Gilbert H. Muller, who received a Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Stanford University, is currently professor of English and Special Assistant to the President at the LaGuardia campus of the City University of New York. He has also taught at Stanford University, Vassar College, and several universities overseas. Dr. Muller is the author of the award-winning Nightmares and Visions: Flannery O'Connor and the Catholic Grotesque, Chester Himes, and other critical studies. His essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, The Nation, The Sewanee Review, The...