Bill Cook The billboard outside English professor Bill Cook’s office is covered with articles from the online political magazine Counterpunch, a publication read by 20 million people a month around the world. Each article on display was written by Cook himself. “The best writers as far as I’m concerned write for it,” Cook says. “These writers have substance and concern as opposed to an agenda. For me it’s an important group to be with.” What Cook writes about is essentially politics. “How does an English professor get involved in politics?” he asks. “Because you see the language being abused. I can bring my expertise and knowledge of the language and apply it.” Cook’s work is making an impact not only locally but globally as well. Many of Cook’s articles have been translated into Spanish, German and Arabic so they can be read around the world. He has been interviewed on the radio in South Africa and Canada as well as the United States. This year, for the second time, Cook gave his “Predictions for the Coming Year” to the Hong Kong Academic News. “It’s interesting because the only thing I can read is my name,” Cook jokes as he looks at the article. Something Cook enjoys about the University of La Verne is the ability he has to determine his own schedule when it comes to teaching and publication. He recently completed his third book in the last five years, titled, “Tracking Deception: Bush’s Middle East Policy.” The book came as a result of a series of articles he had written, 40 of which were used for the book. In the book, Cook tracks the happenings in the Middle East from 2001 to the present. Other recent publications have included “Psalms for the 21st Century” and “A Time to Know.” He and his wife D’Arcy also co-wrote a play together, “The Unreasoning Mask,” that was performed by the theater department. They have completed a monologue called “The Agony of Colon Powell,” although it has yet to be performed. Cook chose to enter the field of English because “it was the only sensible one to enter because the only truth is in fiction. Literature is in effect the archive of human experience. To study it is to know human thinking and behavior.” He enjoys cynics, and has drawn much inspiration from Nathaniel Hawthorne. “Cynicism embroiled in moral perspective” is how he describes him. Cook is also inspired by the work of Jonathan Swift, Voltaire, Mark Twain and Kurt Vonnegut. “Those who have started out with an understanding that the human is a rational creature and then arrive that there are virtue and debits in that assumption,” he explains. Cook is also a classical music aficionado. “Anything from plain song through the classic composer,” he says. Particular favorites are Beethoven’s Ode to Joy and Ninth Symphony. American Literature is Cook’s specialization in English. For the course he teaches on American Renaissance, years 1830-1870, he has created his own text. Lectures that he gave in the Spring of 2001 while teaching a the University of Gloucester in England serve as the introduction to the text. His experience in England was also where the work began on his psalms. Born in Newark, New Jersey, Cook moved all over the East Coast as a boy. He continues to travel today to visit his family; Cook has two sons, two daughters and five stepchildren. Once a year he goes skiing in Washington, and once a year he makes a trip to Vermont to golf. He says he brought his oldest son’s golf clubs because he wasn’t using them anymore. “There comes a time when you know better,” he says. RETURN TO FACULTY LISTmailto:cookb@ulv.edu?subject=HELLOHome.htmlshapeimage_1_link_1
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