William McKeen

For the railroad icon, see William R. McKeen, Jr.

William McKeen is professor and chair of the Department of Journalism in the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications.

McKeen has written and/or edited a dozen books and is a leading pop-culture authority. His latest book, Outlaw Journalist, is a biography of writer Hunter S. Thompson. It willl be published by W.W. Norton on July 18, 2008, Thompson's 71st birthday. He teaches courses on journalism history, literary journalism and rock n' roll and American culture.

His books include Highway 61 (W.W. Norton, 2003), Rock and Roll is Here to Stay (W.W. Norton, 2000), Literary Journalism (Wadsworth, 2000), Tom Wolfe (Simon and Schuster, 1995) and several earlier books on popular culture. His writing has appeared in Maxim, American History, Holiday, The Saturday Evening Post and many other newspapers and magazines. Before beginning his academic career, he was a newspaper reporter and copy editor in Indiana, Florida and Oklahoma. He was associate editor of The American Spectator and The Saturday Evening Post, where he helped compile The American Story (Curtis, 1975).

He earned his bachelor's degree in history and his master's in journalism, both from Indiana University. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. He taught at Western Kentucky University and the University of Oklahoma before joining the University of Florida faculty in 1986. He has frequently been honored for his teaching and writing and became a fellow of the World Technology Network in 2006. He was also named to Hunter S. Thompson's Honor Roll in 2003 and cited as one of America's Eight Most-Fun Professors by Playboy magazine in 1993.

Born Sept. 16, 1954, McKeen grew up in England, Germany, Nebraska, Florida, Texas and Indiana. He is the father of seven children (Sarah, Graham, Mary, Savannah, Jack, Travis and Charley). He and his wife, Nicole, live on a small farm near Wacahoota, Fla.