{{Short description|American literature professor and writer (1944–2022)}} '''Philip Douglas Beidler''' (October 29, 1944 – April 20, 2022<ref name=VDR>Ancestry.com. ''Virginia, U.S., Divorce Records, 1918-2014'' [database on-line]. Provo, UT, US: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.</ref><ref name="Oliu">{{Cite tweet |number=1516820330605690890 |user=BrianOliu |title=The English Department & all of UA lost a legend today. Phil Beidler passed away this morning. |author=Brian Oliu}}</ref><ref name="UAPress">{{Cite tweet |number=1516847105138171905 |user=UnivofALPress |title=We were very saddened to learn of the passing of Phil Beidler—beloved UA professor, longtime UAP editorial board member, and author. A critic and memoirist, he published five books with us, including the forthcoming GREAT BEYOND: ART IN THE AGE OF ANNIHILATION. He will be missed. |author=University of Alabama Press}}</ref>) was an American academic and author. He was a professor of American literature at the University of Alabama, and the author and editor of books on Alabama literature, the Vietnam War, and other topics. For his work on Vietnam writers, he has been called "one of the founding fathers of Vietnam War studies".<ref name=janette>{{cite journal|last=Janette|first=Michele|year=2002|title=What We Talk about When We Talk about War|journal=Contemporary Literature|volume=43|issue=4|pages=784–93|doi=10.2307/1209042|jstor=1209042}}</ref>
Beidler, who was of German and Quaker descent, was born on October 29, 1944, in Adams, Pennsylvania.<ref name=VDR /> He did his undergraduate studies at Davidson College.<ref name=burnum/> During 1969 and 1970, he served as a lieutenant in an armored cavalry platoon in Vietnam.<ref name="Noble">{{Cite web |last=Noble |first=Don |date=2004-07-12 |title=Late Thoughts On An Old War |url=https://www.apr.org/arts-life/2004-07-12/late-thoughts-on-an-old-war |access-date=2022-04-20 |website=Alabama Public Radio |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DN&s_site=philly&p_multi=PI%7CDN&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=11C9BD43013A7BD0&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM|title=Different wars, different reactions, Despite unpopularity of Iraq conflict, Americans respect our soldiers - & now even Vietnam vets|date=30 October 2007|work=Philadelphia Daily News|page=3|accessdate=16 September 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UDgdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=2aUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6677,4377686&dq=beidler+vietnam+veteran&hl=en|title=UA hosts 'teach in' forum on Desert Storm|last=Stevenson|first=Tommy|date=20 January 1991|work=Tuscaloosa News|page=5A|accessdate=16 September 2011}}</ref> He received master's and doctoral degrees in English from the University of Virginia{{--}}the latter in 1974.<ref name="VQR">{{Cite web |date=2003 |title=Philip D. Beidler |url=https://www.vqronline.org/people/philip-d-beidler |access-date=2022-04-20 |website=The Virginia Quarterly Review}}</ref><ref name=burnum>{{cite web|url=http://uanews.ua.edu/2000/03/english-professor-selected-for-prestigious-burnum-award/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121212085038/http://uanews.ua.edu/2000/03/english-professor-selected-for-prestigious-burnum-award/|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 12, 2012|title=English Professor Selected for Prestigious Burnum Award|date=6 March 2000|publisher=University of Alabama|accessdate=21 September 2011}}</ref>
He became a professor at the University of Alabama in the mid-1970s, served as director of graduate studies and as assistant dean, and was awarded the 1999 Burnum Distinguished Faculty Award.<ref name=burnum /> He was eventually named the Margaret and William Going Professor of English and, at the time of his death, he was a professor emeritus of English at the University of Alabama.<ref name="UAenglish">{{Cite web |title=Phil Beidler |url=https://english.ua.edu/people/phil-beidler/ |access-date=2022-04-20 |website=Department of English, the University of Alabama}}</ref><ref name="Interview">{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI5RnxBKdYg |title=Bookmark with Don Noble: Philip D. Beidler |date=Nov 10, 2015 |last=Noble |first=Don |type=video |language=English}}</ref>
Beidler suffered from Parkinson's during the last years of his life. He died on April 20, 2022.<ref name="Oliu" />
==Selected publications==
===Vietnam literature=== *{{cite book|title=American literature and the experience of Vietnam|url=https://archive.org/details/americanliteratu00phil|url-access=registration|year=1982|publisher=University of Georgia Press|location=Athens|isbn=9780820306124}}<ref name=chen>{{cite journal|last=Chen|first=Tina|year=1998|title='Unraveling the deeper meaning': Exile and the embodied poetics of displacement in Tim O'Brien's 'The things they carried'|journal=Contemporary Literature|volume=39|issue=1|pages=77–98|doi=10.2307/1208922|jstor=1208922}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|year=2003|title='It don't mean nothin': Vietnam War fiction and postmodernism|journal=College Literature|url=http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-3213552/It-don-t-mean-nothin.html}}</ref> *{{cite book|title=Re-writing America: Vietnam authors in their generation|url=https://archive.org/details/rewritingamerica00beid|url-access=registration|year=1991|publisher=University of Georgia Press|location=Athens|isbn=9780820312644}}<ref name=chen/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/24/books/books-of-the-times-many-visions-of-the-vietnam-war.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm|title=Books of The Times; Many Visions of the Vietnam War|last=Mitgang|first=Herbert|date=24 July 1991|work=The New York Times|accessdate=16 September 2011}}</ref> *{{cite book|title=Scriptures for a generation: What we were reading in the '60s|year=1994|publisher=University of Georgia Press|location=Athens}}<ref>{{cite journal|last=Jason|first=Philip K.|year=1995|title=The Sixties Past and Present|journal=Contemporary Literature|volume=36|issue=4|pages=702–707|doi=10.2307/1208947|jstor=1208947}}</ref> *{{cite book|title=Late thoughts on an old war: The legacy of Vietnam|year=2004|publisher=University of Georgia Press|location=Athens}}
===Cultural history=== *{{Citation | title = The victory album: Reflections on the good life after the good war | year = 2013 | location = Tuscaloosa | publisher = University of Alabama Press | isbn = 9780817358457 | url = https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817358457/the-victory-album/ }}. *{{Citation | title = The island called paradise: Cuba in history, literature, and the arts | year = 2014 | location = Tuscaloosa | publisher = University of Alabama Press | isbn = 9780817318208 | url = https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817318208/the-island-called-paradise/ }}. *{{Citation | title = Beautiful war: Studies in a dreadful fascination | year = 2019 | location = Tuscaloosa | publisher = University of Alabama Press | isbn = 9780817359614 | url = https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817359614/beautiful-war/ }}.
===Alabama literature=== *{{Citation |title=The art of fiction in the heart of Dixie: An anthology of Alabama writers |year=1986|publisher=University of Alabama Press|location=Tuscaloosa|isbn=978-0-8173-0313-6}}. *{{Citation |title=Many voices, many rooms: a new anthology of Alabama writers|year=1998|publisher=University of Alabama Press|location=Tuscaloosa|isbn=978-0-8173-0867-4}}. *{{Citation | title = First books: The printed word and cultural formation in early Alabama | year = 2012 | publisher=University of Alabama Press | location = Tuscaloosa | isbn = 9780817357306 | url = https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817357306/first-books/ }}.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://english.ua.edu/people/phil-beidler/ Philip Beidler, professor emeritus, the University of Alabama English Department] *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI5RnxBKdYg An interview with Beidler] on Alabama Public Television
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beidler, Philip}} Category:1944 births Category:2022 deaths Category:United States Army personnel of the Vietnam War Category:American people of German descent Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:Davidson College alumni Category:Military personnel from Pennsylvania Category:People from Armstrong County, Pennsylvania Category:University of Alabama faculty Category:University of Virginia alumni Category:Writers from Pennsylvania