Harold Toliver is a retired Professor of English, American, and Comparative Literature at the University of California and author of numerous books in literary history and theory. He has held various positions over the years, from Teaching Assistant to Professor at Johns Hopkins, the University of Washington, Ohio State University, and UCLA. His publications include The Past That Poets Make and Animate Illusions. After retiring, he has turned primarily to interdisciplinary matters that link the humanities to the sciences. That work has concentrated mainly on the extent of the natural continuum and the perspective it gives on various cultural myths and literary traditions.