Ohle, David

David Ohle, a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, received his B.S. from Louisiana State University in 1965. In 1968 he began working on a master's degree in English at the University of Kansas, which he completed in 1972. David Ohle's first novel, Motorman, written as his master's thesis, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1972, after being excerpted in Esquire Magazine in January of that year. Over the next few years, his short fiction appeared in the Transatlantic Review, Paris Review, Harper's and elsewhere. He also edited the non-fiction oral history, Cows are Freaky when they Look at You: An Oral History of the Kaw Valley Hemp Pickers (Watermark Press, 1991).

Ohle taught at the University of Texas in Austin from 1975 - 1984. He then returned to Lawrence and continued to write and publish. In 2002 he began teaching fiction writing and screenwriting as a part-time lecturer at KU. His novel, Motorman, was re-issued in 2004 by 3rd Bed Press (Providence, R.I.) with an introduction by Ben Marcus. In the same year his novel, The Age of Sinatra, was published by Soft Skull Press (Brooklyn, N.Y.). In 2006 he compiled and edited the memoir, Cursed from Birth: The Short, Unhappy Life of William S. Burroughs, Jr. (Soft Skull Press).

From the guide to the Literary manuscripts by David Ohle, ca. 1970, (University of Kansas Kenneth Spencer Research Library University Archives)