Dr. Allan G. Chester, received his Bachelor's degree in 1922, his Master's in 1924, and his Ph.D. in 1930, all in English Literature. An expert on Renaissance literature, the history of the Bible, and Shakespeare, Dr. Chester joined the Penn faculty in 1922. He served as Chair of the English Department from 1962-1965, and in 1967 was named the Felix E. Schelling Professor of English Literature. He was also President of the University chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.
Dr. Chester was author of George Joye: A Chapter in the History of the English Bible, and Hugh Latimer: Apostle to the English. He was a member of the executive committee of the Renaissance Society of America and an editorial consultant to the Modern Language Association.
Doctoral Dissertations Chaired
1968
William C Woodson
"The Seared Conscience: A Study of the Credibility of Elizabeth Villains"
1966
Norman K. Farmer
"Fulke Greville's "Caelica""
Better Jean Morley Ingram
"A Critical Edition of Stephen Hawes's "The Example of Virtue""
1963
Richard A. J. Knowles
""As You Like It" and the Concept of Plot"
1962
Peter Bryant Murray
"A Study of Cyril Tourneur"
1961
John Hamilton Skilton
"The Translation of the New Testament into English, 1881-1950: Studies in Language and Style "
C. Jane Stegemann
"A Poet's Use of Philosophy: A Study of the Religious Poetry of Henry Vaughan "
1958
Charles Augustus Rahter
"A Critical Edition of Churchyard's Challenge (1593) by Thomas Churchyard, with some Notes on the Author's Life and Works "
1957
William Edward Miller
"Abraham Fleming, Elizabethan Man of Letters: A Biographical and Critical Study "
1953
Robert G. Collmer
"The Concept of Death in the Poetry of Donne, Herbert, Crashaw, and Vaughan"
C. Fenno Hoffman
"Roger Ascham and Humanist Education in Sixteenth-Century England"
Richard E. Hunter (Rev.)
"William Whittingham"
1952
Igor Alexander Shavelenko
"English Metrical Propaganda and Other Partisan Verse: 1525-1600"
1949
Elias Hiester Phillips
"Humanities in Tudor Literature (1475-1575)"