Jenijoy La Belle

Early life La Belle was born to Carlye (née Vieth) and Joseph Joy La Belle, a meter reader for Puget Sound Power and Light and raised in Olympia, Washington. La Belle attended Olympia High School. La Belle attended the University of Washington in Seattle. She met Theodore Roethke there, and later wrote a doctoral thesis about his poetry. She received a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1965, and then commenced doctoral work at the University of California, San Diego as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. In 1969, she was awarded a Ph.D. in English for a dissertation on the poetry of Theodore Roethke. In 1969, she was hired as a tenure-track assistant professor at Caltech.

Caltech tenure case In 1969, La Belle began teaching at Caltech. Caltech had not yet admitted women undergraduates, and she was the first woman appointed as a tenure-track professor at Caltech. Olga Taussky-Todd had been tenured as a professor in 1963, but had initially been hired as a research associate. In 1974, the English department recommended La Belle for tenure unanimously. Princeton University Press had recently contracted to publish her book The Echoing Wood of Theodore Roethke. The department's recommendation was rejected by the Humanities and Social Sciences Division, then chaired by economic historian Robert Huttenback.

Caltech's position ultimately emerged from consideration by Lew Wasserman for the Board of Trustees and Robert Christy, the provost. Caltech initiated several measures to reduce sex discrimination and acceded to La Belle's reinstatement with promotion to associate professor in 1977 and with reconsideration for tenure in 1979. Years later, La Belle reflected in a Los Angeles Times column on the implications of her history in the larger context of sex discrimination in employment.

Books (with Edward Young and Robert N. Essick) . The book was very favorably reviewd by Charles Altieri in Criticism. (With Robert N. Essick) . The book was reviewed by Mary Barber in The Los Angeles Times, by Alison Townsend in The Georgia Review, and by Daniel R. Schwarz in The D.H. Lawrence Review.

Los Angeles Times columns La Belle was a columnist for the Los Angeles Times for several years in the 1990s. The list of her columns includes:

Personal life By 2007, La Belle had lived in one of Dr. A. Schutt's 1927 Pasadena art colony bungalows for a decade. The Los Angeles Times published two stories about the home after La Belle bought it.

External media "All men have faces, but many women are their faces" — Jenijoy La Belle Jenijoy La Belle speaking about William Blake to alums at Seminar Day in San Francisco. Caltech Photographer. October 1979 Jenijoy La Belle Photographer: Greg Gilbert. 1990s Caltech Archives Air Talk with Jenijoy La Belle and John D. Roberts. 19 July 1989 from 6 to 7 PM on KPCC, the National Public Radio affiliate of Pasadena City College Night of Stars Part 4 Jenijoy La Belle May 2009 — Olympia High School Alumni via YouTube Jenijoy La Belle Oral History Interview