Daniel E. Van Tassel is the author of Back to Barron, a chronicle of growing up in small-town-and-rural mid-century America. He graduated from St. Olaf College and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in literature from the University of Iowa.He taught at Pacific Lutheran University, California State University San Marcos, and, for over two decades, Muskingum College, where he served as academic dean and professor of English. His scholarly publications include articles on Shakespeare, Hardy, Lawrence, and Beckett and numerous book reviews in Modern Fiction Studies.Retired and living in Northfield, Minnesota with his wife Rhoda, he now teaches courses in the Cannon Valley Elder Collegium program. Subjects in his syllabi these days range from Humor, Poetry, Thomas Hardy, Chaucer, and Shakespeare to American Nature Writers, particularly Thoreau, Leopold, and Carson.For recreation, he takes to trails daily on his mountain bike (replacing a '58 Harley Heritage Softail he rode while in California). In addition to reading, he enjoys participating in local theater, swimming, home restoration, and decorating. Current interests remain centered on travel literature, architecture, and ecology, especially as manifested in climate change and endangered species.The past ten years he spent writing and revising a manuscript now published as Journey by the Book: A Guide to Tales of Travel.