Homer Nearing

'''Homer C. Nearing Jr''' (April 15, 1915 – May 29, 2004) was an American professor and author of mathematically themed short fiction, often under the byline "H. Nearing Jr.".<ref>"Obituary for H(omer) Nearing, Jr." Locus Magazine, June 2006, issue 545, page 82.</ref>

==Fiction and poetry== Nearing is best known for his humorous ''Professor Cleanth Penn Ransom'' series<ref name="Wonder">''Anatomy of Wonder 4: A Critical Guide to Science Fiction'' edited by Neil Barron, R.R. Bowker, 1995, page 181.</ref> published in ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' in the early 1950s,<ref>''Alternate Worlds: The Illustrated History of Science Fiction, 3rd edition,'' by James Gunn, McFarland 2018, page 199</ref> with the protagonist being a surreal head of the mathematics department at Uh-Uh University.<ref>''Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia'' by Brian Stableford, Taylor & Francis, 2006, page 287.</ref> One of Nearing's Professor Ransom short stories "The Maladjusted Classroom" was reprinted in the 1954 edition of ''The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction''<ref>''The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: Third series'', edited by Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas, Doubleday and Company, 1954, page 134.</ref> while "The Cerebrative Psittacoid" was reprinted in ''Best SF'', edited by Edmund Crispin.<ref>''Best SF'' edited by Edmund Crispin, Faber and Faber, 1962, page 214.</ref><ref>"Something To Read" by Kenneth F. Slater, Nebula Science Fiction No. 12., April 1955.</ref> His story "The Mathematical Voodoo," about a teacher struggling to teach math to students,<ref>"Review: The Mathematical Voodoo by H. Nearing, Jr.," ''The Guide to Supernatural Fiction'' by Everett F. Bleiler, Kent State University Press, 1983, page 68.</ref> was reprinted in ''Fantasia Mathematica'', a 1958 anthology on mathematical topics compiled by Clifton Fadiman.<ref>"[https://www.maa.org/press/maa-reviews/fantasia-mathematica Review of Fantasia Mathematica]" by Allen Stenger, Mathematical Association of America, published 01/22/2019.</ref> A sequel featuring Professor Ransom entitled "The Hermeneutical Doughnut" was published in Fadiman's sequel anthology "The Mathematical Magpie".

Seven of the Professor Ransom stories from F&SF were also reprinted alongside four new stories<ref name="Wonder"/><ref>''The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: Third series'', edited by Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas, Doubleday and Company, 1954, page 152.</ref> in ''The Sinister Researches of C.P. Ransom'', released in 1954 by Doubleday.<ref>''Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature'' edited by Douglas Menville and Mary A. Burgess, Wildside Press, 1979, page 382.</ref><ref>''The Best Science-fiction Stories and Novels'' edited by Everett Franklin Bleiler and Thaddeus Eugene Dikty, Advent: Publishers, 1955, page 536.</ref><ref name="Encyclopedia">''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction: An Illustrated A to Z'' edited by Peter Nicholls, Granada, 1979, page 421.</ref><ref name=first-book/> The collection functioned as a "consistently funny"<ref>''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction: An Illustrated A to Z'' edited by Peter Nicholls, Granada, 1979, page 299.</ref> fix-up novel about the attempts by a pair of professors to create a union between science and the arts<ref name="Encyclopedia"/> by experimenting with different strange devices.<ref>Publishers Weekly, volume 165, page 1376, 1954.</ref> The book was reprinted in paperback in 1969 by Curtis Books and rereleased in 2015 by Singularity&Co, with a new review in Amazing Stories calling the stories "delightfully whimsical."<ref>"[https://amazingstories.com/2015/09/scide-splitters-sinister-researches-c-p-ransom-h-nearing-jr/ Scide Splitters: The Sinister Researches of C. P. Ransom by H. Nearing, Jr.]" by David Kilman, Amazing Stories, Sept. 16, 2015.</ref>

Nearing also published poetry in ''The New Yorker''.<ref name=first-book>{{cite news|newspaper=The Dome|url=http://digitalwolfgram.widener.edu/digital/api/collection/p270801coll11/id/2869/download|page=1|date=April 9, 1954|volume=8|issue=5|title=Nearing's first book published}}</ref><ref>''An Index to Literature in The New Yorker: Volumes XVI-XXX, 1940-1955'' by Robert Owen Johnson, Scarecrow Press, 1969, page 26.</ref>

==Academic career== In addition to writing fiction, Nearing was a published expert on historical English poetry and on British traditions concerning Julius Caesar. He was a student at the University of Pennsylvania, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and as an undergraduate competed on the university's varsity swimming team,<ref name=first-book/> earning a letter in 1934, 1935, and 1936.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://pennathletics.com/news/2016/6/28/5772ee02e4b0028e72362e98_131492808644641625|title=All-Time Penn Men's Swimming Letterwinners|work=Men's Swimming & Diving|publisher=Penn Athletics|date=June 10, 2005|access-date=2021-12-27}}</ref> After earning bachelor's and master's degrees,<ref name=first-book/> he completed his doctorate there in 1944, with the dissertation ''English Historical Poetry, 1599-1641''.<ref>[https://catalog.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/671258 Catalog entry for ''English Historical Poetry, 1599-1641''] in the Pennsylvania State University library, accessed 2021-12-27</ref>

After working as a schoolteacher at Perkiomen School and the Episcopal Academy and as a manager at a shipbuilding company, he became a professor of English at Pennsylvania Military College,<ref name=first-book/> which became Widener University in 1972. The Homer C. Nearing Jr. Distinguished Professorship at Widener University is named for him.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.widener.edu/news/news-archive/distinguished-professorship-will-support-undergraduate-research-english|title=Distinguished Professorship will Support Undergraduate Research in English|date=May 19, 2020|first=Jessica|last=Reyes|journal=Widener Newsroom|publisher=Widener University|access-date=2021-12-27}}</ref>

==Personal life== Nearing married Alice Eleanor Jones, who like Nearing earned a doctorate in English from the University of Pennsylvania in 1944 and wrote speculative fiction. They had two children.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=l19EDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT474 Jones's biography] from {{cite book|title=The Future Is Female! 25 Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women, from Pulp Pioneers to Ursula K. Le Guin|editor-first=Lisa|editor-last=Yaszek|publisher=Library of America|year=2018|isbn=9781598535853}}</ref>

== Bibliography ==

*''English Historical Poetry'', 1599–1641 (1945) *''The Sinister Researches of C.P. Ransom'' (Doubleday, 1954, 217 pp.) Dust jacket design by Edward Gorey.

==References== <references />

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nearing, Homer}} Category:1915 births Category:2004 deaths Category:20th-century American short story writers Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni Category:Widener University faculty Category:American male short story writers Category:20th-century American male writers