Two prizes have been awarded to a book published recently by John D. Cox of the Hope College English faculty.
"A New History of Early English Drama" is a
collection of 26 original essays, and was published by
Columbia University Press in 1997. Cox co-edited the book
with David Scott Kastan of Columbia University.
The Association for Theatre in Higher Education
awarded Cox's book the 1998 prize for the "outstanding
booklength study in theatre practice and pedagogy." The
committee which selected the book was chaired by William
Worthen, professor of English and theatre at Northwestern
University. Cox and Kastan each received a cash prize and a
commemorative plaque.
In England, the new Globe Theatre awarded its
Sohmer-Hall Prize for "the best work published each year on
the original staging of Shakespearean Plays" to an essay in
Cox's book. The selection committee, chaired by Andrew Gurr
of Reading University in England, honored Peter W.M.
Blayney's essay, "The Publication of Playbooks."
Cox and Kastan dedicated the book to David M.
Bevington, with whom they studied for their doctoral degrees
at the University of Chicago. The editorial board that
planned the book was composed entirely of Bevington's
doctoral students. Cox and Kastan convened the editorial
board, invited submissions to the book, edited them as they
arrived and found a publisher for the collection.
Cox is a 1967 graduate of Hope College. He has
taught in the department of English since 1979, and is the
DuMez Endowed Professor of English and director of
interdisciplinary studies at Hope.