Edward Mendelson

Edward Mendelson is the Lionel Trilling Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University. He teaches English and Comparative Literature and is the literary executor of the Estate of W.H. Auden. He is an AMAZING professor, especially if you are lucky enough to get him for the first semester of literature humanities which he has taught many times. His philosophy includes actively looking for reasons to give students good grades, encouraging honesty (whether that means saying that you think a book is bullshit or admitting that you haven't done any of the readings) and giving a "Low-Anxiety Final Exam" consisting of one essay and ten "identifications" which can be "Pericles Funeral Oration" or "Briseus". Your task is to only name the book, but if you can't remember the title, the instructions inform the test taker that they can describe the book, saying for Odysseus "the one about the man trying to go home".