Hildegard Hoeller is Professor of English at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York. She is the author of Edith Wharton's Dialogue with Realism and Sentimental Fiction and co-author, with Rebecca Brittenheim, of Key Words for Academic Writers. Her essays on nineteenth and early-twentieth century American literature have appeared in many journals, among them American Literature, Studies in American Fiction, and American Literary Realism.