Philip Beidler is Margaret and William Going Professor of English at the University of Alabama, where he has taught American literature since receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1974. His most recent book—the subject of his discussion here with Don Noble—is The Island Called Paradise: Cuba in History, Literature, and the Arts. His new book, forthcoming from the University of Alabama Press, is entitled Beautiful War: Studies in a Dreadful Fascination.
