BRISTOL, Michael D. 1940-

PERSONAL: Born 1940. Education: Yale University, A.B.; Princeton University, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Office—McGill University, 845 Sherbrooke St., West Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2T5.

CAREER: McGill University, professor of renaissance literature. Also taught at Princeton University and University of Illinois.

AWARDS, HONORS: David Thomson Award for Excellence in Graduate Supervision and Teaching; Charles Scribner fellowship; George McLean Harper fellowship; SSHRC research grant/research time stipend; National Endowment for the Humanities/Folger Library long-term fellowship.

WRITINGS:

Carnival and Theater: Plebeian Culture and the Structure of Authority in Renaissance England, Methuen (New York, NY), 1985.

Shakespeare's America: America's Shakespeare: Literature, Institution, Ideology in the United States, Routledge (New York, NY), 1990.

Big-Time Shakespeare, Routledge (New York, NY), 1996.

(Editor, with Arthur F. Marotti) Print, Manuscript, and Performance: The Changing Relations of the Media in Early Modern England, Ohio State University Press (Columbus, OH), c. 2000.

(Essayist) Shakespeare in Performance, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2000.

(Editor, with Kathleen McLuskie) Shakespeare and Modern Theatre: The Performance of Modernity, Routledge (New York, NY), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS: Writer, essayist, and editor Michael D. Bristol embraced the challenge of explaining the sociology of theater in English Renaissance in his book Carnival and Theater: Plebeian Culture and the Structure of Authority in Renaissance England. Choice's R. P. Griffin, "highly recommended" the work "for scholars, critics, and advanced students." John Wilders, a reviewer in History and Theatre, commended Bristol for his treatment of Dr. Faustus stating that Bristol "makes better sense than anyone of the clowning." Wilders insisted that Bristol's true skill is best illustrated "when he is dealing with relatively simple plays such as Locrine, and The Merry Devil of Edmonton." Encounter reviewer Richard Maine called the book "too lively to be dull."

According to Bryan N. S. Gooch, a reviewer in Canadian Literature, Bristol's book Shakespeare's America, America's Shakespeare: Literature, Institution, Ideology in the United States, "looks at Shakespeare as a cultural 'given' in the United States, and takes account of the dramatist's place in the socio-economic-artisticcritical milieu." Library Journal's Bryan Aubrey called Shakespeare's America, America's Shakespeare "a learned book about the relationship between Shakespeare and American political culture." In the London Review of Books Terence Hawkes commended Bristol for presenting a work that has "a much harder-hitting and more consciously stressed political dimension" than similar works, and noted that Bristol's "concrete detail enlivens the story."

Bristol addresses Shakespeare's "celebrity" in his book Big-Time Shakespeare. London Observer's William Montgomery commented that Bristol "reminds us that Shakespeare's plays are survivors of a fiercely competitive marketplace." Jonathan Bate, a reviewer in New Statesman, applauded Bristol for his "brave attempt to go into new territory" with treatments of Shakespeare's plays. Grace Ioppolo, in the Times Literary Supplement, called Bristol's satire "sharp and funny." Ioppolo stated that Bristol "takes readers on an intellectually thrilling ride through Shakespearean reception, as practiced by literary theorists and . . . showbiz producers."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Canadian Literature, spring, 1992, Bryan N. S. Gooch, "Production and Interpretation," pp. 192-193.

Choice, April, 1986, R. P. Griffin, review of Carnival and Theater: Plebeian Culture and the Structure of Authority in Renaissance England, p. 1210.

Encounter, July, 1986, Richard Maine, review of Carnival and Theater, pp. 49-50.

Libraries & Culture, summer, 2002, Dolora Chapelle Wojciehowski, review of Print, Manuscript, and Performance: The Changing Relations of the Media in Early Modern England, p. 277.

Library Journal, January, 1990, Bevan Aubrey, review of Shakespeare's America: America's Shakespeare: Literature, Institution, Ideology in the United States, p. 108.

Observer (London, England), October 13, 1996, William Montgomery, review of Big-Time Shakespeare, p. 18.

London Review of Books, February 22, 1990, Terence Hawkes, "Bardbiz," pp. 11-13.

New Statesman, October 11, 1996, Jonathan Bate, review of Big-time Shakespeare, p. 46.

Notes & Queries, June, 2001, Scott Nixon, review of Print, Manuscript, and Performance, p. 177.

Review of English Studies, November, 2001, H. R. Woudhuysen, review of Print, Manuscript, and Performance, p. 562.

Sixteenth Century Journal, summer, 2001, Gregory Bak, review of Print, Manuscript, and Performance, p. 552.

Times Literary Supplement, July 18, 1986, John Wilders, "The People and The Play," p. 790; June 19, 1998, Grace Ioppolo, "More Cannon Fire Against the Canon," p. 32.^*