HUNT, Peter (Leonard) 1945-

PERSONAL: Born September 2, 1945, in Rugby, Warwickshire, England; son of Walter Henry (an engineer) and Lillian (McPherson) Hunt; married Angela Sarah Theodora Wilkinson (a researcher), October 24, 1981; children: Felicity Sarah Eve, Amy Harriet Mary, Abigail Celestine Rose, Chloe Amaryllis Verity. Ethnicity: "Anglo-Saxon." Education: University of Wales, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, B.A., 1966; University of Wales, Cardiff, M.A., 1969, Ph.D., 1981.

ADDRESSES: Home—West Sundial Cottage, Downend, Horsley, Stroud, Gloucester GL6 0PF, England. Office—School of English Studies, Communication, and Philosophy, University of Wales, P.O. Box 94, Cardiff CF1 3XB, Wales; fax: 44-0-1222-874647. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: University of Wales, Cardiff, lecturer in English at Institute of Science and Technology, 1969-88, senior lecturer, 1988-95, reader, 1995-96, professor of English, 1996—. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, lecturer, 1978; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, visiting professor, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1990; San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, adjunct professor, 1990; University of Wollongong, visiting fellow, 1991. John Kirkman Communication Consultancy, principal associate, 1981—. Engineering Council, joint examiner, 1978—.

MEMBER: International Research Society of Children's Literature, Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (fellow).

AWARDS, HONORS: Award from Society for Technical Communication, 1987; award for distinguished scholarship, International Research Society for the Fantastic in the Arts, 1996.

WRITINGS:

Children's Book Research in Britain: Research in British Institutions of Higher Education on Children's Books and Related Subjects, Wales Institute of Science and Technology, University of Wales (Cardiff, Wales), 1977, revised edition (with Beth Humphries and Sarah Wilkinson), 1982.

Critic into Author: Woodfield Lecture XIII, Woodfield & Stanley (Huddersfield, England), 1990.

Criticism, Theory, and Children's Literature, Basil Blackwell (New York, NY), 1991.

Arthur Ransome, Twayne (Boston, MA), 1991, revised edition published as Approaching Arthur Ransome, J. Cape (London, England), 1992.

An Introduction to Children's Literature, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1994.

The Wind in the Willows: A Fragmented Arcadia ("Twayne's Masterwork Studies"), Twayne (New York, NY), 1994.

(With Millicent Lenz) Alternative Worlds in FantasyFiction, Continuum (New York, NY), 2001.

Contributor of numerous articles and reviews to periodicals, including Times Literary Supplement, Signal, Children's Literature in Education, Advocate, and Social Work Today.

JUVENILE FICTION

The Maps of Time, Julia MacRae (London, England), 1983.

A Step off the Path, Julia MacRae (London, England), 1985.

Backtrack, Julia MacRae (London, England), 1986.

Going Up, Julia MacRae (London, England), 1989.

Fay Cow and the Mystery of the Missing Milk, illustrated by Duncan Smith, Julia MacRae (London, England), 1989.

Sue and the Honey Machine, illustrated by Duncan Smith, Julia MacRae (London, England), 1989.

EDITOR

Further Approaches to Research in Children's Literature, Wales Institute of Science and Technology, University of Wales (Cardiff, Wales), 1977, 2nd edition, 1982.

Richard Jefferies, Bevis, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1989.

Critical Approaches to Children's Literature, 1989.

Children's Literature: The Development of Criticism, Routledge & Kegan Paul (New York, NY), 1990.

Literature for Children: Contemporary Criticism, Routledge & Kegan Paul (New York, NY), 1992.

Children's Literature: An Illustrated History, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1995.

International Companion Encyclopedia of Children'sLiterature, Routledge & Kegan Paul (New York, NY), 1996, portions published as UnderstandingChildren's Literature: Key Essays from the "International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature," 1999.

Children's Literature: An Anthology, 1801-1902, Blackwell Publishers (Malden, MA), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS: According to Dominic Hibberd in the Times Literary Supplement, British educator and author Peter Hunt presents a "fascinating time puzzle" in his The Maps of Time. The story follows a curate, four teenagers, and an eleven-year-old boy as they travel through their imaginations back in time, courtesy of magical Victorian maps found in an old bookstore. The worlds in which the characters travel "allow the novelist to enjoy himself," commented Hibberd. "One narrative splits into four (now, then, and two versions of imagined now). . . . Plenty can happen—four times as much, in fact—and there are nice touches of irony and ambiguity. . . . The time machinery is too ingenious, but it does make us think twice—four times—about the art of narrative."

Hunt once told CA: "During my sabbatical from 1982 to 1983, I visited nearly one hundred universities and colleges in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and India, and lectured at sixty-five of them on children's literature. I believe in the serious (but not solemn) application of the highest and most sophisticated theories to children's literature; I think children are capable of a very sophisticated level of literary appreciation. Contrary to popular thought, I think this appreciation is different in kind, rather than degree, from adult appreciation of literature. A new discipline of what might be called 'childist' criticism must be developed to account for it. My writing for children adheres to these principles: that only the best—by which I mean writing that is as sophisticated as any other—will do. The only possible differentiation (if any) is in the timbre of the subject matter."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

St. James Guide to Children's Writers, 5th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1999.

Twentieth-Century Children's Writers, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1989.

PERIODICALS

Bookbird, February, 1999, review of UnderstandingChildren's Literature: Key Essays from the "International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature," p. 65.

Library Quarterly, January, 1998, review of International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, p. 98.

Times Literary Supplement, February 25, 1983, Dominic Hibberd, review of The Maps of Time; November 29, 1985; November 28, 1986; August 10, 2001, Jan Marsh, review of Children's Literature: An Anthology, 1801-1902, p. 29.*