Frances Theresa Russell

Frances Theresa Elizabeth Peet Russell (May 18, 1873 – February 15, 1936) was an American writer and professor. She wrote three books about English literature. Her book Satire in the Victorian Novel may have been the first work to analyze satire in Victorian literature.

Personal life and career

Frances Theresa Elizabeth Peet was born May 18, 1873, in Jones County, Iowa,

to Emily Jane (née Perkins) and Adelbert Carleton Peet. Often known as Theresa, she was educated in Anamosa, Iowa, and attended the University of Iowa, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1895. From 1895 to 1900, she was a teacher in Iowa, excluding from 1898 to 1899 when she was at Radcliffe College to complete graduate work.

On June 30, 1900 she married Harvard anthropologist Frank Russell. They moved to Arizona shortly afterwards, and over several years together surveyed for archaeological sites. Frank died in November 1903, and in 1906 Theresa chronicled their travels in a 12-part series in Out West magazine.

She attended Stanford University as an assistant philosophy professor in 1906 and she later attended Columbia University, receiving a Ph.D. in 1920. In 1933, Russell was a poetry judge at a Stanford University competition.

A few years before her death, Russell became a full Professor. She died from cancer on February 15, 1936.