John Winslow Irving

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Born John Wallace Blunt Jr. (1942-1952), a US-Canadian novelist and screenwriter, John Winslow Irving (born John Wallace Blunt Jr.; March 2, 1942) is a Canadian novelist and screenwriter. Irving, who gained international recognition for his 1978 debut in The World According to Garp, received critical and acclaim.

Many of Irving's books, including The Cider House Rules (1985), A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989), and A Widow for One Year (1998), have become bestsellers.

In the 72nd Academy Awards (1999) for his screenplay adaptation of The Cider House Rules, five of his books have been turned into films (Garp, Hotel, Meany, Cider, Widow).

Several of Irving's books (Garp, Meany, Widow) and short stories have been set in and around Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, New Hampshire.

Early life

Irving Wood Blunt, Jr., was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, son of Helen Frances (née Winslow) and John Wallace Blunt, Sr., a writer and executive recruiter; but the pair separated during pregnancy. Irving was raised in Exeter with Colin Newell Irving, a Phillips Exeter Academy faculty member, as a stepfather. Hammy Bissell, his uncle, was also a member of the faculty. John Irving was active in the Phillips Exeter wrestling program as both a student athlete and as an assistant coach, and wrestling featured prominently in his books, stories, and lives. Irving was taught by author and Christian theologian Frederick Buechner, whom he quoting in an epigraph in A Prayer for Owen Meany as a student at Exeter. Irving suffers from dyslexia.

Irving's biological father, who never met him, had served in the Army Air Forces and, during World War II, was shot down over Burma in July 1943. But the soldier survived. (The incident was incorporated into his book The Cider House Rules.) Irving didn't find out about his father's heroism until 1981, when he was nearly 40 years old.

Personal life

Irving married Shyla Leary, who had attended Harvard in 1963 while taking a summer course in German, before heading to Vienna with IES Abroad. Colin and Brendan are their two sons. In the early 1980s, the couple divorced. Janet Turnbull, who had been his publisher at Bantam-Seal Books and now one of his literary agents, married him in 1987. Eva Everett, their daughter, was born in 1991. Irving has homes in Vermont, Toronto, and Pointe au Baril. Irving declared himself a Canadian citizen and planned to maintain his US citizenship on December 13, 2019, adding that he reserved the right to be outspoken about the United States and his disapproval of Donald Trump, whom he referred to as vulgar, narcissistic, and xenophobic.

Irving was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2007 and underwent radical prostatectomy.

During a department meeting on February 12, 2010, Irving revealed that he is a second cousin of Amy Bishop, a former assistant professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, who is serving a life term for shooting six colleagues, killing three three others.

Irving was an honorary degree recipient at Williams College in 2018.

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Career

Irving's career began at the age of 26 with the publication of his first book, Setting Free the Bears (1968). The book was well researched but it was unable to attract a large audience. Kurt Vonnegut, a writer who wrote in the late 1960s, worked with Kurt Vonnegut at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. His second and third books, The Water-Method Man (1972) and The 158-Pound Marriage (1974), were both published. Irving accepted a position as assistant professor of English at Mount Holyoke College in 1975.

Irving, frustrated with the lack of exposure his books were getting from his first publisher, Random House, was sold to Dutton, which promised him more commitment to marketing. The book became a worldwide bestseller and cultural phenomenon. In 1979, it was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction (which eventually went to Tim O'Brien for Going After Cacciato) and its first paperback edition won the award the next year. Garp was later made into a film directed by George Roy Hill and starring Robin Williams in the title role and Glenn Close as his mother, receiving many Academy Award nominations, including nominations for Close and John Lithgow. Irving appears in the film for a brief period as the referee in one of Garp's high school wrestling matches.

The World According to Garp was one of three books considered in the Pulitzer Jury Committee's 1979 Award in Fiction, but the Pulitzer Jury Committee recommended it to The Stories of John Cheever (1978).

Garp converted Irving from an obscure academic literary writer to a household name, and his subsequent books were bestsellers. Despite mixed reviews from critics, The Hotel New Hampshire (1981), which was the next generation, also sold well. The novel was quickly turned into a film, this time directed by Tony Richardson and starring Jodie Foster, Rob Lowe, and Beau Bridges, like Garp. "Interior Space," a short story that appeared in Fiction magazine in 1980, later appeared in the 1981 O. Henry Prize Stories collection.

Irving wrote The Cider House Rules in 1985. The novel's central theme is abortion, set in a Maine orphanage. Many compared the novel to Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist (1838). A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989), another New England family epic on faith set in a New England boarding school and in Toronto, Ontario, Irving's next book was A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989), another New England family epic about faith set in a New England family epic about religion set in a New England family epic about faith. The novel was influenced by Günter Grass' The Tin Drum (1959) by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Dickens' The Scarlet Letter (1850) is included in the plot. Irving, Owen Meany, first explored the consequences of the Vietnam War, especially compulsory conscription, which Irving skipped because he was a widower when the draft was written. Owen Meany's first best-selling book since Garp.

Irving is back at Random House for his next book, A Son of the Circus (1995). Arguably his most difficult and difficult book, as well as a departure from many of his earlier books' themes and locations, has been a national bestseller, but it became a national bestseller due to Irving's reputation for fashioning literate and enthralling page-turners. Irving was awarded a New York Times Notable Book in 1998 when he returned in 1998 with A Widow for One Year.

Irving's screenplay for The Cider House Rules was turned into a film directed by Lasse Hallström starring Michael Caine, Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron, and Deroy Lindo in 1999, after almost ten years in production. Irving made a cameo appearance as the disapproving stationmaster. The film was nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and was given the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Irving wrote My Movie Business, a memoir about his role in the production of The Cider House Rules. Irving appeared on the CBC Television program Hot Type to advertise the book after its debut in 1999. Irving joked about best-selling American author Tom Wolfe during an interview, claiming that Wolfe "can't write" and that Wolfe's writing makes Irving gag. Wolfe appeared on Hot Type later this year, naming Irving, Norman Mailer, and John Updike his "three stooges" who were terrified by his newest book, A Man in Full (1998).

The Fourth Hand (2001), Irving's tenth book, became a best-selling book. A Sound Like Someone Trying Not to Make a Sound, a children's picture book that was first published in A Widow for One Year in 2004, Tatjana Hauptmann's illustrations were included. Until I Find You, Irving's 11th book, was published on July 12, 2005.

The New York Times published an article on June 28, 2005, revealing that Until I Find You (2005) contained two key personal characteristics about his life that he never knew about publicly: his sexual abuse at the age of 11 by an older woman, and the recent introduction of his biological father's family.

Irving's central character in his 12th book, Last Night in Twisted River, was a novelist with, according to critic Boyd Tonkin, "a career that teasingly follows Irving's path."

Irving has had four books reach number one on the bestseller list since September 27, 1981, the Hotel New Hampshire (September 27, 1981), which remained number one for seven weeks, and was in the top ten for more than 27 weeks; The Cider House Rules; A Widow for One Year (June 14, 1998) and The Fourth Hand (July 29, 2001).

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