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Two Professors Play Key Role in Reference
Book on United States Popular Culture

Posted April 18, 2001

HOLLAND -- Two professors at Hope College played a key role in the compilation of a recently released reference book, "The Guide to United States Popular Culture."

Dr. William Reynolds, who is a professor of English and dean for the arts and humanities at Hope, and Dr. Elizabeth Trembley, visiting associate professor of English, served as sub-editors of the book's articles on mystery and detective fiction.

Reynolds and Trembley also contributed a joint article on "Mystery and Detective Fiction," and Trembley contributed an article on author Michael Crichton. They previously co-edited a book, "It's a Print: Detective Fiction from Page to Screen" (1994), on adaptations of detective stories for cinema and television.

"The Guide to United States Popular Culture" contains some 1,600 encyclopedia-type articles surveying the total range of subject matter included in popular culture as an academic field. Ray B. Browne and Pat Browne served as general editors for the volume.

More than 500 persons contributed articles, and 15 specialists in the popular culture field served as sub- editors for various focus areas. Reynolds and Trembley suggested topics to be included, identified experts on those areas, solicited contributions from them and edited the submissions as they came in.

Reynolds has been a member of the Hope faculty since 1971, and has been dean for the arts and humanities since 1994. He has published numerous articles on detective fiction, especially on writers in the "golden age" of detective fiction (1918-39). He holds degrees from Xavier University, Columbia University, and the University of Illinois-Urbana.

Trembley returned to Hope as a visiting instructor this year, after teaching at Hope, Wittenberg College, and Davenport University-Holland. Most recently she was head of academics and faculty development at Davenport. She is author of a book on Michael Crichton (Greenwood Press, 1996) and many articles about detective fiction, especially the well-known stories of Dorothy Sayers. She is a graduate of Hope College and earned her doctorate at the University of Chicago.

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