Wolf publishes essays on German playwright, American baseball players

Gregory Wolf, North Central College Dennis and Jean Bauman Professor in the Humanities and professor of German, authored a 26-page essay, titled “The Desire to Control Death: Heinrich von Kleist’s Epistolary Correspondence on Schicksal, Tod and Selbstmord,” which was published in the 2013 book “Wenn sie das Wort Ich gebraucht.” Festschrift für Barbara Becker- Cantarino von FreundInnen, SchülerInnen und KollegInnen,” with editors John Pustejovsky and Jacqueline Vansant.

The essay explores the themes of fate, death and suicide in the letters of Heinrich von Kleist, an influential German playwright and intellectual of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Wolf explores how Kleist becomes disillusioned with the Enlightenment, how his so-called “Kant-crisis” and deconstruction of 18th- and 19th-century philosophical discourses, and how Kleist differentiates between sudden death and suicide.
 
As a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)—the preeminent scholarly society dedicated to baseball history—Wolf published four essays in the 2013 book, “Sweet ’60: The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates,” Clifton Blue parker and Bill Nowlin, editors. The essays, which average 4,000 words each, feature Bill Virdon, Earl Francis, Bill Oceak and Bill Burwell.
 
Also in 2013, Wolf published five essays in another SABR publication, “The Year of the Blue Snow: The 1964 Philadelphia Phillies,” Mel Marmer and Bill Nowlin, editors. His contributions include in-depth biographical essays on Ryne Duran, Dallas Green, Johnny Klippstein, Roy Sievers and Al Widmar.
 
Wolf joined North Central College’s faculty in 2005. He earned his B.A. from The University of the South and his M.A. and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University.