Bergeron, David M. 1938- (David Moore Bergeron)

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Bergeron, David M. 1938- (David Moore Bergeron)

PERSONAL:

Born February 8, 1938, in Alexandria, LA; son of Leon C. (an insurance agent) and Beulah Bergeron; married Bonnie Meyer, September 10, 1966 (died, 1978). Education: Louisiana College, B.A, 1960; Vanderbilt University, M.A., 1962, Ph.D., 1964. Politics: Democrat.

ADDRESSES:

Office—English Department, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer and educator. University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, assistant professor of English, 1964-68; University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, 1968-76, began as associate professor, became professor of English; University of Kansas, Lawrence, professor of English, 1976—. Assistant reference librarian and assistant editor, Folger Shakespeare Library, 1971-72.

MEMBER:

Modern Language Association of America, American Association of University Professors, Shakespeare Association, Malone Society (honorary treasurer, 1969-74), Renaissance Society of America.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Woodrow Wilson fellowship, 1960; Folger Shakespeare Library fellowships, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1973; American Council of Learned Societies fellowship, 1968-69, grant-in-aid, 1976; Higuchi Research Achievement Award, 1987; British Academy grant, 1999; Conger-Gabel Teaching Professor, 2001-04.

WRITINGS:

English Civic Pageantry, 1558-1642, University of South Carolina Press (Columbia, SC), 1971, revised edition, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies (Tempe, AZ), 2003.

Twentieth-Century Criticism of Masques, Pageants, and Entertainments, 1558-1642, Trinity University Press (San Antonio, TX), 1972.

Shakespeare: A Study and Research Guide, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 1975, 2nd edition, University Press of Kansas (Lawrence, KS), 1987, 3rd edition, 1995.

(Contributor) Teaching Shakespeare, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1977.

(Editor) Pageantry in the Shakespearean Theater, University of Georgia Press (Athens, GA), 1985.

Shakespeare's Romances and the Royal Family, University Press of Kansas (Lawrence, KS), 1985.

(Editor) Anthony Munday, Pageants and Entertainments of Anthony Munday: A Critical Edition, Garland (New York, NY), 1985.

(Editor) Thomas Heywood, Thomas Heywood's Pageants: A Critical Edition, Garland (New York, NY), 1986.

(With G. Douglas Atkins) Shakespeare and Deconstruction, P. Lang (New York, NY), 1988.

Royal Family, Royal Lovers: King James of England and Scotland, University of Missouri Press (Columbia, MO), 1991.

(Editor) Reading and Writing in Shakespeare, University of Delaware Press (Newark, DE); 1996.

King James & Letters of Homoerotic Desire, University of Iowa Press (Iowa City, IA), 1999.

Practicing Renaissance Scholarship: Plays and Pageants, Patrons and Politics, Duquesne University Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 2000.

Textual Patronage in English Drama, 1570-1640, Ashgate (Burlington, VT), 2006.

Member of board of directors, Shakespeare Quarterly, 1972—; editor of Research Opportunities in Renaissance Drama, 1973—.

SIDELIGHTS:

David M. Bergeron is an English professor who specializes in Shakespeare, English civic pageantry, King James, and Renaissance dramatists. He is also the author and editor of a number of books focusing on his specialty areas. For example, in Royal Family, Royal Lovers: King James of England and Scotland, the author looks at the life and families of King James I of England, who was also King James VI of Scotland. The ruler is perhaps most famously noted today for being responsible for the King James version of the Bible. Notes and Queries contributor Pauline Croft commented that "the book is in many ways effective in bringing home the disturbed, deprived, and chaotic childhood and youth endured by James."

As editor of Reading and Writing in Shakespeare, the author provides twelve essays culled from a 1992 Shakespeare of Association meeting. Among the topics discussed in the collection are typography, theology, ethics, class, and culture, with a focus on the 1623 First Folio. "Perhaps the most valuable quality of this impressive collection is its sheer range of subject-matter," wrote Michael G. Brennan in Notes and Queries.

King James & Letters of Homoerotic Desire delves into letters from England's notoriously homosexual King James I and his numerous male lovers. Nicholas F. Radel, writing in Shakespeare Studies, pointed out that "the detailed and evocative letters that passed between them, have become central examples in the relatively new field of inquiry into the history of sex and sexuality in early modern England." Radel went on to write that Bergeron's book "performs a valuable service on two counts: first, by providing a generous sampling of the letters (with their spelling modernized and arcane references annotated) and, second, by contextualizing them through brief, highly readable biographical accounts of James's involvements with all three of his most important favorites."

Practicing Renaissance Scholarship: Plays and Pageants, Patrons and Politics is a series of essays focusing on areas such as civic pageantry and King James I and his loveless marriage to Anne of Denmark. The author also provides essays that examine earlier scholarship into the Renaissance. Renaissance Quarterly contributor Michael O'Connell noted that the essays "represent the solid scholarship of some twenty-five years … that Bergeron is known for."

Textual Patronage in English Drama, 1570-1640 details the relationship between patrons and playwrights during the Renaissance and includes such topics as women as patrons and printing house patronage. Bergeron also writes of noted dramatists, including Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare. "This challenging book explores the diverse commercial and cultural strategies through which dramatists and their stationers sought to disseminate printed texts," noted Michael G. Brennan in a review in Comparative Drama. Brennan went on to note in the same review: "In conclusion, this intelligent and meticulously researched book is to be commended for the sheer range of its textual materials and its sustained spirit of analytical enquiry into the often uneven and fragmentary surviving evidence about the patronage of English printed drama between 1570 and 1640."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, September, 1995, P. Kujoory, review of Shakespeare: A Study and Research Guide, 3rd edition, p. 76; October, 1999, P.K. Cline, review of King James & Letters of Homoerotic Desire, p. 396; October, 2006, D.W. Hayes, review of Textual Patronage in English Drama, 1570-1640, p. 296.

Comparative Drama, fall, 2006, Michael G. Brennan, review of Textual Patronage in English Drama, 1570-1640.

Early Modern Literary Studies, May, 2000, Curtis Perry, review of King James & Letters of Homoerotic Desire.

English Historical Review, April 1, 2000, Jenny Wormald, review of King James & Letters of Homoerotic Desire, p. 460.

History: The Journal of the Historical Association, June, 1993, Julian Goodare, review of Royal Family, Royal Lovers: King James of England and Scotland, p. 311; April, 2000, Tom Webster, review of King James & Letters of Homoerotic Desire, p. 342.

Journal of British Studies, April, 2007, Ivan Canadas, review of Textual Patronage in English Drama, 1570-1640, p. 394.

Library Journal, April 15, 1985, Dorothy Litt, review of Shakespeare's Romances and the Royal Family, p. 74.

Notes and Queries, September, 1993, Pauline Croft, review of Royal Family, Royal Lovers, p. 379; March, 1998, Michael G. Brennan, review of Reading and Writing in Shakespeare, p. 119.

Reference & Research Book News, May 1, 2006, review of Textual Patronage in English Drama, 1570-1640.

Renaissance Quarterly, summer, 1992, Maurice Lee, review of Royal Family, Royal Lovers; winter, 2001, Michael O'Connell, review of Practicing Renaissance Scholarship: Plays and Pageants, Patrons and Politics; winter, 2006, Elizabeth Zeman, review of Textual Patronage in English Drama, 1570-1640.

Review of English Studies, November, 2006, Jason Scott-Warren, review of Textual Patronage in English Drama, 1570-1640, p. 807.

Shakespeare Quarterly, spring, 1994, Jenny Wormald, review of Royal Family, Royal Lovers; spring, 1998, Karen Cunningham, review of Reading andWriting in Shakespeare; spring, 2001, Richard Rambuss, review of King James & Letters of Homoerotic Desire.

Shakespeare Studies, January 1, 2001, Nicholas F. Radel, review of King James & Letters of Homoerotic Desire, p. 173.

Sixteenth Century Journal, summer, 2001, Paul S. Seaver, review of King James & Letters of Homoerotic Desire; winter, 2001, John Considine, review of Practicing Renaissance Scholarship.

Times Literary Supplement, September 3, 1999, Hal Jensen, review of King James & Letters of Homoerotic Desire, p. 24; September 29, 2006, "To My Favourite …," p. 27.