Brief Biography
Michael Groden was born in Buffalo in 1947 and
graduated from Dartmouth College (B.A., 1969) and
Princeton University (M.A., 1972, Ph.D., 1975). He moved
to Canada in 1975 to teach at the University of Western
Ontario (now known as Western
University) and was Distinguished University
Professor in the Department
of English and Writing Studies there until he
retired in July 2014. He is the author of a new memoir
about spending a life with Joyce's Ulysses, The
Necessary Fiction: Life With James Joyce's
"Ulysses," which was published in Fall 2019
by Edward
Everett Root in the UK. Earlier, he wrote "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) and served as 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). 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; in 2007 he was elected
a Fellow of The
Royal Society of Canada; and in May 2011 he was
awarded the Hellmuth
Prize for Achievement in Research, Western
University's most prestigious award for research. 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; the alphabet-based
short-fiction collection Alphabetique:
26 Characteristic Fictions; and The
Analyst: Poems (W.W.
Norton in the US; Biblioasis in
Canada). R.I.P. Lucy and Emma, their two long-lived
sibling feline companions.