Biography
George J. Leonard
Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities (tenured)
Education
BA Columbia 1967 MA Columbia 1968 Ph.D. with Distinction Columbia 1972.
Languages learned
Mandarin Chinese, Greek, Russian, Latin, French, Italian, Spanish
Main critical resources about Leonard's work
Philip W. Jackson in John Dewey and the Lessons of Art, (Yale University Press: 1998) spends fifteen pages on "George Leonard's Argument" using Leonard's theories as exemplars of "spiritual" explanations of Art. (See, "Spirituality of Art-Centered Experiences" 69-78, 86-89, 102) To be posted here in the future.
Art critic David Carrier's interview originally done for Bomb magazine, is posted on this site. Carrier's 2003 revision of his popular textbook, Writing About Visual Art, has two evaluations of Leonard's work. In his 2003 book, Emerson, the Chair of Harvard English, Lawrence Buell, based his concept of American Zen's debt to Emerson on Leonard's work, and Leonard is cited.
Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World. Various editions.
Service as a Professor
For the College of Humanities:
Currently: Editor in Chief, The San Francisco Humanities Press and Editor in chief, The San Francisco Humanities Review
Editor, MAGAZINE, the faculty literary magazine of the College of Humanities, 1986-93.
Editor in Chief, MAGAZINE, 1994 to 2001 (selecting own editorial board for 2 year terms until 1998, then sole editor afterward) Two issues per year, 225 pages each.
Chair, College of Humanities Leave with Pay Committee, three times. Chair, College of Humanities Merit Pay, twice.
For the Department of Interdisciplinary Humanities:
Chair, Hiring, Retention, Tenure, Promotion Committee 1990-91, 1998-99, 2000-2001.
Chair, Leave With Pay Committee, three times.
Excerpted from Who's Who in the World, 1995
Leonard, George Jay, author, born Brooklyn,1946; married to Simei Du, 1987; One child, Andrew Charles. Consultant Keats -Shelley Memorial House, Rome, 1977-82; Participant, panelist Institute of American Studies, Beijing, People's Republic of China, 1988; appeared on various radio and television programs, 1976-present Books include: From the Island (Mc Graw Hill First Novel Series Award), 1967 Beyond Control, 1975, The Ice Cathedral, 1984, Into the Light of Things: The Art of the Commonplace from Wordsworth to John Cage, 1994; conception and choreography Sha Na Na rock and roll act, 1969; appeared in film Woodstock, 1969 memorial; National Book Critic's Circle, 1991-; contributor book reviews and articles to LA Times Sunday Book Review, 1982-. Activist for bioethics 1971- 82, activist for ethnic brotherhood, 1983-; Member Advisory Board United States Pacific council, Bel Air California, 1983-89; Humanities Consultant to David Hyun, Korean American Coalition and Japanese Village Plaza, Los Angeles 1984-85. Fellow Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1974-75. Memberships include MLA, American Society for the Advancement of Aesthetics, Wordsworth Circle, National Association Asian American Studies, Population Institute, Common Cause.
(for subsequent activity see below)
1972-73 Assistant Professor of English, Yale.
1973-74 Visiting Assistant Professor of English, U.C. Irvine.
1975-76 Fellow in Residence, Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
1977-80 The Writer-in-Residence, Scripps College, Claremont Colleges.
1986-present, Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities, San Francisco State University.
Selected Books, Screenplays, Essays and Entertainment
Screenplay: EXTINCTION, purchased by Ken Schur, producer who developed Leonard's The Ice Cathedral for Ron Howard of Imagine Entertainment and Universal Pictures, Hollywood. Writing began at the Essex House on Central Park South in January 2005.
Editor in Chief, The San Francisco State Humanities Press
Editor in Chief, the San Francisco Humanities Review
Member, Council of Editors of Learned Journals (national organization).
Cited, Lawrence Buell's book on Emerson (see above).
Leonard's philosophy evaluated in David Carrier's book, Writing About Visual Art (see above.)
Won SFSU competition for sabbatical leave to finish new book, 2004.
September, at work on new manuscript, Extinction (see 2004-2005 for the sale).
Discovered that Philip W. Jackson in John Dewey and the Lessons of Art, (Yale University Press: 1998) uses "George Leonard's Argument" as exemplar of "Spirituality of Art-Centered Experiences" (69-78, 86-89, 102) Book appeared in 1998 but was just brought to my attention. I'll post selections on this website soon.
Thanked in the Acknowledgement by Jay Martin, Journey to Heavenly Mountain, 2002.
Thanked in the Acknowledgement by Jack Miles, Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God, New York: Knopf, 2002. (In October, Miles, already a Pulitzer Prize winner, won the MacArthur "Genius" Award, a half million dollar grant of seed money to free him for his next project.)
Sole Anonymous Referee, U. of Chicago Press on a work of Chinese aesthetics written in French.
The National Geographic Magazine, for its article on Silicon Valley, visited the teahouse behind Dr. Leonard's home for a tea ceremony and a discussion of Confucian values. December issue.
$50,000 NEH "seed grant" to team including Leonard to develop the federally funded California On-Line Encyclopedia.
Article, "David Antin, Improvisation, Asia" appeared in David Antin from Contemporary Fiction Studies.
The San Francisco Art Institute made Leonard's speech, "Cage, Suzuki and the making of American Zen," its first live webcast.
The American Library Association selected The Asian Pacific American Heritage: A Companion to Literature and Arts as "One of the Outstanding Academic Books of the Year." (See below.)
Director Ron Howard exercised his option to complete the purchase of The Ice Cathedral for Imagine Entertainment in conjunction with Universal Pictures, Hollywood.
Editor in Chief, and main contributor, The Asian Pacific American Heritage: A Companion to Literature and Arts (NY: Routledge, 1999) 694 page encyclopedia, author of over half the pages, 15 essays under own name, 8 "as told to."
Editor in Chief, and contributor, The Italian American Heritage: a Companion to Literature and Arts, (NY: Routledge, 1999), 800 page encyclopedia.
Screenplay: The Ice Cathedral, purchased by director Ron Howard, Imagine Entertainment in conjunction with Universal Pictures, Hollywood.
Screenplay: Beyond Control, purchased by Ken Schur, Schur Productions, New York and Greenwich, Connecticut.
Into the Light of Things (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), interdisciplinary aesthetic theory. Hardcover and paperback, simultaneous editions in England and Australia.
Selected by American Library Association as "One of the Outstanding Academic Books of the Year"
"John le Carre" in British Writers, Supplement II (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons) Fifteen thousand word book article. Written with le Carre's help and letters.
"The Man Without a World," feature film, director, Eleanor Antin. Played feature role.
"Claude Simon" in European Writers: the Twentieth Century (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons) Eighteen thousand word book article, original translations of Simon from the French.
"Bamboo and Oak" performance piece with John Cage.
Visiting Professor, Beijing Advanced Teacher's College. In 8 stays between 1988 and 2001 Leonard logged over a year in Beijing.
The Ice Cathedral (New York: Simon and Schuster) Novel.
Paperback rights sold to Pinnacle.
Dual Main selection, Preferred Choice Book Club.
Chinese translation ("Bing Lengde Jiao Tang") Jilin Press, China,1989.
Beyond Control (New York: Macmillan) Novel. Paperback by Pocket Books.
Spanish translation ("Mas Alla de Todo Control") Mexico City: Logos Consorcio, 1978.
The Evil Weed (35mm feature film) Wrote and directed. 35mm distribution: Altura Films, Intl. New York. 16mm distribution: Crowell Collier Macmillan, New York.
Sha Na Na (conception and choreography).
Appeared at Woodstock Festival, Fillmores East and West, Warner Bros. film Woodstock. (Oscar, Best Documentary)
From the Island (McGraw-Hill First Novel Award.) Chosen by William Goyen.
George Leonard -- Finding his balance in life (excerpted from a San Francisco State University Office of Public Affairs publication, 2002).