Magistrale, Tony 1952–

PERSONAL: Born September 9, 1952, in Buffalo, NY; son of Samuel A. (an attorney) and Rosalie (a homemaker; maiden name, Barone) Magistrale; married Jennifer Letzler (a nurse and fashion model), May, 1981; children: Christopher, Daniel. Education: Allegheny College, B.A., 1974; University of Pittsburgh, M.A., 1979, Ph.D., 1981. Politics: Independent. Religion: "Lapsed Catholic." Hobbies and other interests: Tennis, football, running.

ADDRESSES: Home—2 Yandow Dr., South Burlington, VT 05403. Office—University of Vermont, 301 Old Mill, Burlington, VT 05405. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer and educator. University of Vermont, Burlington, associate professor of English, beginning 1983, currently full professor of English and associate chair of the English department, also director of undergraduate advising. Trustee and member of board of directors of University of Stockholm's Swedish Program; visiting professor at University of Augsburg, Germany, 2004.

MEMBER: International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, Fulbright Alumni Association.

AWARDS, HONORS: Alden Scholar, 1972–74; Mellon pre-doctoral fellowship, 1980; Fulbright post-doctoral fellowship, 1983; Kroepsch-Maurice Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1996, George Kidder Outstanding Professor Award, 2001, Arts and Sciences Dean's Lecture Award, 2003, all University of Vermont.

WRITINGS:

Writer's Guide: Psychology, D.C. Heath (Lexington, MA), 1986.

Landscape of Fear: Stephen King's American Gothic, Bowling Green University Press (Bowling Green, OH), 1988.

(Editor) The Dark Descent, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1992.

Stephen King: The Second Decade, Twayne (New York, NY), 1992.

(Editor) Angles of Vision: Reading, Writing, and the Study of Literature, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1992.

(Editor) A Casebook on "The Stand," Starmont House (Mercer Island, WA), 1992.

Stephen King: The Second Decade, "Danse Macabre" to "The Dark Half," Twayne (New York, NY), 1992.

(With Kenneth Wagner) Writing across Culture: An Introduction to Study Abroad and the Writing Process, P. Lang (New York, NY), 1995.

(Editor, with Michael A. Morrison) A Dark Night's Dreaming: Contemporary American Horror Fiction, University of South Carolina Press (Columbia, SC), 1996.

(With Frederick S. Frank) The Poe Encyclopedia, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1997.

(Editor) Discovering Stephen King's "The Shining": Essays on the Best-Selling Novel by America's Premier Horror Writer, Borgo Press (San Bernadino, CA), 1998.

(With Sidney Poger) Poe's Children: Connections between Tales of Terror and Detection, P. Lang (New York, NY), 1999.

Student Companion to Edgar Allan Poe, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 2001.

Hollywood's Stephen King, Palgrave Macmillan (New York, NY), 2003.

Abject Terrors: Surveying the Modern and Postmodern Horror Film, P. Lang (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS: Tony Magistrale is an authority on gothic and horror fiction, particularly that of popular contemporary novelist Stephen King, who has produced such bestsellers as Carrie, The Shining, It, and The Stand. Magistrale, whose writings on King include Landscape of Fear: Stephen King's American Gothic and Stephen King: The Second Decade, told a contributor to the UVM Record: "Underneath King's horror and supernatural phenomena is a relationship to American social institutions and personal relationships." King, Magistrale added, is "a critical sociologist of our time."

In his 2003 book Hollywood's Stephen King, Magistrale continues to explore King's work as literature with a focus on how the novels have been adapted into films. The book begins with an interview with King, and the author follows with chapters on various aspects of King's books and the film adaptations, such as recurring themes and interpretations by the director and screenwriters. In addition, the author focuses on specific archetypes within King's novels and films, such as children and heroes. Writing in the Library Journal, Rosalind Dayen pointed out that "Magistrale analyzes and critiques the accuracy of the films in terms of the books," and went on to call the book "well-written." A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that "this book is a useful elucidation of King's work through the skewed lens of Hollywood." Noting that the book "is not … for the advanced scholar," Green Man Review Web site contributor Denise Dutton nevertheless added that Magistrale's "ideas are thoroughly researched, and he uses many other critical essays to back up his ideas." Writing on the Cercles Web site, Trudy Bolter commented: "This is a rich book, brimming over with interesting observations." Magistrale is also coauthor with Kenneth Wagner of Writing across Culture: An Introduction to Study Abroad and the Writing Process. Frontiers magazine contributor Barbara Jo Lantz commented that the authors advocate journal writing and added that they "take this advice a big step forward to offer writing strategies that will enable students to go beyond cursory observations to deeper insights."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Library Journal, October 15, 2003, Rosalind Dayen, review of Hollywood's Stephen King, p. 71.

Necrofile: The Review of Horror Fiction, fall, 1993, review of The Dark Descent, pp. 8-11.

Publishers Weekly, October 6, 2003, review of Hollywood's Stephen King, p. 74.

Science-Fiction Studies, Volume 20, 1993, Gary K. Wolfe, review of The Dark Descent, pp. 108-111.

UVM Record, November 17-30, 1989, interview with Magistrale, p. 8.

ONLINE

Cercles, http://www.cercles.com/ (December 1, 2005), Trudy Bolter, review of Hollywood's Stephen King.

Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, http://www.frontiersjournal.com/ (December 1, 2005), Barbara Jo Lantz, review of Writing across Culture: An Introduction to Study Abroad and the Writing Process.

Green Man Review, http://www.greenmanreview.com/ (December 1, 2005), Denise Dutton, review of Hollywood's Stephen King.

University of Vermont Web site, http://www.uvm.edu/ (December 1, 2005), faculty profile of author.