YSU English professors weave a marriage of literary interests

Professors William and Betty Greenway often find shared inspiration.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- When entering the Youngstown State University office of William Greenway, you may feel a thousand eyes watching you.
The looks come from the poets and authors who gaze from the postcards that line the walls in a mosaic.
"You just feel like the ghosts are with you," the professor said. "And I hope they're inspiring me."
A couple of doors down from his office is the tidier office of Betty Greenway, another English professor.
The couple have been married since 1979 and teaching at YSU since 1986. He focuses mainly on poetry and modern literature; she researches children's literature.
And, often, their topics intersect.
Common inspiration
From the look of the walls, poet Dylan Thomas is an inspiration for William. The YSU professor selected Thomas as the subject of a doctoral dissertation when he studied at Tulane University in New Orleans.
But more recently, it was Betty who was bitten by the Dylan Thomas bug.
On a visit to Wales, the couple met members of the Dylan Thomas Society in Swaziland, and were invited to tea with one of Thomas' childhood friends.
The friend recalled the day that Thomas, about 11, stayed home from school sick reading a "Just William" book, by Richmal Crompton.
What authors read
Since then, Betty has been working on a project to discover what adult writers read as children and how it influenced them.
Among those who will contribute to the project are former poet laureate Robert Pinsky; "The Woman Warrior" author Maxine H. Kingston; novelist Barry Unsworth; and author of both adult and children's books, Penelope Lively.
Betty has discovered how "Alice in Wonderland" influenced novelist Joyce Carol Oates, what "The Wizard of Oz" meant to novelist Salman Rushdie and why one American Indian author could not answer her query -- because he had not read as a child but was told stories orally.
William said his wife's project was born when he visited his childhood home and discovered that his brother had kept their collection of Little Golden Books. Among them was "Mr. Bear Squash-You-All-Out-Flat," a favorite. The tale about a bear who sits on other animals' homes has also inspired "The Far Side" creator Gary Larson.
Betty quotes Graham Greene: "The only books that were ever important were the books read as a child."
Love of Britain
The couple are acknowledged "Anglophiles" who spent a 1995-96 sabbatical in Wales and have visited Great Britain numerous times since their first trip as a couple to England and Wales after they met at Tulane. Then, they camped for seven weeks; now, they find more gentle accommodations.
Besides Dylan Thomas, the couple also explored Celtic folklore together. While Betty researched the Celtic fantasy tales of Scottish children's writer Mollie Hunter, her husband wrote the "Simmer Dim" collection of poems based on the Celtic Other World.
Among other exploits, the Greenways travel to the birthplaces, homes and graves of favorite authors (such as Sylvia Plath's grave in Yorkshire, England, and Thomas Hardy's cottage in county Dorset, England), seeing the villagers, towns or landscapes featured in writings.
Both say their travels and research make them better teachers.
"It's like being connected to the actual events. It becomes real, flesh and blood; it's not just on paper anymore," William said. "It's living. None of these people are dead to us. They're alive."
Separate works
But, mostly, they work apart.
Betty is exploring a book written by an American author from the viewpoint of a Pakistani girl. Her goal is to help teachers using books about other cultures understand how they might judge authenticity, teach cultural sensitivity and avoid negative stereotypes.
Her husband is telling Bible stories through modern-day events; the idea came to him after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 brought to mind the biblical Tower of Babel found in the Book of Genesis.
Both are award-winning, published authors.
The Greenways said research in literature, as opposed to science or technology, may be harder for people to grasp because it may not have a practical application.
They said, however, that understanding literature helps readers understand themselves.
William calls poet William Stafford a personal hero.
And from among the professor's mosaic of photos -- a bit larger than the rest -- Stafford watches. He looks across Greenway's desk, and the two poets are eye to eye.
Stafford, William Greenway said, was once asked, "Does literature make you a better person?"
Stafford's response, according to Greenway: "No. But it makes me a better Bill Stafford."
viviano@vindy.com