Michael Dorris
Michael Dorris | |
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Born | Michael Anthony Dorris January 30, 1945 Native American Studies |
Notable works |
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Spouse | Louise Erdrich (m. 1981) |
Children | 6 |
Michael Anthony Dorris (January 30, 1945
The Broken Cord, which won the 1989
He was married to author Louise Erdrich, and the two had a family of six children. They collaborated in some of their writing. They separated in 1995. He committed suicide in 1997 while police were investigating allegations that he had abused his daughters.
Biography
Michael Dorris was born in
In an article published in
Dorris received his
In 1971, he became one of the first unmarried men in the United States to adopt a child.
He wrote the text to accompany the photographs of
After returning to the United States in 1981, he married
Dorris and Erdrich contributed to each other's writing[4] and together wrote romance fiction under the pseudonym Milou North to supplement their income. Many of the latter pieces were published in the British magazine Woman.[13]
Erdrich dedicated her novels
While teaching at Dartmouth, Dorris frequently mentored other students. He was part of the successful effort to eliminate the college's Indian mascot.[5] In 1985, after the couple had received major grants, the family moved for a year to Northfield, Minnesota.[5]
Beginning in 1986, Dorris' son Sava was sent to boarding school and military school.[6] Madaline began attending boarding school when she was 12.[5] After the success of The Broken Cord in 1989, and an advance of $1.5 million for the outline of Crown of Columbus, Dorris quit teaching at Dartmouth to become a full-time writer.[5] In 1991, his oldest son Reynold Abel was hit by a car and killed.[17] Dorris, Erdrich, and their three daughters moved to Kalispell, Montana, allegedly because of death threats Sava had made towards them.[5] They later returned to New Hampshire in 1993.[5] They finally moved to the Piper Mansion in Minneapolis.[6]
Sava sent a letter to the couple in 1994 threatening to "destroy their lives" and demanding money. Dorris and Erdrich took Sava to court for attempted felony theft. The first jury deadlocked, and the next year Sava was acquitted of the charges.[5]
The couple separated in 1995. Dorris went for treatment of alcohol abuse at
Madeline[5] and two of Dorris' biological daughters made allegations of abuse against him.[4] In March 1997, Dorris made a suicide attempt.[18] On April 10, 1997, he used a combination of suffocation, drugs, and alcohol to end his life in the Brick Tower Motor Inn in Concord, New Hampshire. In conversations with friends, Dorris maintained his innocence and his lack of faith that the legal system would exonerate him without his "demolishing" his wife and children in a "vicious" court trial.[18] With his death, the criminal investigations into the sexual abuse allegations were closed.[19]
Reception
Dorris was the author, co-author, or editor of a dozen books in the genres of fiction, memoirs and essays, and non-fiction.
His
His memoir The Broken Cord is credited with bringing "international attention to the problem of
When he and Erdrich co-wrote The Crown of Columbus (the only fiction they officially share credit for, although they frequently stated that they collaborated on other works), each individually wrote a preliminary draft of each section.[22] Within the novel, various characters are writing collaborators. The work has been characterized as an autobiographical representation of the creative "pleasure and problems" that Dorris and Erdrich shared.[23]
In Cloud Chamber (1997), Dorris continued the story of the families introduced in Yellow Raft in Blue Water, telling "the hard story of hard people living difficult lives with much courage".[24] It was described as written in "evocative prose".[25][26]
Dorris published three works for young adults during his lifetime; The Window was published posthumously. These novels also explore his themes of identity and sibling rivalry.[18]
Works
- Native Americans Five Hundred Years After (with photographer Joseph Farber, 1975)
- A Guide to Research on North American Indians (with Mary Byler and Arlene Hirschfelder, 1983)
- A Yellow Raft in Blue Water (1987)
- The Broken Cord: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and the Loss of the Future (1989)
- The Crown of Columbus (with Louise Erdrich, 1991)
- Route Two and Back (with Louise Erdrich, 1991)
- Morning Girl (1992)
- Working Men (1993)
- Rooms in the House of Stone (1993)
- Paper Trail (essays, 1994)
- Guests (1995)
- Sees Behind Trees (1996)
- Cloud Chamber (1997)
- The Window (1997)
- The Most Wonderful Books: Writers on Discovering the Pleasures of Reading, edited (1997)
See also
- List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas
- Native American Renaissance
- Native American Studies
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7614-7601-6. Retrieved December 10, 2012.
- ^ "Michael Dorris". Dartmouth.edu. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
- ^ "History". Dartmouth.edu. March 2, 1970. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4129-6846-1. Retrieved December 6, 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l COLIN COVERT (August 3, 1997). "The anguished life of Michael Dorris". StarTribune.com. Archived from the original on March 5, 2015. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i New York Magazine. New York Media, LLC. June 16, 1997. Retrieved December 8, 2012.
- ^ Streitfield 1997
- ^ Salon. Retrieved December 6, 2012.
- ^ a b LA Times Staff and wire reports (April 15, 1997). "Michael Dorris; Chronicler of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 6, 2012.
- ISBN 978-1-4129-6846-1.
- ISBN 978-0-313-33060-5.
- ^ "Search Results 1977". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Archived from the original on August 5, 2012. Retrieved December 8, 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-313-30612-9.
Milou North.
- ISBN 978-3-8258-5598-7. Retrieved December 8, 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-00-654709-9.
- ISBN 978-0-8032-6351-2. Retrieved December 10, 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-8014-8863-4. Retrieved December 6, 2012.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-522202-9. Retrieved December 6, 2012.
- ^ Rawson, Josie (1997). "A Broken Life". Salon.
- ISBN 978-1-61069-146-8. Retrieved December 6, 2012.
- ^ Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth (2001). Anti-Indianism in Modern America: A Voice from Tatekeya's Earth. University of Illinois Press. p. 81.
- ISBN 978-0-252-02547-1. Retrieved December 6, 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-8032-2749-1. Retrieved December 8, 2012.
- ^ LA Times Book Review
- ^ Publishers Weekly
- ISBN 978-0-7864-0742-2. Retrieved December 6, 2012.
- Other sources
- "Michael Dorris." Newsmakers 1997, Issue 4. Gale Research, 1997.
- Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2005.
- Gleick, Elizabeth. "An imperfect union." Time, April 28, 1997, v149 n17 p68(2)
- "Michael Anthony Dorris." Notable Native Americans. Gale Research, 1995.
Further reading
- Vizenor, Gerald Robert. 1999. Manifest Manners: Narratives on Postindian Survivance. University of Nebraska Press.
External links
- Guide to the Papers of Michael Dorris at Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College
- Michael Dorris at Library of Congress, with 17 library catalog records