Carpenter, Don

Biography

Donald Richard Carpenter was born March 16, 1931 in Berkeley, California, the son of Eugene P. and Genevieve (Cody) Carpenter. He graduated from Portland State University in 1959 and received an M.A. from San Francisco State University in 1960.

He had a career as a novelist and was the author of Hard rain falling (1965), Blade of light (1966), Getting off (1971), The class of '49 (1985) and From a distant past (1988), among other works.

Carpenter passed away on July 27, 1995 in Mill Valley, California.

Source:

"Don Carpenter," in Contemporary Authors Online, Thomson Gale, University of California, Davis Library. Accessed September 19, 2008.

From the guide to the Don Carpenter Correspondence, 1963-1973, (University of California, Davis. General Library. Department of Special Collections.)

Biographical Information

Don Carpenter was born in Berkeley, California on March 16, 1931 and died in Mill Valley, California on July 28, 1995. Carpenter grew up in northern California with his family, and completed high school in Portland, Oregon before serving in the military during the Korean War. After the war, Carpenter returned to Portland, Oregon where he completed his B.S. at Portland State College. In 1956, Carpenter married Martha Ryherd and had two daughters, Bonnie and Leha. Carpenter eventually received his M.A. from San Francisco State College. While in northern California, Carpenter taught English but eventually discontinued teaching and spent most of his life writing fiction, which included short stories, novels, and screenplays. He also wrote for different publications and magazines, writing short book and novel reviews and also publishing his own short fiction. Carpenter is known for his first novel, Hard Rain Falling, which lead him to write more novels such as A Couple of Comedians . Though he was known greatly for his novels, Carpenter also wrote many short stories and several novels that remained unpublished, such as his novel Friday's At Enrico's . Carpenter's novel, Payday, was made into a movie in 1973.

From the guide to the Don Carpenter papers, 1950-1993, (The Bancroft Library)