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ENGLISH COMIC NOVELIST KINGSLEY AMIS SUBJECT OF NEW BOOK
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., March 15, 1999--"The funniest writer of our time is also one of the most troubling," writes Robert Bell, editor of Critical Essays on Kingsley Amis, published recently by G. K. Hall.
Bell has brought together a veritable Who's Who among contemporary fiction writers and critics to help explicate the humorous and disturbing nature of Amis' writings.
Amis, who died in 1995, was the author of more than 40 books, including 20 novels, many volumes of poetry, and several collections of essays, which established him as the leading British comic novelist of his generation. His first published work in 1954, Lucky Jim, won him immediate acclaim. His 1986 novel The Old Devils won the prestigious Booker prize. Amis was knighted in 1990.
Bell's contributions include a comprehensive introduction to Amis' entire career, and an essay comparing his early and late fiction. Criticism by other writers includes reviews, selections from book-length works, and essays. The essays deal with such issues as Amis and comedy, Amis and Providence, Amis and women, and Amis and sex.
Bell includes an essay from Amis himself, titled "Real and Made-up People," as well as articles from William H. Pritchard, David Lodge, Paul Fussell, Shari Benstock, James Wolcott, John Updike, and Lawrence Graver (a professor emeritus at Williams).
Bell is author of Jocoserious Joyce: The Fate of Folly in Ulysses and of many articles in scholarly journals. He has also published scores of reviews, features, and humor pieces in magazines, and newspapers, and has served as editor-in-chief of the Berkshire Review.
An expert on James Joyce and a specialist in eighteenth-century literature, Bell is a frequent presenter at academic conferences and has served as a reader for Cornell University Press, Columbia University Press, and the University of Florida Press.
Bell was also the recipient of the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teachers in 1998 and has twice been awarded fellowships by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
He holds the William R. Kenan chair at Williams, awarded to a faculty member "whose enthusiasm for good teaching, breadth of interest and achievement shows promise of a creative relationship not only with undergraduates but also with young faculty."
In 1994, he founded the Williams Project For Effective Teaching, which offers teaching instruction and support for new faculty.
Bell received his B.A. from Dartmouth College and his Ph.D. from Harvard University.
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News:JRah Williams College is consistently ranked one of the nation's top liberal arts colleges. Founded in 1793, it is the second oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college of 2,000 students is located in Williamstown, which has been called the best college town in America. You can visit the college in cyberspace at http://www.williams.edu
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