Author Harry James Cook

Russ Kingman and Harry James Cook

Harry James Cook is currently English Department Chairman at Eastern Technical High School, a New American High School, Baltimore County Public Schools, Maryland. He is also Associate Professor of American Literature at the Community of College of Baltimore County, Dundalk campus. Mr. Cook received a B.S. in English education from Shippensburg University in 1969, an M.A. in English from the Pennsylvania State University in 1973, and achieved A.B.D. status in English at the University of Maryland in 1986. He has returned to the University of Maryland as a graduate student and is currently working on his dissertation. The topic is Jack London and the Crowd: The Formative Years. He is a three-time award winner from the National Endowment for the Humanities, including designation as NEH Independent Scholar in the Humanities for his study of women writers in the American literature canon. Publications include the biography Two Into One: The Lives of Russ and Winnie Kingman (1998), The Best of Bob Van's Jack London Cartoons (January, 2001), and numerous articles on issues in contemporary education, including school reform, portfolios and assessment, and reading and writing across the curriculum. He has chaired curriculum-writing workshops in American literature, technical writing, and blended instruction. His Technical Writing Curriculum Guide (Baltimore County Public Schools, 1998) has become a model for courses in technical writing throughout the State of Maryland. Mr. Cook is an active member of the Modern Language Association of America, American Literature Section of the MLA, American Literature Association, International Reading Association, and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Jack London Foundation, Glen Ellen, California, and was named Jack London "Man of the Year" by the Foundation on January 19, 2002. In September 2000, he was named to the U.S. Department of Education Commission on the High School Senior Year by former Secretary of Education Richard Riley and played a key role in framing the Commission's final publication in October 2001, Raising Our Sights: No High School Senior Left Behind.