About Martha Heasley Cox

Martha Heasley Cox received her baccalaureate in English from Lyon College (then known as Arkansas College) in Batesville, Arkansas. Afterwards, she taught at secondary schools in Arkansas and Louisiana, as well as at Arkansas Polytechnic University. 

After pursuing graduate study at the University of Wisconsin, she received her Masters in English from the University of Arkansas in 1943.  She went on to further graduate work at the University of Texas and in 1955 received her Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas.  In that same year she joined the faculty of San Jose State University and taught American literature, English composition, drama, and film studies until her retirement in 1989. She is a scholar of twentieth-century American literature

whose publications include numerous articles published in professional periodicals and encyclopedias as well as several books, including the Maxwell Anderson Bibliography (University of Virginia Press, 1958) and Nelson Algren (with Wayne Chatterton, Twayne, 1976). Her textbooks on both literature and composition include fourteen editions of A Reading Approach to College Writing, a leader in its field. 

In 1971 Dr. Cox became the founder and first Director of the Steinbeck Research Center at San Jose State University, serving as director until 1982.  The Center was renamed the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies in her honor in 1997. 

A frequent consultant, chairman, and panel member at national and international professional meetings, Dr. Cox has served on the Board of Directors of the International Visual Literacy Conference, the National Steinbeck Center, the Cannery Row History Center, and on the Executive Committees of the National Conference on Visual Literacy and College Composition and Communication. She was a delegate to the First International Conference on John Steinbeck held in Fukuoka, Japan, and is currently a Book Juror for the California Book Awards.

Dr. Cox is also the founder of the Steinbeck Fellows Program, which brings talented writers to SJSU for a year, offering a $10,000 stipend and housing assistance.

In 2000 she was given the Tower Award, SJSU's most prestigious honor, awarded to one recipient each year.

Publications of Dr. Cox include:

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