Truth: The Tall Tale in American Folklore and Literature (Ph.D.) University of Virginia, 1983. Treats, among other works, Georgia Scenes, Sut Lovingood, and Twain’s Roughing It and his Autobiography. Collins, Michael L. Theodore Roosevelt and the American West: A Narrative of the Frontier Experience and the Making of a President, 1883-1889 (Ph.D.) Texas Christian University, 1984. Collins, Robert Hammond American Realism and the Plays of Sam Shepard: A Study of Theme and Form (Ph.D.) University of Minnesota, 1984. Research 343 Gadomski, Kenneth E. May Swenson’s Poetry: A Discussion with Checklist (Ph.D.) University of Delaware, 1984. Garcia, Wilma Thackston Mothers and Others: Myths of the Female in the Works of Melville, Twain, and Hemingway (Ph.D.) Wayne State University, 1983. Gillman, Susan Kay Mark Twain’s Impostures of Identity (Ph.D.) University of California, Berkeley, 1983. Goldman, Harold Raymond In the American Grain: A Definition of the Beat Sensibility (Ph.D.) State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1984. Gregory, James Noble The Dustbowl Migration and the Emergence of an Okie Subculture in California, 1930-1950 (Ph.D.) University of California, Berkeley, 1983. Hall, Anthony J. The Red Man’s Burden: Land, Law, and the Lord in the Indian Affairs of Upper Canada, 1791-1858 (Ph.D.) University of Toronto, 1984. Harris, Katherine Llewellyn Hill Women and Families on Northeastern Colorado Homesteads, 1873-1920 (Ph.D.) University of Colorado-Boulder, 1983. Hart, Lynda Lee The Frontiers of American Drama: The Plays of Sam Shepard (Ph.D.) Tulane University, 1984. Hudanick, Andrew The Pima Indians and Arizona Water Policy, 1840-1907 (Ph.D.) Northern Arizona University, 1983. Hug, William J. Frank Norris and P'ormula Fiction: The Author...