Heinz Ickstadt is professor emeritus in American literature at the Kennedy Institute of North American Studies, Free University Berlin. He has written books on modern American poetry and on the American novel in the 20th century as well as essays on late nineteenth-century American literature and culture (within a context of rapid social transformation) and on the history and theory of American studies. He edited and co-edited several books on American literature and culture, among them a bi-lingual anthology of American poetry (and is now co-editing the first English/German edition of Pound's Cantos). He was president of the European Association of American Studies from 1996 to 2000. Heinz is a Fellow of Salzburg Global Seminar.