225 Years of Building Better Lives
header image
Share Your Story
Sharing Pitt Memories

Falling in Love With British Literature

|

Laura McCarthy-Blatt (A&S '94):

In my final years as an undergrad, I was fulfilling some requirements for my English major and was fortunate enough to sign up for 19th-Century British Literature. My instructor was a young man straight out of graduate school, Eric Clarke.

Eric was funny, very young and hip, and he had this amazing ability to impart his own passion on the subject to his students. I fell in love with British literature that semester, and some of the novels we read in that class remain amongst my favorites to this day.

Eric continued to teach in the English Department until he passed away in October of 2010. He was an inspiring teacher, and I was fortunate to have him.

(The Eric O. Clarke Dissertation Prize was created in the English Department in 2011. Learn more about the Clarke Prize and other endowents in English.)