George Hendrick papers, 1840-1999

George Hendrick is an English professor, author, editor, and translator of over 40 publications. His research focused on Transcendentalism and on American writers including Henry David Thoreau, Samuel Arthur Jones, and Carl Sandburg. He also studied African American literature of the nineteenth century and the Handy Writer's Colony in Marshall, Illinois.

A 1996 newspaper article on Hendrick highlights his scholarly focus: "Hendrick has been at the UI for 20 years, and in that span he has written or edited nearly 20 books. Many of the books were in collaboration with his wife, Willene. All of the books are about writers, some well known, some obscure. 'Much of what we do is to document things so they won't get lost,' Hendrick said."

Hendrick was born March 30, 1929 in Stephenville, Texas to Hoyt and Bessie (Sears) Hendrick. He earned a B.A. from Texas Christian University (1948), and an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas (1954). Following his Ph.D., Hendrick worked as an Assistant Professor of English at Southwest Texas State Teachers College from 1954-1956 and served on the English Department's faculty at the University of Colorado in Boulder from 1956-1960. From 1960-1965, Hendrick served as the professor of American literature and culture at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in Frankfurt, Germany. He joined the staff at The University of Illinois in Chicago in 1965, then The University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign in 1967, where he was the head of the English department from 1971-1976. Hendrick was an Associate Dean of the Graduate College from 1971-1976 and also served as Curator of the Manuscripts in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library from 1967-1971. Hendrick became a professor emeritus upon his retirement in 1999.

Sources

"English Prof on Trail of Obscure Works." The Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), 01 June 1996.