Katharine M. Rogers

Katharine Munzer Rogers, a Professor Emerita of English from Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, now lives in Bethesda, Maryland. She has published many articles and books on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature and, since retirement, has pursued her interests in animals and in the Oz books of L. Frank Baum.

Alerted to women's issues in 1961, when she was forced out of her job for becoming pregnant, she started research on her first book, The Troublesome Helpmate: A History of Misogyny in Literature (University of Washington Press, 1966). There she analyzed the hostility to women that has run through the western tradition from its roots in the Bible and classical literature up to the present and that appears in major authors such as Milton, Dickens, and Lawrence; in those days, most established critics still denied that such hostility existed in mainstream authors.

Her William Wycherley (Twayne, 1972) was the first full-length critical study of the Restoration playwright who wrote the powerful comedies The Country Wife and The Plain Dealer.

Feminism in Eighteenth-Century England (University of Illinois Press, 1982) analyzes attitudes in the period when significant numbers of women were becoming successful authors. Although women remained largely devoid of legal and political rights, both the rationalism of the Enlightenment and the promotion of conventionally feminine values such as sensitivity and tenderness by the sentimental movement improved the attitudes of men toward women and of women toward themselves.

Frances Burney, the subject of Rogers's next book (Frances Burney: The World of "Female Difficulties," Harvester-Wheatsheaf, 1990), illustrates the subdued, indirect feminism characteristic of intelligent eighteenth-century women. Like the heroine of her last novel, The Wanderer, Burney perceived herself as weakened by "female difficulties," but in fact handled life's trials with intelligence and resolution.

In her next book, Rogers combined her interests in literature, women's issues, and cats. The Cat and the Human Imagination: Feline Images from Bast to Garfield (University of Michigan Press, 1998; paperback, 2000) examines human attitudes toward cats from their earliest appreciation in ancient Egypt to the present. After centuries of being mere utilitarian mouse catchers, cats came to be idealized as princesses in disguise, sweet spirits of home, and agents of nemesis. Although traditionally associated with women, they now often appear as pals of men.

L. Frank Baum: Creator of Oz, published by St. Martin's Press in October 2002 (paperback, 2003), is a tribute to the author who enlivened Rogers's childhood with wonderful adventures to the Land of Oz. Oz is a world filled with inventive and amusing characters, where life is endlessly exciting and where good always prevails -- and yet Baum's plain, matter-of-fact narrative makes it believable. Besides writing fourteen Oz books and other delightful fantasies, Baum turned out potboilers under four pseudonyms and tirelessly pursued success in musical theater and film-making.

First Friend: A History of Dogs and Humans, published by St. Martin's Press in August 2005 (paperback, 2010), traces the long relationship between people and their first animal friend, from the time that dogs gave us invaluable help in guarding, hunting, and herding to the present, when over ninety percent of them are kept as companions. We count on a dog's love and trust; we are confident that we understand what it is feeling and thinking and that it sympathizes with our feelings. And yet at the same time, it offers a connection with the natural world outside of human conventions and human interpretations. Some people dislike dogs, but the overwhelming majority have positive attitudes, ranging from uncritically crediting them with every virtue to realistically appreciating the many wonderful qualities that they actually possess.

Her latest book is Cat (2006), a contribution to Reaktion Books' Animal series. In this richly illustrated book, she considers Oriental as well as Western attitudes toward cats. For centuries, cats have been treasured companions in Japan and Thailand. Cat includes four illustrations from an unpublished manuscript of the Tamra Maeo Thai, a classical handbook that exhorts its readers to treat propitious cats with proper care and deference. Cat has been translated into four languages.

Rogers has also compiled five anthologies for Penguin USA: the Meridian Classic Book of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century British Drama (1979), Selected Writings of Samuel Johnson (1981), the Meridian Anthology of Early Women Writers: British Literary Women from Aphra Behn to Maria Edgeworth (1987, with William McCarthy), the Meridian Anthology of Early American Women Writers: From Anne Bradstreet to Louisa May Alcott, 1650-1865 (1991), and the Meridian Anthology of Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Plays by Women (1994). The last makes available little known plays by seven English and American women, including an American Revolutionary propaganda piece by Mercy Otis Warren and The Witlings, a hilarious and previously unpublished comedy by Frances Burney.

She is married to Kenneth Rogers, retired President of Stevens Institute of Technology and retired Commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. She has three grown children, a dog, and two cats.

She is now writing about animals very different from dogs and cats. See the end of this entry for information about Meet the Invertebrates.

The Cat and the Human Imagination -- "sheer catnip for the intellectual feline lover -- implies that whether we consider it a symbol of the home, a paragon of independence, an agent of evil or a cherished friend, the cat will remain in our cultural imaginings for centuries to come."
Zoe Helena Rice in The New York Times Book Review (October 25, 1998)

L. Frank Baum: Creator of Oz
"Rogers is a fine interpreter of [Baum's] stories; she shares Baum's aesthetic and especially his sense of humor... a strong and sympathetic portrait."
Brooke Allen in The New York Times Book Review (November 17, 2002)
Listed by the The New York Times among the Notable Books of 2002.

"In the introduction to this marvelous book, L. Frank Baum's creation of Oz is praised by Ray Bradbury's short story "The Exiles"....Within the pages of this enlightening biography, Rogers traces Baum's path with vigorous insight....The outstanding charm of this book is Rogers' wonderful chapter detailing the creation of 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.'"
Charles Trent Alling in The Tampa Tribune (November 17, 2002)

"In this well-researched biography, Rogers ... not only brings to life a genial and multitalented man but also provides a thorough and judicious account of his voluminous writings."
Merle Rubin in The New York Sun (November 27, 2002)

"As Rogers aptly shows in this insightful biography/​analysis, Baum ... was far more than a one-hit wonder.... Her analyses are enlightening and engaging -- she quite possibly could spark renewed interest in his work."
Publishers Weekly (August 26, 2002)

First Friend
"Katharine M. Rogers ... takes up the subject of canines in her entertaining and very informative First Friend: A History of Dogs and Humans. Ms. Rogers is impressively thorough, covering dogs from earliest times until now and leaving very few sources, artistic, historical and literary ... untouched.... But best of all, the author knows and respects dogs."
Steve Goode in The Washington Times (September 18, 2005)

"This graceful and charming study by the author of The Cat and the Human Imagination should please social historians as much as dog lovers. Rogers has researched the role dogs have played in society from ancient civilizations to the present. Her careful analysis is buttressed by literary references throughout the centuries.... Rogers well understands and portrays the symbiotic relationship between people and their dogs."
Publisher's Weekly (June 6, 2005)

"Katharine Rogers has written an engaging account of the canine's evolving role in our society. This is a must-read book for anyone who was ever fortunate enough to have once been owned by a dog. This crisply written new book brims with both warmth and charm."
Tucson Citizen (August 11, 2005)

Cat
"It requires a wealth of knowledge and some ingenuity to write a book about cats that has a fresh approach and provides unusual information, which has not been repeated from innumerable previous publications. But... this is what Katharine Rogers has achieved in Cat.... this book ... is written with great empathy and understanding of the attitudes to cats by peoples from many different parts of the world."
Juliet Clutton-Brock, Anthrozoos

"Beautifully illustrated.... A perfect read for ailurophiles."
The Guardian (January 20, 2007)

Why should we meet some invertebrates?
I grew up reacting to invertebrates as most people do -- shrimps are tasty in garlic sauce, roaches swarm disgustingly over kitchen surfaces, earthworms on a rain-washed sidewalk are unoffending but nevertheless slimy and disgusting. I devoured horror stories that made the most of huge featureless worms that ooze inexorably along the ground, big-eyed ants or spiders running along on too many legs, alarmingly flexible octopus tentacles whipping out from murky ocean depths to affix people with their suckers.
It was only when I volunteered at the Invertebrate House in the National Zoo that I began to look at invertebrates as animals that exist for themselves, as living creatures dealing with life’s challenges as fish, birds, and mammals must. I also noticed the egocentricity of dividing the animal kingdom into vertebrates – the relatively uniform group that includes, and (we typically assume) culminates in, ourselves – and invertebrates – the many diverse groups that include everybody else. (Actually, 98% of all the animal species on earth are invertebrates.)
So I decided that invertebrates needed a better press, and in Meet the Invertebrates I offer portraits of thirteen of them, from a sessile sponge to an active, efficient ant.
Our prejudice against invertebrates leads us to assume that anything they do is automatic. If ants or termites cooperate to build a beautifully designed nest, we assume they did it by blind instinct; if apes or humans do the same thing, we admire their thoughtful planning.
Benjamin B. Beck draws a telling comparison. Wild chimpanzees fish termites from their nests by inserting a twig into a nest opening, waiting for termites to attack the probe, drawing it out and eating the attached termites. “There is another method of extracting termites from their nests. Locate a nest with a breach that is being repaired by colony members. Glue fragments of the nest material onto yourself so that you can approach the hole without alarming the insects and causing them to retreat inside. Snatch a termite worker, dangle it enticingly near the hole, and then capture and eat worker after worker as they approach to investigate and rescue the bait.” This is clearly a more sophisticated technique, using camouflage, bait, and knowledge of prey behavior in the manner of a human hunter. Yet the second animal hunter is a neotropical assassin bug. This technique would be evidence of intelligence in an ape, yet in an insect we attribute it to mechanical instinct.

Our ever-increasing knowledge of invertebrates can be practical as well as interesting. 300 years ago, Swift put practical use of spider silk among the ridiculous projects in Laputa. But today scientists are seriously working on the problem of making it usable. Unlike silkworms, spiders spin different kinds of silk, including threads that are sticky or highly stretchable. Spider silk is strong enough to make bulletproof vests, delicate enough to make artificial corneas. The difficulty is obtaining a commercially usable quantity. A spider doesn't produce much silk, and spiders cannot be raised in groups, like silkworms. The new approach is to reconstitute silkworm silk so as to incorporate qualities of spider silk.
Research on roundworms has long been used to throw light on human development and physiology. Now it may suggest possibilities of extraterrestrial life. Recently roundworms have been found living over a mile below earth's surface, where it was thought only microbes could survive. If animals with nervous, digestive, and reproductive systems can live so far below ground, it is possible that similarly complex life forms could be living deep below the inhospitable surface of Mars.