Revised November 16, 2022

Paul LeValley as Zeus

Paul LeValley

 

            In the spring of 2014, I finally finished retiring--50 years after I started teaching.  I have now moved to a nudist resort near Kissimmee, FL, where I serve as president of the American Nudist Research Library, and am busy publishing some big books.  If you get down this way, be sure to look me up.  My phone is (407) 449-0574.

            I grew up on a large farm in Michigan.  I must be one of the last professors left who began my education in a one-room country school.  (It had no electricity when I started.)  There were 33 in my high school graduating class.  A few years ago, I dug out an old high school term paper I wrote on the history of my home town, and updated it with some fresh research.  You can see a short version at www.morrice.mi.us/village_history.htm.
 
            I taught several years at Saginaw High School in Michigan--mostly English and World History.  The students were an interesting mix: 45% white, 40% black, 15% Mexican.  In 1969 (5½ years before Sail opened), I created and directed the Independent Study Program within Saginaw High School.  A dozen whiz-kids and hippie dropouts made arrangements with a teacher of their choice for an extra full-credit class through independent study--everything from creative writing, to oceanography, to dissecting frog brains.  Once a week, we met in a lunchtime seminar to share our interests.  Though participating teachers and students enjoyed the intellectual stimulation, the program fell apart shortly after I left there.
 
            I took time off to go traveling around the world.  In all, I have been to 63 countries in Latin America (five times), Africa (twice), Europe (twice), Asia (four times), Australia and the Pacific (once).  Later came extended stays in the jungles of Belize (twice) and in India.
 
            Based on my travel, I taught an experimental World History class, and compiled enough documents to fill a book.  But I then started teaching in college, and nearly 30 years would pass before I ever got back into a high school World History classroom to try out the manuscript.  That opportunity came in the spring of 2003 and 2006 at Leon High School in Tallahassee, Florida.  The last time, I experimented with posting a lot of interesting readings on this web site; I've left them up for your use.  Students at Leon and at Sail have also found the miscellaneous history research guides useful.

            I used to tell students at those two schools, "I sometimes teach World Humanities at FAMU.  I sometimes teach Asian Art History (mostly India) at FSU.  And when nobody wants me, I'm here."  Besides my college teaching, I've also given several guest lectures on Asian art and culture in the high schools.  You can also read my report on a Buddhist sand mandala made in Tallahassee.
 
Degrees:
            A.B. in English (History minor)—University of Michigan, 1964
            M.A. in Humanities—Wayne State University, 1973
            Ph.D. in Humanities—Florida State University, 1987
                        major concentration: ancient India
                        minor concentration: Romanticism
 
            Someday when you're in the FSU library with nothing better to do, you might want to check what a dissertation looks like.  Mine is shelved on the fourth floor:
            NB
            1002
            .L48
            1987
While you're going past the reference section on the first floor, you might also want to look up my brief article on Sravana Belgola in the 34-volume Dictionary of Art:
            N
            31
            .D5
            1996
   
            You may also want to look into my collection of short stories, poetry, and essays: The Orfalinda Trilogy and Other Early Writings.  You can read some short samples from this and my other books at http://www.paullevalley.com/books.  This book is available free in the Sail and Leon High School libraries, or you can buy a copy from me.
 
            Over the years, I have written more than 100 scholarly articles, published across four continents.  The arrangement that paid dependable money was a column on the nude in art history for Naturally magazine.  I did that for 20 years.  (You didn't think I could survive on what they pay substitutes, did you?)  The plan from the beginning was to republish those articles in book form.  I published Art Follows Nature: A Worldwide History of the Nude in 2016.
 
            Another book project was a collection of documents on the ancient Gymnosophists--or naked philosophers Alexander the Great met in India.  (My dissertation covered part of the topic.)  That meeting inspired fanciful tales over the next two thousand years--in Europe and in the Arab world.  Seekers of the Naked Truth: Collected Writings on the Gymnosophists and Related Shramana Religions was published in 2018.  I am now working on a short movie version.

            In 2020, I completed my two-volume family history that is of no interest to anybody else.  For more than 50 years, I have worked on genealogy.  Click here for the no-longer-offered Sail Intensive, Discover Your Roots, as well as my big LeValley website.  Other interests include gardening, bird watching, and classical music.  I twice offered a week of Intensive Studies in Listening to Classical Music at Sail.

            In 2021, I published two short books of juvenile fiction.  A Visit to Athens, Sparta and Olympia gives an accurate picture of growing up in ancient Greece.  One Boy's Adventure in the South Seas takes place on a cannibal island and is a harem fantasy for teenage boys.

            For seven years, I wrote a series of reviews of family-friendly nudist-friendly movies.  They have now been organized into a book titled Naturist Writings of Paul LeValley, Including Movie Reviews.  It includes various other naturist essays I wrote over the years.
    
            Here are a few things I developed to help high school students in their writing:
 
Parts of speech (Grammar) 
Outline form for writing an essay
Good stuff to know about footnotes
 
            The footnote page was thrown together in one evening, but has become one of the most popular on the Internet--assigned by many Canadian universities, and now spreading around the world.


            If I can be of assistance to you in any way, feel free to e-mail me at:  paullevalley@peoplepc.com.



Return to the Paul LeValley school page