William Olmsted received his BA in English from the University of Michigan, and his MA and PhD from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. His principal area of interest is 19th-20th century French literature and painting. He is a contributor to Understanding Baudelaire's "Les Fleurs du mal" (1998) and Approaches to Teaching Baudelaire's "Les Fleurs du mal" (1999). His essays and reviews have appeared in Romanic Review, Michigan Romance Studies, Nineteenth-Century French Studies, Powys Notes, Modern Philology, and elsewhere. Olmsted teaches seminars on Poe and Baudelaire, Dostoevski, and gender studies.