Nathaniel Hawthorne (1948) was Randall Stewart's only full-length biography. But the full importance of Stewart's contribution to literary biography cannot adequately be measured by this work, which, even to his contemporaries, seemed thin and disappointing. A proper assessment of Stewart's significance should focus less on the biography than on the years of editorial work that led up to it.

Stewart was born on 25 July 1896 in Fayetteville, Tennessee, to William Jesse and Fannie K. Chestnut Stewart. Two years later the family moved to Nashville. Stewart was graduated from Vanderbilt University as Founder's Medalist in 1917. He was an instructor in English at the University of Oklahoma from 1917 to 1920. On 29 December 1920 he married Cleone Odell; they had one child, Ann Odell. Alter serving as an English instructor at the United States Naval Academy in 1921-1922, Stewart returned to the University of Oklahoma as an instructor for the 1922-1923 academic year. From 1923 to...