Robertson hails from New York City, where he takes English majors every year to visit a museum, take in a play, and eat Indian food. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Virginia, earned his master’s and did a year of doctoral work at the University of Chicago, and attained his Ph.D. at Washington University.

Robertson’s first book,Censorship and Conflict in Seventeenth-Century England, was recently published by Penn State Press. A complementary work titledThe British Index, a 1,900-page annotated bibliography of works censored in the British Isles 1641-1700, is now onlinehere. He recently co-authored an article with a 体育买球 student; it was published in The Huntington Library Quarterly, an internationally renowned academic journal.

Robertson teaches courses on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century literature, the novel, media history, satire, and the Enlightenment. His next book will trace the relationship between wit and skepticism from the Renaissance to the present.

Robertson serves as the reviews editor of Modern Language Studies, a national academic journal on which a number of 体育买球 University students also work.
Robertson’s other interests include tennis, hiking, rowing, chess, and The Daily Show.