James D. Houston

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James D. Houston
BornJames Dudley Houston
(1933-11-10)November 10, 1933
San Francisco, California, U.S.
DiedApril 16, 2009(2009-04-16) (aged 75)
Santa Cruz, California, U.S.
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • poet
  • editor
NationalityAmerican
Alma materLowell High School
Stanford University
Notable awardsAmerican Book Award (1983, 1999)
SpouseJeanne Wakatsuki

James Dudley Houston (November 10, 1933 – April 16, 2009) was an American novelist, poet and editor. He wrote nine novels and a number of non-fiction works (some co-authored and/or edited).

Early life

Houston was born in

San José State University and Stanford University. At San José State, Houston met Jeanne Wakatsuki
, his future wife. Her family had immigrated to California from Japan.

Literary career

Houston co-authored his wife's autobiographical memoir,

internment camp
during World War II. The book became a bestseller after it was published in 1973.

Houston was the winner of two

Joseph Henry Jackson Award for Fiction and the Humanitas Prize.[1]

Houston's historical novel Snow Mountain Passage (2001) was inspired by a personal link to the ill-fated Donner Party of early Californian history. A second historical novel, Bird of Another Heaven (2007), explores California's beginnings, based on the history of Nani Keala, daughter of a Native American mother and Native Hawaiian father. She was one of a small group who went up the Sacramento River with John Sutter in 1839 and helped build the eponymous fort.[2]

Works

  • Between Battles (1968)
  • Gig (1969)
  • A Native Son of the Golden West, Ballantine Books (1972)
  • Farewell to Manzanar, with Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston (1972)
  • An Occurrence At Norman's Burger Castle (1972)
  • The adventures of Charlie Bates (1973)
  • Three Songs for My Father (1974)
  • Continental Drift (1978)
  • California Heartland: Writing from the Great Central Valley, with Gerald W. Haslam (1978)
  • West Coast Fiction: Modern Writing from California, Oregon, and Washington, editor (1979)
  • Gasoline: The automotive adventures of Charlie Bates (1980)
  • Californians: Searching for the Golden State (1982)
  • One Can Think About Life After the Fish Is in the Canoe: And Other Coastal Sketches/Beyond Manzanar: Views of Asian-American Womanhood, with Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston (1985)
  • Love Life (1985)
  • The Men in My Life: And Other More or Less True Recollections of Kinship (1987)
  • Surfing : the sport of Hawaiian kings (1996)
  • In the Ring of Fire: A Pacific Basin Journey (1997)
  • Farewell to Manzanar with Connections, with Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston (1998)
  • The Last Paradise (Literature of the American West) (1998)
  • Snow Mountain Passage (2001)
  • The Literature of California, Volume 1: Native American Beginnings to 1945, editor (2001)
  • Hawaiian Son, with Eddie Kamae (2004)
  • Bird of Another Heaven (2007)
  • Where Light takes its Color From the Sea (2008)
  • A Queen's Journey (2011)

Death

Houston died on April 16, 2009, at age 75, of complications of lymphoma, in Santa Cruz, California.

References

  1. ^ Dunn, Geoffrey (2009-04-21). "Elegy for James D. Houston". Santa Cruz Weekly. Archived from the original on 2014-01-07. Retrieved 2014-01-06.
  2. ^ "James D. Houston dies at 75; novelist, essayist whose works explored California", Los Angeles Times, April 17, 2009.

External links

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