Michael D. C. Drout (; born 1968) is an American Professor of English and Director of the Center for the Study of the Medieval at Wheaton College. He is an

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

and

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

specializing in

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

and

medieval literature Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages (that is, the one thousand years from the fall of the Western Roman Empire ca. AD 500 to the beginning of t ...

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

, especially the works of

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...

and

Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin ( ; Kroeber; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author. She is best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the ''Earthsea'' fantas ...

Career

Drout holds a Ph.D. in English from

Loyola University Chicago Loyola University Chicago (Loyola or LUC) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic Church, ...

(May 1997), an M.A. in English from the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

(May 1993), an M.A. in Communication from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

(May 1991), and a B.A. in Professional and Creative Writing from

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

. He is best known for his studies of

's scholarly work on ''

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...

'' and the precursors and textual evolution of the essay '' Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics'', published as '' Beowulf and the Critics by J. R. R. Tolkien'' (2002), which won the Mythopoeic Award for Scholarship in Inklings Studies, 2003. He is the editor of the '' J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment'' (2007), a one-volume reference on Tolkien's works and their contexts. With the Tolkien scholars Douglas A. Anderson and Verlyn Flieger, he is co-editor of ''

Tolkien Studies The works of J. R. R. Tolkien have generated a body of research covering many aspects of his High fantasy, fantasy writings. These encompass ''The Lord of the Rings'' and ''The Silmarillion'', along with Tolkien's legendarium, his legendarium t ...

: An Annual Scholarly Review'', (Volumes 1–7, 2004–2010).

Books

Books written or edited by Michael Drout include: * 2002, (editor), ''Beowulf and the Critics by J. R. R. Tolkien'', Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 248 (Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies), Tempe, AZ, * 2007, (editor), ''J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment'' (New York; London: Routledge, 2007), ; reprinted 2013,

Audio

Drout has published thirteen audio lectures for Recorded Books' Modern Scholar Series. He has both a love of the

Anglo-Saxon language Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Angl ...

, and academic expertise in its linguistic basis for the modern English Language; he maintains a growing collection of recorded Anglo-Saxon o
Anglo-Saxon Aloud

References

External links

Faculty page at Wheaton College

Michael D. C. Drout's personal home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drout, Michael D.C. Living people Tolkien scholars University of Missouri alumni 1968 births Anglo-Saxon studies scholars American medievalists Carnegie Mellon University alumni American academics of English literature Wheaton College (Massachusetts) faculty