Prof Christopher Bigsby
| Job Title | Contact | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Director of the Arthur Miller Centre | C dot Bigsby at uea dot ac dot uk |
Biography
Christopher Bigsby, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Arts, is an award winning academic, novelist and biographer. His first novel (of five), Hester, won the McKitterick Prize. Beautiful Dreamer (2002) was an American Library Association Notable Book. With Don Wilmeth, he won the Bernard Hewitt Award for Outstanding Research in Theatre History and the George Freedley Jury Award for The Cambridge History of the American Theatre. His biography of Arthur Miller was shortlisted for the James Taite Black Memorial Prize, the Sheridan Morley Prize and the George Freedley Memorial Award. It was a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title for 2009 and was joint winner of the American Studies network Award. His is also winner of the Betty Jean Jones Award for Outstanding Teacher of American Theatre and Drama.
As a broadcaster, he presented Radio 4’s Kaleidoscope for over eight years, as well as Radio 3’s Third Ear and Radio 4’s Off the Page. He was also presenter of Radio 3’s First Night and Radio 4’s Present Voices, Past Words and The Index as well as presenting editions of The Archive Hour and Centurions. He has made television programmes on John Steinbeck, Mark Twain, and Edith Wharton. He has reviewed for a number of national newspapers (including The Guardian, The Independent and The Daily Telegraph) and his programme notes have appeared in theatres throughout the UK, in Australia, Canada and the United States. For 18 years he was Director of the British Council’s flagship Cambridge Seminar and has travelled widely on its behalf
He has published some forty books, the latest (February 2011) being the second volume of his biography of Arthur Miller. He is also the founder director of the Arthur Miller Centre for American Studies and has presented its International Literary Festival for twenty years. In 2011 he will be appearing at the National Theatre, the Jewish Book Week, the Oxford Literary Festival and the Edinburgh Literary Festival. His work has been translated into Chinese, Greek, Japanese, Korean, and Russian.
Click here for reviews for Arthur Miller 1915-1962 and Arthur Miller 1962-2005
Key Research Interests
Past Research Projects and Grants
| Project Title | Start Date | End Date | Funding Body |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Studies Network Seminar on 1968 | 14/9/2007 | 16/9/2007 | Embassy of the United States of America |
| Arthur Miller Methuen Scholarships | 1/3/2005 | 29/2/2008 | Methuen Publishers Ltd |
| Screen East Fellow | 13/1/2003 | 13/6/2003 | Screen East |
| To edit and publish the Arthur Miller notebooks | 1/2/2002 | 31/7/2003 | Arts and Humanities Research Council |
| A biographical and critical study of Arthur Miller | 21/9/2001 | 21/1/2002 | Arts and Humanities Research Council |
Article
Bigsby, Chris (2010) Arthur Miller: Realism, Language, Poetry. Proceedings of the British Academy , 167. pp. 1-15. ISSN 9780197264775
Book Section
Bigsby, Chris (2010) Are We All Cain? Arthur Miller and the Holocaust. In: The Holocaust, Art, and Taboo: Transatlantic Exchanges on the Ethics and Aesthetics of Representation. Heidelberg , pp. 95-108. ISBN 9783825357344
Bigsby, Chris (2009) David Mamet: Welcome to the Family. In: David Mamet's Work in Different Genres and Media. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 33-49. ISBN 9781443813556
Book
Bigsby, Chris (2011) Arthur Miller: 1962-2005. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 9780297863151
Bigsby, Christopher (2011) Writers in Conversation Vol.4. Unthank. ISBN 978-0-9564223-5-4
Bigsby, Christopher (2011) Writers in Conversation Vol.3. Unthank. ISBN 978-0-9564223-4-7
Bigsby, Chris (2008) Arthur Miller 1915-1962. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, p. 776. ISBN 9780674035058
Bigsby, Chris (2008) One Hundred Days: One Hundred Nights. Metheun, p. 240. ISBN 9780413776563
Bigsby, Christopher, ed. (2007) Cambridge Companion to August Wilson. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 978-0-521-86606-4 (hardback) 978-0-521-68506-1 (paperback)
Bigsby, Chris (2007) Neil LaBute: Stage and Cinema. Cambridge University Press, p. 288. ISBN 9780521882545
Bigsby, Chris (2006) Remembering and Imagining the Holocaust: The Chain of Memory (Cambridge Studies in Modern Theatre). Cambridge University Press, p. 407. ISBN 052186934X
Bigsby, Chris (2006) The Cambridge Companion to Modern American Culture. Cambridge University Press, p. 468. ISBN 0521601096
Bigsby, Chris (2006) Beautiful Dreamer. Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press, New York, p. 184. ISBN 0312355831
Bigsby, Chris (2005) Arthur Miller: A Critical Study. Cambridge University Press, p. 514. ISBN 0521844169
Bigsby, Chris (2005) Remembering Arthur Miller. Meuthen, p. 496. ISBN 0413775526
Bigsby, Chris and Howard Temperley, (2005) A New Introduction to American Studies. Longman, p. 432. ISBN 0582894379
Bigsby, Chris (2004) The Cambridge Companion to David Mamet. Cambridge University Press, p. 242. ISBN 0521894689
Bigsby, Chris (2001) Writers in Conversation Vol. 2. Pen and Ink Press, p. 500. ISBN 1902913094
Bigsby, Christopher (2000) Writers in Conversation Vol.1. Pen and Ink Press. ISBN 1-902913-07-8
External Activities and Indicators of Esteem
- Arthur Miller Biography - listed for The Sheridan Morley Prize, The James Tate Memorial Prize, and The George Freedley Memorial Award; winner of the American Studies Network Prize
Professional Activities
- The Barnard Hewitt Award for outstanding research in theatre history awarded by the American Society for Theatre Research
- The Special Jury Prize for Distinguished Achievement awarded by the Theatre Library Association [awarded jointly with Professor Don Wilmeth]
- The Betty Jean Jones Award for Outstanding Teacher of American Theatre and Drama, an award of the American Theatre and Drama Society
- Janet Grayson Lecture, Keene State College, 2008
- Harmsworth Lecture, Oxford University
- Sarah Tryphena Phillips Lecture, British Academy
