Wright Morris
Wright Morris | |
---|---|
Born | Central City, Nebraska, U.S. | January 6, 1910
Died | April 25, 1998 Mill Valley, California, U.S. | (aged 88)
Education | Pacific Union College Pomona College (BA) |
Occupation(s) | Writer, photographer |
Notable work | The Field of Vision Plains Song: For Female Voices |
Spouses | Mary Finfrock
(m. 1934; div. 1959)
|
Awards | American Book Award , 1981 |
Wright Marion Morris (January 6, 1910 – April 25, 1998) was an American novelist, photographer, and essayist. He is known for his portrayals of the people and artifacts of the Great Plains in words and pictures, as well as for experimenting with narrative forms.
Early life
Morris was born in
During that interlude, Morris spent two summers on his uncle's farm near Norfolk, Nebraska.[3] Photographs of the farm, as well as the real-life characters of Uncle Harry and Aunt Clara, appear in Morris's books.
Career
Morris moved to Chicago in 1924.[4] Later that year, he accompanied his father on a road trip to the west coast that formed the basis for his first novel, My Uncle Dudley. He also lived briefly with his uncle in Texas before enrolling in Pacific Union College in California. He graduated from Pomona College in 1933.[5] He married Mary Ellen Finfrock in 1934;[5] the couple divorced in 1959. He later married Josephine Mary Kantor.
Following college, Morris traveled through Europe on a "wanderjahr," which he later fictionalized in Cause for Wonder.[6]
From 1944 to 1954, Morris lived in Philadelphia.
Morris won the
Morris developed close friendships with several other American authors, most notably John O'Hara and Thornton Wilder, and was a pall bearer at O'Hara's funeral in 1970.[7] He also conducted a weekly correspondence with Scottish author Muriel Spark from 1962 until his death.[8]
Morris died of esophageal cancer in Mill Valley, California in 1998. He is buried in the Chapman Cemetery.[9]
Selected works
- My Uncle Dudley (1942)
- The Man Who Was There (1945)
- photo-text) (1946)
- The Home Place (photo-text) (1948)
- The World in the Attic (1949)
- Man and Boy (1951)
- The Works of Love (1952)
- The Deep Sleep (1953)
- The Huge Season (1954) — finalist for the National Book Award[10]
- The Field of Vision (1956) — National Book Award for Fiction[11]
- Love Among the Cannibals (1957) — finalist for the National Book Award[12]
- Ceremony in Lone Tree (1960) — finalist for National Book Award[13]
- Cause for Wonder (1963)
- One Day (1965)
- In Orbit (1967)
- A Bill of Rites, a Bill of Wrongs, a Bill of Goods (essays) (1968)
- God's Country and My People (photo-text) (1968)
- Fire Sermon (1971)
- A Life (1973)
- Real Losses, Imaginary Gains (Short Stories) (1976)
- The Fork River Space Project (1977)
- Plains Song: For Female Voices (1980) — National Book Award for Fiction[14][a]
- Will's Boy (1981)
- "Victrola" (1982) (short story in The New Yorker; O. Henry Award third prize)[15]
- Solo (1983)
- A Cloak of Light (1985)
- "Glimpse Into Another Country" (1985) (short story in The New Yorker; O. Henry Award)[15]
- Time Pieces: Photographs, Writing, and Memory (1989)
Awards and honors
Morris received numerous honors in addition to the National Book Awards for The Field of Vision[11] and Plains Song.[14][a] He was granted
Archives
The full archive of Wright Morris photographs is located at the Center for Creative Photography (CCP) at the University of Arizona in Tucson, which also manages the copyright of these photographs.[22]
The Lincoln City Libraries of Lincoln, NE, houses some Morris correspondence and taped interviews in The Gale E. Christianson Collection of Eiseley Research Materials and The Wright Morris-Victor Musselman Correspondence collection.
The
Historical places in the life of Wright Morris
Wright Morris wrote about the places and lives he knew.[23] Here are a few of the most historic.
Notes
References
- Nebraska State Historical Society. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
- ISBN 9780060148560.
- ^ "Wright Morris Biography". Center for Great Plains Studies. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
- ^ Waterman, Arthur E. "The Novels of Wright Morris: An Escape from Nostalgia." Critique 4. (Winter 1961-62): 24-40.
- ^ a b c Howard, Leon. Wright Morris. Pamphlets on American Writers 69. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1968.
- ^ a b Knoll, Robert E. Conversations with Wright Morris: Critical Views and Responses. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1977.
- ^ a b Crump, G. B. "Wright Morris." In A Literary History of the American West, edited by Thomas J. Lyon. Western Literary Association. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1987.
- ^ Obituary, Omaha World-Herald, 1998
- ^ "Who Is Wright Morris". Lone Tree Literary Society www.wrightmorris.org
- ^ "National Book Awards – 1955". NBF. Retrieved 2012-03-15.
- ^ a b
"National Book Awards - 1957". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-15.
Includes an essay by Harold Augenbraum from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.
- ^ "National Book Awards – 1958". NBF. Retrieved 2012-03-15.
- ^ "National Book Awards – 1961". NBF. Retrieved 2012-03-15.
- ^ a b
"National Book Awards - 1981". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-15.
(With essay by Patricia Smith from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.) - ^ a b "The O. Henry Prize Stories". Random House Publishing. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
- ^ "John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation". Archived from the original on 2007-02-05. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
- ^ "Nebraska Library Association Handbook". Retrieved 2007-03-15.
- ^ "Los Angeles Times Book Prizes". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2002-04-24. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
- ^ "Wright Morris Honored on Service in Literature". NY Times. 1982-10-03. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
- ^ "Whiting Awards". Retrieved 2014-02-12.
- ^ "National Endowment for the Arts". Retrieved 2007-03-15.
- ^ CCP's "Conditions for Publication of Photographs by Wright Morris" (PDF file). Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona Libraries. Archived May 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Historical Buildings in the Life of Wright Morris". Lone Tree Literary Society.
External links
- Official sites
- Western American Literature Journal: Wright Morris
- Guide to the Wright Morris Papers at The Bancroft Library
- Olga Carlisle, Jody Ireland (Fall 1991). "Wright Morris, The Art of Fiction No. 125". The Paris Review. Fall 1991 (120).
- Profile at The Whiting Foundation
- Stuart Wright Collection: Wright Morris Papers, 1950–1985 (#1169-008), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University
Further reading
- Howard, Leon (1968). Wright Morris. University of Minnesota pamphlets on American writers. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. OCLC 170184.
- Kochin, Michael (2023). "'Life as literature': Wright Morris's Love Among the Cannibals". Textual Practice. 37 (3): 357–372. .
- Morris, Wright (1991). "The Art of Fiction No. 125". The Paris Review. 120 (Fall).