Maxine Hairston (Ph.D., University of Texas, Austin) has been one of the most important figures in the founding and development of composition studies as a discipline. A former chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, she is the author of several well known and successful textbooks, among them The Scott, Foresman Handbook and The Riverside Reader. She recently retired from teaching and is currently at work on a master’s degree in history at the University of Texas.