JUSTMAN, Stewart 1948-

PERSONAL:

Born September 16, 1948, in New York, NY; married, 1969; wife's name Allisen. Education: Columbia University, Ph.D., 1976.

ADDRESSES:

Home—1703 Maurice, Missoula, MT 59801. Office—Department of English, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

University of Montana, Missoula, professor of English, 1975—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

PEN Award for essay writing, PEN American Center, 2004, for Seeds of Mortality: The Public and Private Worlds of Cancer.

WRITINGS:

The Hidden Text of Mill's Liberty (criticism), Rowman & Littlefield (Savage, MD), 1991.

The Autonomous Male of Adam Smith (criticism), University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, OK), 1993.

The Psychological Mystique: An Investigation of the Sources of Psychology's Influence over Our Way of Life, Northwestern University Press (Evanston, IL), 1998.

The Springs of Liberty: The Satiric Tradition and Freedom of Speech (criticism), Northwestern University Press (Evanston, IL), 1999.

Seeds of Mortality: The Public and Private Worlds of Cancer, Ivan R. Dee (Chicago, IL), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

In his books English professor Stewart Justman has dealt with topics such as the political and social impact of the literary genre of satire; the ways in which popular psychology tends to exonerate people from taking responsibility for their own actions; and to his personal experience of treatment for prostate cancer. Justman approaches his subjects as an academic, using the techniques of literary criticism to examine modern life. "Erudite, clear, and hard-hitting," Library Journal contributor E. James Lieberman declared in his evaluation of The Psychological Mystique, "this is consciousness-raising in the best sense."

In The Springs of Liberty: The Satiric Tradition and Freedom of Speech Justman examines the relationship between satiric writing and the creation of modern political thought and journalism. The author describes two different forms of satire: a genteel, bourgeois form that approaches the genre from a refined perspective, and a "rougher, more vulgar" form practiced by writers such as Chaucer and Swift, explained Morris Hounion in Library Journal. Justman states that satire provides the forces of opinion which fuel political movements with a voice and a means of expression. In other words, satire is the means through which political ideas are communicated to a broad public. "Justman has taken on an ambitious project," Hounion stated. Hounion concluded that "some of his individual readings are brilliantly explicated."

Justman's fifth book, Seeds of Mortality: The Public and Private Worlds of Cancer, is partly Justman's account of his personal struggle with prostate cancer and partly his taking issue with the public culture that surrounds the disease. Many cancer patients deal with their disease publicly, through support groups, joining in group walk-a-thons, and discussing the process of healing in other public forums. Justman, however, tries to see the cure that lies behind the hype and publicity—the cure that is pursued alone, in quietness and humility rather than publicly. "It is clear that the author does not approve of the so-called transparency movement in cancer circles," stated a Publishers Weekly contributor. "Justman argues that literature helps the individual adjust to mortality better than all the nostrums of the cancer-patients' self-help movement," Ray Olsen noted in Booklist. The author, declared Richard Meakin, writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, "cleverly interweaves his own experience as a patient with cancer with reflections on works of literature, the visual arts and philosophy to create an insightful commentary on how cancer is viewed by American society."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 2003, Ray Olson, review of Seeds of Mortality: The Public and Private Worlds of Cancer, p. 1532.

Independent Record, May 6, 2004, "UM Prof Wins PEN Award."

Library Journal, November 15, 1998, E. James Lieberman, review of The Psychological Mystique: An Investigation of the Sources of Psychology's Influence over Our Way of Life, p. 81; December, 1999, Morris Hounion, review of The Springs of Liberty: The Satiric Tradition and Freedom of Speech, p. 133.

New England Journal of Medicine, October 30, 2003, Richard Meakin, review of Seeds of Mortality, p. 1780.

Publishers Weekly, January 20, 2003, review of Seeds of Mortality, p. 65.