Philip F. Gura

Who is Philip F. Gura?

Philip F. Gura is an American scholar, writer, editor, and educator. He currently serves as William S. Newman Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he holds appointments in the Departments of English and Comparative Literature, Religious Studies, and American Studies.

Gura was born in Ware, Massachusetts. A graduate of Phillips Academy, he received his A.B., magna cum laude, in History and Literature in 1972 from Harvard College, and his Ph.D., in the History of American Civilization in 1977, from Harvard University, where he lived in Lowell House.

He is the author or editor of twelve books, including The Wisdom of Words: Language, Theology, and Literature in the New England Renaissance, A Glimpse of Sion's Glory: Puritan Radicalism in New England, 1620-1660, the prize-winning America's Instrument: The Banjo in the 19th Century, Buried from the World: Inside the Massachusetts State Prison, 1829–1831, C. F. Martin and His Guitars, 1796-1873, Jonathan Edwards: America’s Evangelical, American Transcendentalism: A History, which was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist in non-fiction, The American Antiquarian Society, 1812-2012: A Bicentennial History, Truth's Ragged Edge: The Rise of the American Novel, and Jonathan Edwards: Writings from the Great Awakening. Some of his essays, which number over fifty, have been collected in The Crossroads of American History and Literature. He also serves as an editor for the Norton Anthology of American Literature.