Oxford University Press has recognized the work of five Hope College scholars by inviting them to contribute to the new edition of the "Dictionary of National   Biography."

          The work was first published in 1900 in 22
  volumes.  It lists all the significant persons in English
  history, with brief narratives about each one.  Oxford is
  re-editing the work for the new millennium, updating many of
  the biographies and adding others.
          Marc Baer, John Cox, James Herrick, Kathleen
  Verduin and Leslie Workman have been invited to contribute
  to the new edition.
          Baer is a professor of history at Hope and a
  scholar of early 19th century English history.  He has been
  asked to write a new biography of Sir Francis Burdett, a
  leader in English social and political reform movements from
  the French Revolution era through the 1830s.
          Cox is the DuMez Professor of English and a
  scholar of Shakespeare.  He will write about Barnabe Barnes,
  who was a contemporary of Shakespeare and wrote for the same
  acting company.
          Herrick is a professor of communication who has
  studied religious skepticism.  He will revise articles about
  three religious radicals of the 18th century:  Jacob Ilive,
  Peter Annet and Henry Dodwell.
          Verduin and Workman are both scholars of
  medievalism who together have edited the journal "Studies in
  Medievalism" for many years.
          Verduin is a professor of English and a scholar of
  American literature and medievalism.  Her entry is on Thomas
  Speght, a contemporary of Shakespeare and the first editor
  of the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, author of "The Canterbury
  Tales."
          Workman is an independent scholar.  He will write
  an entry for William L'Isle, a poet and early student of
  Anglo Saxon, the language in which "Beowulf" is written.
          Entries in the "Dictionary of National Biography"
  range in length from 900 to 3,000 words.  The five Hope
  scholars have been offered contracts for their work and will
  each receive a small stipend from Oxford University Press.