Barthelme, Donald

The American novelist and short story writer Donald Barthelme was born April 7, 1931 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; he died of cancer on July 23, 1989 in Houston, Texas. Barthelme became interested in writing as a Houston high school student and in his sophomore year of college he edited the University of Houston’s Cougar newspaper. In the early 1950s Barthelme worked as a reporter for the Houston Post . After his military service in Korea and Japan he returned to Houston where he held a variety of positions, including founder and editor of the literary magazine Forum (1956 – 1960) and director of the Contemporary Arts Museum (1961-1962).

The stories that would make up his first book began appearing in literary journals and magazines in 1961 and by 1963 he had settled in New York City, publishing Come Back, Dr. Calgari (1964) and his first novel, Snow White (1967), to critical praise. In 1963 he also published his first story in The New Yorker, to which he became a long time contributor. A children’s book, The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine or the Hithering Thithering Djinn (1971), won a National Book Award. From the 1960s through the early 1980s Barthelme published a steady flow of work and was considered among the most original and significant writers of his generation.

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