Naomi Girson | staff writer

Alone in the Yale University library, Duquesne Professor Greg Barnhisel spent months poring over every document available on Norman Holmes Pearson, an Office of Strategic Services spy during World War II.

He browsed through about 250 boxes of documents.

Barnhisel would be at the library when it opened, would work until close, travel back to his little apartment, do more work and go to bed — just to do it all over again the next day.

His years of research led to the publication of his third book, and first biography, “Code Name Puritan: Norman Holmes Pearson at the Nexus of Poetry Espionage and American Power.”

The book was released on Oct. 9, and has since received a number of accolades, including one from The Wall Street Journal.

Since 2003, Barnhisel has been a professor of English at Duquesne — his focus in American Literature, Irish Literature and the culture surrounding both. His studies in American Literature focus on the last two centuries and how the culture of those moments in time have and continue to affect the present day.

Barnhisel’s themes show up not only in his teaching but in his scholarly work, his writing.

“All of the books that I have written — and I’ve written three books and edited two — are about things like that. How history and the law and educational institutions and publishers shape how literature is produced and how people learn to read and interpret it,” Barnhisel said.

He has also written a book on the Cold War and a book about James Laughlin and Ezra Pound after World War II.

James Swindal, professor of philosophy at Duquesne and colleague of Barnhisel, said he first became familiar with Barnhisel’s third book a decade ago, which at the time was only the beginning of the full story.

Since then, Swindal has been able to watch the process unfold, helping him in some capacities along the way, though he was not in the archival trenches as Barnhisel was.

Barnhisel, through a competitive process involving Swindal’s judgment, was able to obtain a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, a government-supplied fellowship that gives him the freedom to pause his teaching duties, and give his full time and attention to writing his book.

Though it is a part of his job as a professor at Duquesne to study academia, his work takes him out of state for the research he feels the most inclined to pursue, which is beyond the traditional expectations.

“It’s a testament to our English department, because we have someone who was the chair, for a while, of English and can use literature and his literary skills to also talk about figures who are very socially [and] politically involved. So that’s a great thing. You can put all those tools together and make a really good book,” Swindal said.

Even with his sons and wife at home, Barnhisel still finds time to read everyday, picking up novels, short stories and academic writing to breeze through.

“Ulysses” by James Joyce is Barnhisel’s favorite book. He has been able to take some of his students on a journey mirroring the one in the novel, during study-abroad experiences in Ireland.

At the beginning of the book, the main characters swim in the Irish Sea to start their day. When he takes his students to live through the story of “Ulysses,” this is first on the list.

And Barnhisel swims every time — no matter the temperature or the tide.

Before he traveled vast distances, Barnhisel grew up in a small town in Oregon, attending an undergraduate program at Reed University, in Portland, Oregon.

He studied literature, then moved to New York for graduate school, getting a job at a publishing company, which showed him the back end of his studies.

Barnhisel then went to University of Texas for his doctorate, staying in the area for the better half of a decade, as a professor.

His last stop before Pittsburgh was a stint at University of Southern California.

Barnhisel moved to the Steel City in 2003, and though he enjoys much of the area, appreciating the scenery and history of places like the Frick Museum, located just steps away from his home, his love of Pittsburgh comes from his lifelong devotion to sports.

When Barnhisel was in second grade, the Pirates took home the World Series trophy and just months later the Steelers won the Super Bowl, and on the other side of the country, he was cheering them on.

Barnhisel has been at Duquesne for as long as he has been in Pittsburgh, and he has seen the transformation of the city and the university for the last 20 years.

However, even with the reduction of resources for the school of liberal arts, Barnhisel praised those who have made his time at Duquesne immensely better.

“It’s an absolutely wonderful place to be an English professor. The undergraduate students are fantastic and really interesting, and our graduate students are amazing,” Barnhisel said.

Linda Kinnahan, recently retired English professor at Duquesne, worked closely with Barnhisel for more than 20 years. She said he offers character for the university with his welcome and different perspective in the department.

“He’s very articulate. He’s very precise in what he has to say. He has a great heart. He cares a lot about people,” Kinnahan said. “And I would say professionally, he’s always worked in unexpected ways in the field.”