Edward Dahlberg

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Edward Dahlberg (July 22, 1900 – February 27, 1977) was an American novelist, essayist, and autobiographer.[1]

Background

Edward Dahlberg was born in

Cleveland, Ohio, where he lived until 1917. He eventually attended the University of California, Berkeley (1922–23) and Columbia University (B.S. in philosophy. 1925).[citation needed
]

Career

Dahlberg enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War I, in which he lost the use of an eye after being struck with a rifle butt. In the late 1920s, Dahlberg became part of the expatriate group of American writers living in Paris. His first novel, Bottom Dogs, was based on his childhood experiences at the orphanage and his travels in the American West; it was published in London with an introduction by D. H. Lawrence. With his advance money, Dahlberg returned to New York City and resided in Greenwich Village. In 1933 he visited Germany, where he wrote anti-Nazi articles for The Times and counseled many German intellectuals, Jews, communists and anarchists to flee Germany. In 1934 he published the first American anti-Nazi novel, Those Who Perish. From the 1940s onwards, Dahlberg made his living as an author and also taught at various colleges and universities. From 1944 to 1948 he taught at Boston University. In 1948, he taught briefly at the experimental Black Mountain College. He was replaced on the staff by his friend and fellow author, Charles Olson.[2]

During his years as an expatriate writer in 1920s Paris, he knew

Sir Thomas Browne, Robert Burton, Isaac D'Israeli, and many others resulted in a writing style quite different from the social realism
that characterized his earlier writing.

He moved to the Danish island of Bornholm in 1955 while working on The Flea of Sodom. The Sorrows of Priapus was published in 1957, becoming his most successful book thus far. He later moved to Sóller, on Mallorca, while working on Because I Was Flesh, an autobiography which was published in 1964 and which was nominated for the National Book Award. During the 1960s and 1970s, he became quite prolific and further refined his unique style through the publication of poetry, autobiographical works, fiction and criticism.[3] He also lived in Dublin and Wicklow, London, Madrid, Malaga, Mexico City and the Seychelles.

Personal life

In 1942 he married

National Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1976, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.[4] Dahlberg died in Santa Barbara, California
, on February 27, 1977.

Selected works

Legacy

Dahlberg is the subject of the title essay of Jonathan Lethem's The Disappointment Artist, a 2006 essay collection.[5] In his 2005 memoir Teacher Man, Frank McCourt remembered Dahlberg as an exceptionally belittling personality who enjoyed bullying his party guests. McCourt recounted that on their first meeting, Dahlberg insulted McCourt unprovoked and then threw McCourt out of Dahlberg’s cocktail party.[6]

References

  1. ^ Oxford Companion to American Literature Hart JD and Leininger PW,(Oxford University Press: 1995)
  2. ^ In the 1960s he taught at the University of Missouri and at Columbia University. He also lectured for the BBC. "Edward Dahlberg", Encyclopaedia Judaica
  3. ^ "Biography on Edward Dahlberg", Dictionary of Literary
  4. ^ "Edward Dahlberg. 1976, Fiction", John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
  5. ^ Jonathan Lethem, "The Disappointment Artist," The Disappointment Artist (Doubleday: 2005) pp. 15-32
  6. ISBN 978-0-7432-4377-3
    .

Other sources

External links

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