William gaddis biography
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Nobody Grew but the Business: On rendering Life stake Work line of attack William Gaddis. By Carpenter Tabbi. Evanston, IL: Northwesterly University Overcrowding, pages. $
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William Gaddis
American novelist (–)
William Thomas Gaddis Jr. (December 29, &#;– December 16, ) was an American novelist.[1][2] The first and longest of his five novels, The Recognitions, was named one of TIME magazine's best novels from to [3] and two others, J R and A Frolic of His Own, won the annual U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.[4] A collection of his essays was published posthumously as The Rush for Second Place (). The Letters of William Gaddis was published by Dalkey Archive Press in February [5]
A MacArthur Fellow, Gaddis is widely considered one of the first and most important American postmodern writers.[6]
Life and career
[edit]Gaddis was born in New York City to William Thomas Gaddis, who worked "on Wall Street and in politics", and Edith (Charles) Gaddis, who worked her way up from being secretary to the president of the New York Steam Corporation to an executive position as its chief purchasing agent.[7][8] When he was three, his parents separated and Gaddis was subsequently raised by his mother in Massapequa, Long Island. At age 5 he was sent to Merricourt Boarding School in Berlin, Connecticut. He continued in private school until the eighth grade, afte
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Modern Literature Collection Authors
William Thomas Gaddis, Jr. (December 29, – December 16, ) was an American novelist. Born in New York City, Gaddis’ parents separated with he was three and he was subsequently raised in Massapequa (Long Island) by his mother. At age five, Gaddis was sent to Merricourt Boarding School in Berlin, Connecticut. He continued in private school until the eighth grade, after which he returned to Long Island to receive his diploma at Farmingdale High School in He entered Harvard in and famously wrote for the Harvard Lampoon (where he eventually served as President). After leaving Harvard without a degree in , Gaddis worked as a fact checker for The New Yorker, then spent five years traveling in Mexico, Central America, Spain, France, England, and North Africa, returning to the United States in
Gaddis’ first novel, The Recognitions, appeared in A lengthy, complex, and allusive work, it had to wait to find its audience. Newspaper reviewers considered it overly intellectual, overwritten. Gaddis then turned to public relations work and the making of documentary films to support himself and his family. In this role he worked for Pfizer, Eastman Kodak, IBM, and the United States Army, among others. He also rec