Edwin Harrison Cady, educator and writer, was born in Old Tappan, N. J. He earned degrees at Ohio Wesleyan University, the University of Cincinnati, and the University of Wisconsin. He taught at the University of Wisconsin, Ohio State University, Indiana University, Syracuse University, and Duke University where he was Andrew Mellon Professor of English. Cady served as a visiting professor at the Royal University at Uppsala and the University of Stockholm, Sweden. His interests, in addition to American literature, were sports and music. He was editor of American Literature from 1980 to 1986, and was a prominent scholar on the life and writings of William Dean Howells.