Everett Zimmerman | 1936-2003

A distinguished scholar of eighteenth-century literature, a dedicated teacher, and a wise administrator, Everett Zimmerman came to UCSB from Rutgers University in 1969 as an assistant professor of English literature. He rose through the faculty ranks here, becoming a full professor in 1980. Everett served as Chair of the English Department from 1980 to 1983, and as Dean of Undergraduate Affairs in the College of Letters and Science from 1988 to 1989. He was appointed Acting Provost of the College of Letters and Science in 1997 and thereafter as Provost in 1999, a position in which he served with distinction until 2001.

Everett earned his Ph.D. at Temple University in 1966 with a dissertation on Jane Austen. His published work includes three major books, Defoe and the Novel (University of California Press, 1975); Swift’s Narrative Satires: Author and Authority (Cornell University Press, 1983); and The Boundaries of Fiction: History and the Eighteenth-Century British Novel (Cornell University Press, 1996). His articles over the years appeared in Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Modern Language Quarterly, Studies in the Novel, Eighteenth-Century Studies, Eighteenth-Century Fiction, and PMLA, among other journals and collections. Among other honors, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1989-90.

Everett was diagnosed with brain cancer in the Spring of 2003. He died peacefully in his sleep on September 22, 2003, several months before his 67th birthday. Known for his clarity, integrity, insight, and dry wit, Everett was an admired figure both at UCSB and in the scholarly community at large. He is survived by his wife, Muriel, a Senior Lecturer and former Director of the UCSB Writing Program; by their sons, Andrew, an assistant professor of history at George Washington University, and his wife Johanna Bochman, and Daniel, a musician in Santa Barbara, and his wife Kim Stanley Zimmerman; and by Daniel and Kim’s daughter, Lily.

Everett Zimmerman

Everett Zimmerman | Ph.D., Temple University, 1966
Professor, English Department
U. California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3170

Areas of Interest

Eighteenth-century literature
SatireThe novel

Publications

Full List of Research Activities

Defoe and the Novel, University of California Press, 1975
Swift’s Narrative Satires: Author and Authority, Cornell University Press, 1983
The Boundaries of Fiction: History and the Eighteenth-Century British Novel (Cornell University Press, 1996)