MARY ELLEN SNODGRASS is an award-winning author of reference works and English and Latin textbooks. Her work The Encyclopedia of Utopian Literature (1996) was cited as an Outstanding Reference Book by the American Library Association and received citations from Choice and Library Journal. She is also the author of the Choice-award-winning Voyages in Classical Mythology (1994) and of Japan and the U.S.: Economic Competitors (1993), which received an award from the New York public Library. In addition to publishing 52 works, she was Chair of the English Department at Hickory High School in North Carolina and a columnist for the Charlotte Observer.