John Wheatcroft
Encyclopedia
John Wheatcroft informally known as Jack Wheatcroft, is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 and former teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

.

A novelist, poet, and playwright, Wheatcroft's works have appeared in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

and the Beloit Poetry Journal. He was born in 1925 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, and served in the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Wheatcroft attended Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...

, 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...

, and Bucknell University
Bucknell University
Bucknell University is a private liberal arts university located alongside the West Branch Susquehanna River in the rolling countryside of Central Pennsylvania in the town of Lewisburg, 30 miles southeast of Williamsport and 60 miles north of Harrisburg. The university consists of the College of...

, where he graduated in 1949. He began teaching in Bucknell's English department in 1952. He founded and directed the Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets in 1985 and was the first director of Bucknell's Stadler Center for Poetry. He also served as a juror for the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
The Pulitzer Prize in Poetry has been presented since 1922 for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author. However, special citations for poetry were presented in 1918 and 1919.-Winners:...

. A professor emeritus since 1996, Wheatcroft has continued to write and be published since his retirement.

Wheatcroft's significant writings include the play Ofoti, which was produced for NET Playhouse
NET Playhouse
NET Playhouse is an American dramatic television series produced by National Educational Television . NET subsequently merged with WNDT Newark, New Jersey to form WNET and was superseded by the Public Broadcasting Service .- Episode list :...

 (now PBS) in 1966 starring Rene Auberjonois
Rene Auberjonois
René Murat Auberjonois is an American actor, known for portraying Father Mulcahy in the movie version of M*A*S*H and for creating a number of characters in long-running television series, including Clayton Endicott III on Benson , Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Chef Louis in The Little...

, and made into a film, The Boy Who Loved Trolls
The Boy Who Loved Trolls
The Boy Who Loved Trolls is a 1984 American Fantasy/Adventure film. The story was adapted by James A. DeVinney from a play by John Wheatcroft. The original play, entitled Ofoeti, was telecast in 1966, on NET Playhouse.-Plot:...

, in 1984. He wrote Catherine, Her Book, creating diary entries of Catherine Earnshaw from Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights is a novel by Emily Brontë published in 1847. It was her only novel and written between December 1845 and July 1846. It remained unpublished until July 1847 and was not printed until December after the success of her sister Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre...

, which is cited in Patsy Stoneman's Brontë Transformations, and Christopher Heywood's version of Wuthering Heights. He is mentioned in the 1986 edition of Curt Johnson's Who's who in U.S. Writers, Editors & Poets. He also edited and participated in Our Other Voices: Nine Poets Speaking, a collection of interviews with poets such as Josephine Jacobsen and Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry is an American man of letters, academic, cultural and economic critic, and farmer. He is a prolific author of novels, short stories, poems, and essays...

.

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