Beatrice Batson PhD (Vanderbilt) is Professor Emerita of English at Wheaton College. She taught for thirty-three years, particularly focusing on Shakespeare, and served as Chair of the Department for thirteen years. During that time, Professor Batson read and studied the authors of the Wade Collection, especially Dorothy L. Sayers and C.S. Lewis. When Chair of the English Department, she invited Dr. Barbara Reynolds to teach Dante and Ariosto at Wheaton for a year. During that year, these two professors spent many hours talking together about Sayers and the other authors. Out of one such lunch-time conversation came the idea for an academic journal focusing on the seven authors' works. Dr. Batson and Dr. Reynolds exuberantly scribbled the original concepts for SEVEN on a napkin, and then brought the idea to Dr. Kilby, who had long hoped to establish a journal at the Wade Center. The journal was launched in 1980 with a gala dinner in London.
Professor Batson is the author or editor of ten books, as well as numerous chapters in books edited by others. She has also written scores of articles, book reviews, and essays for journals and magazines. During her teaching career, she frequently lectured on college and university campuses in the United States and Canada. As co-founder of SEVEN, she assisted in the preparation of several of the early volumes. At present, Professor Batson is the Coordinator of The Shakespeare Special Collection on Shakespeare and the Christian Tradition at Wheaton College, Illinois.
