The Necessary Fiction

Michael Groden is Distinguished University Professor Emeritus in the Department of English and Writing Studies, Western University Canada. Born in Buffalo, New York, he received a B.A. from Dartmouth College (magna cum laude) in 1969 and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1975. He is the author of "Ulysses" in Progress (Princeton University Press, 1977; Princeton Legacy Library paperback, 2014) and "Ulysses" in Focus: Genetic, Textual, and Personal Views (Florida James Joyce Series, University Press of Florida, 2010; paperback, 2012), general editor of The James Joyce Archive (63 volumes, Garland Publishing, 1977-79), compiler of James Joyce's Manuscripts: An Index (Garland Publishing, 1980), and co-editor of The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994; 2nd edition, 2005; Chinese translation, 2011), Genetic Criticism: Texts and Avant-textes (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), Praharfeast: James Joyce in Prague (Litteraria Pragensia, 2012), and Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory: The Johns Hopkins Guide (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012). His work has been internationally recognised by major awards. On June 16, 2004, the 100th anniversary of Bloomsday, he was awarded an honorary D.Litt. degree by University College Dublin: Joyce's university; in 2006 he was named a Distinguished University Professor at Western University ;He has held a Guggenheim Fellowship, and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2007. In May 2011 he was awarded the Hellmuth Prize for Achievement in Research, the most prestigious award for research at Western University in Canada, where he taught from 1975 until he retired in 2014. He lives in Toronto with his wife - poet, memoirist, and biographer Molly Peacock, author most recently of the biography The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72; Alphabetique: 26 Characteristic Fictions; and The Analyst: Poems.