Charles Huntington Whitman (1873-1937) was the Chair of the Department of English at Rutgers University

Rutgers University

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...

 for 26 years (1911-1937) and a noted scholar of Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...

 and early English verse.

Whitman was born in Abbot, Maine

Abbot, Maine

Abbot is a town in Piscataquis County, Maine, United States. The population was 714 at the 2010 census. It was named for the treasurer of Bowdoin College, John Abbot.-Geography:...

, but attended Bangor High School in Bangor, Maine

Bangor, Maine

Bangor is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine...

 (Class of 1892) before obtaining his B.A. from Colby College

Colby College

Colby College is a private liberal arts college located on Mayflower Hill in Waterville, Maine. Founded in 1813, it is the 12th-oldest independent liberal arts college in the United States...

 in 1897. In 1900 he received a PhD from Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 for a dissertation on "The Birds in Old English Literature", and went on to an Assistant Professorship at Lehigh University

Lehigh University

Lehigh University is a private, co-educational university located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of the United States. It was established in 1865 by Asa Packer as a four-year technical school, but has grown to include studies in a wide variety of disciplines...

. He accepted the Chair of the Rutgers University English Department in 1911 and held it until his death from a heart attack in 1937. His tenure saw many reforms, most importantly the creation of a graduate program, and the doubling in size of the faculty. At the time of this death he was considered "one of the most popular professors at the university".

Among Whitman's published works were:

A modern English translation of The Christ of Cynewulf

Cynewulf

Cynewulf is one of twelve Anglo-Saxon poets known by name today, and one of four whose work survives today. He is famous for his religious compositions, and is regarded as one of the pre-eminent figures of Old English Christian poetry. Posterity knows of his name by means of runic signatures that...

(Boston, 1900)

A Subject Index to the Poems of Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...

(Yale, 1919, re-issued NY, 1966)

Seven Contemporary Plays (edited) (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1931, re-issued 1959)

Representative Modern Dramas (edited) (NY: Macmillan, 1936)