Barthelme, Donald

born April 7, 1931, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.

died July 23, 1989, Houston, Texas

U.S. writer.

Barthelme worked as a journalist, journal editor, and museum director before his fiction began to be published. He is known for modernist "collages" marked by technical experimentation and melancholy gaiety. His story collections include Come Back, Dr. Caligari (1964), City Life (1970), Sixty Stories (1981), and Overnight to Many Distant Cities (1983); his novels include Snow White (1967), The Dead Father (1975), Paradise (1986), and The King (1990). His brother Frederick (b. 1943) is also a novelist (Second Marriage, 1984) and short-story writer (Moon Deluxe, 1983).

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▪ American writer

born April 7, 1931, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.

died July 23, 1989, Houston, Texas

      American short-story writer known for his modernist “collages,” which were marked by technical experimentation and a kind of melancholy gaiety.

      A one-time journalist, Barthelme was managing editor of Location, an art and literature review, and director (1961–62) of the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston. In 1964 he published his first collection of short stories, Come Back, Dr. Caligari. His first novel, Snow White (1967), initially was published in The New Yorker, a magazine to which he was a regular contributor. Other collections of stories include City Life (1970), Sadness (1972), Sixty Stories (1981), and Overnight to Many Distant Cities (1983). He wrote three additional novels: The Dead Father (1975), Paradise (1986), and The King (1990). His children's book, The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine or the Hithering Thithering Djinn (1971), won the National Book Award in 1972. He was distinguished visiting professor of English (1974–75) at the City College of the City University of New York. Flying to America: 45 More Stories, a posthumous collection of previously unpublished or uncollected stories, was published in 2007.

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