MUSTAZZA, Leonard 1952-

PERSONAL: Born July 16, 1952, in New York, NY. Ethnicity: "Italian-American." Education: Herbert H. Lehman College of the City University of New York, B.A., 1974, M.A., 1979; State University of New York at Stony Brook, Ph.D., 1983.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of English, Abington College, Pennsylvania State University, 1600 Woodland Rd., Abington, PA 19001-3990; fax 215-881-7333. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer. Pennsylvania State University, Abington College, Abington, lecturer, 1983–84, assistant professor, 1984–89, associate professor, 1989–91, professor, 1991–99, distinguished professor of English and American studies, 1999–, associate dean, 1992–2002.

AWARDS, HONORS: George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching, Pennsylvania State University System, 1989.

WRITINGS:

"Such Prompt Eloquence:" Language as Agency and Character in Milton's Epics, Bucknell University Press (Lewisburg, PA), 1988.

Forever Pursuing Genesis: The Myth of Eden in the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut, Bucknell University Press (Lewisburg, PA), 1990.

The Critical Response to Kurt Vonnegut, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1994.

(With Steven Petkov) The Frank Sinatra Reader, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1995.

(With Vicki Abt) Coming after Oprah: Cultural Fallout in the Age of the TV Talk Show, Bowling Green University (Bowling Green, OH), 1997.

Ol' Blue Eyes: A Frank Sinatra Encyclopedia, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1998.

Frank Sinatra and Popular Culture: Essays on an American Icon, Praeger (Westport, CT), 1998.

Frank Sinatra: An Annotated Bibliography, 1939–1998, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1999.

Contributor to books, including The Shining Reader: A Collection of Essays, edited by Anthony Magistrale, Starmont House (Mercer Island, WA), 1990; A Casebook on "The Stand," edited by Anthony Magistrale, Starmont House (Mercer Island, WA), 1992; Discovering Stephen King's "The Shining," edited by Anthony Magistrale, Borgo Press (San Bernardino, CA), 1998; and Frank Sinatra: History, Identity, and Italian-American Culture, edited by Stanislao Pugliese, Palgrave Macmillan (New York, NY), 2004. Contributor of articles and reviews to periodicals, including Milton Quarterly, Critique, Studies in Short Fiction, Literature in Performance, Essays in Literature, Explicator, Text and Performance Quarterly, Journal of Popular Culture, and Milton Studies.

WORK IN PROGRESS: The Literary Filmography: 6,200 Adaptations of Books, Short Stories, and Other Nondramatic Works (tentative title), for McFarland and Co. (Jefferson, NC).

SIDELIGHTS: Leonard Mustazza told CA: "For the past decade, my research has focused on American popular culture. I have published books on American popular icon Frank Sinatra and a book on the television talk show and its deleterious effects on our culture. I am currently working on an encyclopedia of film adaptations of literary works, which will include entries on more than 5,000 print titles (novels, short stories, poems, nonfiction books, and articles) adapted for more than 7,000 films since 1929."