Levy, Andrew 1962–

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Levy, Andrew 1962–

(Andrew Gordon Levy)

PERSONAL:

Born November 5, 1962, in Mount Holly, NJ; son of Walter (a telecommunications consultant) and Claire Levy; married Siobhan McEvoy, August 12, 1998; children: Aedan. Ethnicity: "White." Education: Brown University, B.A., 1984; Johns Hopkins University, M.A., 1986; University of Pennsylvania, Ph.D., 1991. Politics: Independent. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Indianapolis, IN. Office—Department of English, Butler University, Indianapolis, IN 46208; fax 317-940-9930. E-mail—alevy@butler.edu.

CAREER:

Writer, educator. Edgewood Teleservices, Plainsboro, NJ, systems analyst and software designer, 1984-86; Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science (now University of the Sciences), Philadelphia, PA, adjunct professor, 1989-92; Butler University, Indianapolis, IN, assistant professor, 1992-96, associate professor, 1996-98, Edna Cooper Professor of English, 1998—, codirector of Writers' Studio, 1993-95 and 1997—, director of Fellows Program at Writers' Studio, 1993—. Speaker at colleges and universities, including University of Louisville, University of Pennsylvania, University of Maryland—St. Mary's City, and University of California—Davis.

WRITINGS:

The Culture and Commerce of the American Short Story (monograph), Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1993.

(With Fred Leebron) Creating Fiction: A Writer's Companion, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1995.

(Editor, with Fred Leebron and Paula Geyh) Postmodern American Fiction: A Norton Anthology, Norton (New York, NY), 1997.

The First Emancipator: The Forgotten Story of Robert Carter, the Founding Father Who Freed His Slaves, Random House (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to The Americanization of the Holocaust, edited by Hilene Flanzbaum, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1998; Falling toward Grace, edited by Kent Calder and Susan Neville, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1998; and The American Century: Art and Culture, 1950-2000, edited by Lisa Phillips, Norton (New York, NY), 1999. Contributor of stories, articles, and reviews to periodicals, including Kansas Quarterly, Postmodern Culture, Harper's, and Nineteenth-Century Literature. Associate editor, Boulevard, 1986—.

SIDELIGHTS:

An English professor and author of several books on American literature and writing, Andrew Levy delved into American history for his 2005 The First Emancipator: The Forgotten Story of Robert Carter, the Founding Father Who Freed His Slaves. Carter, "scion of the most powerful slaveholding family in colonial Virginia," according to Journal of Southern History contributor Kirt Von Daacke, freed 450 of his slaves in 1791, taking to heart the principles of the newfound nation while others merely debated the issue. This was the largest single freeing of slaves until Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation over seventy years later. Levy employed private documents from the period, including letters and diaries, to portray the philosophical and religious thinking that compelled Carter to his momentous action. Booklist contributor Vanessa Bush found The First Emancipator "absorbing" as well as "well researched and thoroughly fascinating." Von Daacke also had praise for the work, noting that despite certain faults of interpretation, "Levy's work remains significant for its treatment of Carter's religious journey from elite Anglicanism to evangelical Christianity." Similarly, Melvin Patrick Ely, writing in the Washington Post Book World, thought "Levy's careful reading of Carter family papers yields a vivid narrative of the future emancipator's evolution." A Frontlist.com contributor also commended Levy's biographical study, concluding: "Drawing on years of painstaking research, written with grace and fire, The First Emancipator is a portrait of an unsung hero who has finally won his place in American history. It is an astonishing, challenging, and ultimately inspiring book."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 2005, Vanessa Bush, review of The First Emancipator: The Forgotten Story of Robert Carter, the Founding Father Who Freed His Slaves, p. 1426.

Journal of Southern History, August, 2006, Kirt Von Daacke, review of The First Emancipator, p. 656.

Washington Post Book World, April 24, 2005, Melvin Patrick Ely, review of The First Emancipator, p. 3.