author
De Witt Clinton Croissant
1876–1941
A longtime American literature professor and theater scholar, he is best remembered for his early study of the playwright Colley Cibber. His career linked Princeton scholarship with teaching at the University of Kansas and George Washington University.
1 Audiobook
Humanistic Studies of the University of Kansas, Vol. 1
by De Witt Clinton Croissant, Edmund Dresser Cressman, Pearl Hogrefe, Arthur Mitchell
About the author
Born in 1876 and dying in 1941, De Witt Clinton Croissant was an American academic whose work centered on English literature and drama. His best-known publication, Studies in the Work of Colley Cibber (1912), grew from doctoral research submitted at Princeton University and reflects a focused interest in eighteenth-century theater.
Croissant taught English at the University of Kansas and later became head of the English department at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. His connection to drama studies lasted beyond his lifetime: George Washington University still awards the DeWitt Clinton Croissant Prize for the best essay on drama or the theatre.
Although not a widely known public figure today, his name continues to surface through library records, early scholarly publications, and university awards. That lasting academic footprint suggests a teacher and critic whose influence was felt most clearly in the classroom and in the study of dramatic literature.