Farnsworth wins award for scholarly excellence

Robert Farnsworth

Robert M. Farnsworth, professor emeritus of English at UMKC, is the 1998 winner of the Curators' Award for Scholarly Excellence. The award, which includes a stipend of $2,500, is given each year for the most outstanding book by a UM faculty member published by the University of Missouri Press.

Farnsworth is the author of From Vagabond to Journalist: Edgar Snow in Asia, 1928-1941. It is the fifth book written or edited by Farnsworth to be published by the University of Missouri Press and the second to earn a Curators' Award.

Using a variety of source materials, Farnsworth tells the story of Edgar Snow (1905-1972). Snow left his native Kansas City at the age of 19 to begin a career in advertising in New York. Four years later, impatient with the lack of recognition for his achievements, he broke from his advertising job to try the adventure of working and writing his way around the world. His journey stalled for thirteen years in Asia, where Snow came to be considered the most authoritative reporter on the Communist movement in China and an important reporter on Asia at large to the Western world. His Red Star over China has been recognized as a classic of modern journalism.

Farnsworth earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan, his master's degree from the University of Connecticut, and his Ph.D. from Tulane University. He is the author of Edgar Snow's Journey South of the Clouds and Melvin B. Tolson, 1898-1966: Plain Talk and Poetic Prophecy.

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