leroy searle is a distinguished professor of english and comparative literature at university of washington, author, musician, and poet. his lifelong areas of study are american literature, history and theory of criticism, modernism, european and comparative romanticism, music arrangement and performance, photography, intellectual history and philosophy, and computer science. specifically, searle explores, and has published works on, philosophers such as aristotle, plato, samuel taylor coleridge, kant, and charles sanders peirce. he also specializes in notable american authors such as henry james, william carlos williams, william faulkner, and walt whitman.