My brother Peter, who has died aged 79, was emeritus professor and a former head of the American studies department at Nottingham University. His work there led to him becoming an internationally respected authority on Mark Twain.
He published dozens of articles and several books on the American author, including The Short Works of Mark Twain: A Critical Study (2001), The Cambridge Introduction to Mark Twain (2012), and Mark Twain and Male Friendship: The Twichell, Howells and Rogers Friendships (2009), which won both the EAAS American Studies Network book prize and the British Association for American Studies (BAAS) annual book prize. Pete also edited a collection of Twichell’s civil war letters.
Born in Wimbledon, south-west London, he was the son of Rosa (nee Burger) and John Messent, deputy clerk of the Metropolitan Water Board. Pete attended Wimbledon college before gaining a BA degree in American studies at the University of Manchester (1969), then doing an MPhil on humour in American fiction (1971). After lecturing at Manchester for a year, he took up a post at the University of Nottingham, teaching American literature. Apart from one year spent teaching as a Fulbright scholar in Sacramento, California (1977-78), he remained at Nottingham until his retirement in 2011.
Pete taught the whole range of American literature at undergraduate and postgraduate level, as well as supervising a wide range of PhD topics. He was an indispensable and essential figure in a fast-developing department, being promoted to full professor in 1999, and eventually serving as head of department.
A popular and approachable teacher, Pete took students and their needs seriously, giving generously of his time and expertise and often championing their cause when he felt they were not being treated fairly.
His many publications on American literature range from the occult, crime fiction and Ernest Hemingway to applications of narrative theory, such as his New Readings of the American Novel (1998). He will be best remembered, however, for his contribution to scholarship on Twain.
Warm and witty, Pete had an extensive circle of friends both within and outside his academic life. He had a wide interest in sport, in particular football, cricket and rugby. A keen supporter of Nottingham Forest FC, he witnessed their heroics under Brian Clough, but supported them through thick and thin. In later life he enjoyed playing golf.
In 1971 he married Brenda Courcha, and they had two children, William and Alice. They divorced in 1987, and in 1994 he married Carin Davis. She died in 2023.
He is survived by William and Alice, two stepchildren, Ella and Leah, six grandchildren, Ben, Harry, Louis, Arthur, Violet and Kit, and his siblings, Philip, Mary and me.
