I justify what I do by essentially telling myself—when I write about the experiences of others—my own experience of writing enters into what I write on every single page.
Christoph Irmscher is a professor of English at Indiana University in Bloomington who teaches and writes about 19 th century American and Canadian literature and culture.
His books include The Poetics of Natural History: From John Bartram to William James and Longfellow Redux.
He is the editor of John James Audubon: Writings and Drawings, the only critical edition of Audubon's literary output, and the co-editor of the ecocritical anthology, A Keener Perception.
Professor Irmscher was a consultant on the PBS documentary John James Audubon and he guest-curated the Bicentennial Longfellow exhibit at Harvard University's Houghton Library.