David Porter,
Tisch Family Distinguished Professor

Contact Information:

Ladd Hall 205B   Phone: 580-8405
Email:  ddodger@skidmore.edu

Education:
Ph.D., classics, Princeton University, 1962
B. A., Swarthmore College, 1958
Piano study with Edward Steuermann, 1955-62
Harpsichord study with Gustav Leonhardt, 1970 and 1977

Teaching and Research Interests:  
Greek epic and drama
Roman poetry, esp. Horace
20th century piano literature, esp. Charles Ives and John Cage
Virginia Woolf and Bloomsbury
Willa Cather

Honors and Fellowships:
2005  Denis Kemball-Cook Award, Skidmore College
1999       Academic Laureate Award, State University of NY Foundation
1999       Named President Emeritus, Skidmore College
1998      Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Skidmore College
1994-5  Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar
1983 84, ’69-70   National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships
1976 77    American Council of Learned Societies Research Fellowship
1969       Carleton College Second Century Award for Teaching

Previous Appointments:
2008  Case distinguished Visiting Professor of Classics, Indiana University
2000-8  Harry C. Payne Visiting Professor of Liberal Arts, Williams College
1987 99    President and Professor of Classics, Skidmore College
1986 87    President, Carleton College
1986       Visiting Professor of Classics, Princeton University
1974 87    W. H. Laird Professor of Liberal Arts, Carleton College
1962-73 Instructor to Professor of Classics and Music, Carleton College

Publications—Books and Monographs:
Seeking Life Whole: Willa Cather and the Brewsters (with Lucy Marks).  Farleigh Dickinson University Press (Willa Cather Series), 2009.

On the Divide:  The Many Lives of Willa Cather. University of Nebraska Press, 2008.

The Omega Workshops and the Hogarth Press:  An Artful Fugue.  Cecil Woolf, London, 2008.

Virginia Woolf and the Hogarth Press: ‘Riding a Great Horse.’ London,  2004.

Virginia Woolf and Logan Pearsall Smith.  ‘An Exquisitely Flattering Dance.’ London, 2002.

The Not Quite Innocent Bystander.  Writings of Edward Steuermann.  Co edited with Gunther Schuller and Clara Steuermann.  University of Nebraska Press, 1989.

Horace's Poetic Journey.  A Reading of Odes 1 3.  Princeton University Press, 1987.

"Only Connect."  Three Studies in Greek Tragedy.  University Press of America, 1987.

Carleton Remembered, 1909 1986, with M.E. Jarchow. Viking Press, Minneapolis, 1987.

Publications—articles:
David Porter has published numerous articles and reviews on topics in classics, music, American and British literature, and education.  The following is a representative sample from recent years:

“A New Antigone.”  Amphora 6 (2007) 18-19 (with Godfrey Bakuli).

“From Violence to Art:  Willa Cather Caught in the Eddy.” Violence and the Arts in Willa Cather, ed. Joseph R. Urgo and Merrill Maguire Skaggs (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2007), 295-309.

“’Life Is Very Simple—All We Have To Do Is Our Best.’  Willa Cather and the Brewsters.” Willa Cather: New Facts, New Glimpses, Revisions, ed. John J. Murphy and Merrill Maguire Skaggs (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2008), 141-57.
 
“Provoking a Conversation” (review article of Lee T. Pearcy, The Grammar of Our Civility. Classical Education in America).  American Journal of Philology, 127 (2006) 595-602.

“Aeschylus’ Eumenides:  Some Contrapuntal Lines,” American Journal of Philology 126 (2005) 301-31.

“Some Inversions Not Righted:  a Note on Aeschylus’ Eumenides,” Classical Journal 101 (2005-6) 1-10.

"The Seasons Come and Go’:  Resonances of a Horace Ode in The Deerslayer,” Classical and Modern Literature 24/2 (2004) 1-9.

 “An Untold Story, and Unasked Questions,” in Liberal Arts Colleges in American Higher Education:  Challenges and Opportunities (American Council of Learned Societies, 2005), 205-217.  

“Cather on Cather III:  Dust-Jacket Copy on Willa Cather’s Books,” Willa Cather Newsletter and Review 48 (Winter/Spring 2005) 51-60.

“Metamorphoses and Metamorphosis:  A Brief Response,” American Journal of Philology 124 (2003) 473-476.

“An Undergraduate Course on the Sophists and Aristophanes,” Classical World 97 (2003) 79-87.

“Horace, Epistles 1:  Playing the Game,” Classical World 96 (2002) 21-60.

"Clouds in the Sky:  The Sports et Divertissements of Erik Satie and Charles Martin" (with John B. Anzalone), Bulletin du Bibliophile, 2001, pp. 343-370.

"O all you beauties I shall never see’:  An Unpublished Edith Wharton Letter,” The Edith Wharton Review, XVI, no. 2 (fall, 2000) 13-17.

“A College President Rediscovers Teaching,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, June 30, 2000.

“Orlando on her Mind?  An Unpublished Letter from Virginia Woolf to Lady Sackville,” Woolf Studies Annual 7 (2001) 103-114.

Lectures and Recitals:

David Porter has given lectures and played recitals at numerous institutions throughout the United States as well as in Great Britain and on radio and TV.