Touponce, William F
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author, Critic.
(1948-2017) US academic and critic, with the School of Liberal Arts at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) from 1985, there becoming Professor of English and – after retiring in 2012 – Professor Emeritus until his death. His first four book-length critical studies addressed the works of Ray Bradbury (twice), Frank Herbert and Isaac Asimov, in Ray Bradbury and the Poetics of Reverie: Fantasy, Science Fiction and the Reader (1984; exp vt 1998), Frank Herbert (1988), Ray Bradbury (1989) and Isaac Asimov (1991).
It was for his Bradbury scholarship that Touponce became best known and most influential as a critic and editor. He returned to this author in Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction (2004) with Jonathan R Eller, the first book about Bradbury to be published by a university press; founded the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies at Indiana University in 2007 and served as its first director until 2011; edited the first three issues of The New Ray Bradbury Review dated 2008, 2010 and 2012 (this series continues with Eller as editor); launched and co-edited with Eller a critical edition of Bradbury's stories that includes original texts of subsequently revised work, the first volume being Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury: A Critical Edition: Volume 1: 1938-1943 (coll 2011); and placed Bradbury in a broader context of Modernism (see Modernism in SF) and Supernatural Fiction [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below] in his last book Lord Dunsany, H.P. Lovecraft, and Ray Bradbury: Spectral Journeys (2013). [DRL]
William Ferdinand Touponce
born Pittsfield, Massachusetts: 7 August 1948
died 15 June 2017
works
nonfiction
- Ray Bradbury and the Poetics of Reverie: Fantasy, Science Fiction and the Reader (Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1984) [nonfiction: Ray Bradbury: hb/]
- Ray Bradbury and the Poetics of Reverie: Gaston Bachelard, Wolfgang Iser, & the Reader's Response to Fantastic Literature (San Bernardino, California: The Borgo Press, 1998) [nonfiction: exp vt of the above: Ray Bradbury: pb/nonpictorial]
- Frank Herbert (Boston, Massachusetts: Twayne, 1988) [nonfiction: Frank Herbert: in the publisher's Twayne's United States Authors series: hb/Andrew Unangst]
- Ray Bradbury (Mercer Island, Washington: Starmont House, 1989) [nonfiction: Ray Bradbury: in the publisher's Starmont Reader's Guides to Contemporary Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors series: pb/photographic]
- Isaac Asimov (Boston, Massachusetts: Twayne, 1991) [nonfiction: Isaac Asimov: in the publisher's Twayne's United States Authors series: hb/photographic]
- Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction (Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 2004) with Jonathan R Eller [nonfiction: Ray Bradbury: hb/photographic]
- Lord Dunsany, H.P. Lovecraft, and Ray Bradbury: Spectral Journeys (Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, 2013) [nonfiction: Ray Bradbury, Lord Dunsany, H P Lovecraft: hb/]
works as editor
- Ray Bradbury. Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury: A Critical Edition: Volume 1: 1938-1943 (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2011) edited with Jonathan R Eller [coll: hb/photographic]
links
- Center for Ray Bradbury Studies
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- The Encyclopedia of Fantasy: Supernatural Fiction
- Picture Gallery
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