Tom Robbins

At 91 years old, Tom Robbins physical status not available right now. We will update Tom Robbins's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Thomas Eugene Robbins (born July 22, 1932) is an American novelist.

His best-selling books are "seriocomedies" (also known as "comedy-drama).

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues was turned into a film in 1993 by Gus Van Sant, whose film Also Cowgirls Get the Blues was made into a film starring Uma Thurman, Lorraine Bracco, and Keanu Reeves.

Early life

Robbins was born in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, on July 22, 1932, to George Thomas Robbins and Katherine Belle Robinson. Both of his grandfathers were Baptist preachers. The Robbins family lived in Blowing Rock before heading to Warsaw, Virginia, when the author was still a young boy. Robbins has referred to his youthful self as a "hillbilly" in adulthood.

Robbins attended Warsaw High School (class of 1949) and Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Virginia, where he received the Senior Essay Award. He enrolled at Washington and Lee University in the following year, graduating at the end of his sophomore year after being disciplined by his fraternity for bad behavior and struggling to receive a letter in basketball.

After receiving his draft notice, he joined the Air Force in 1953, spending a year as a meteorologist in Korea and two years in the Strategic Air Command's Special Weather Intelligence unit in Nebraska. In 1957, he was disbanded and returned to Richmond, Virginia, where his poetry readings at the Rhinoceros Coffee House earned him a reputation in the local bohemian scene.

Early media work

Robbins attended Richmond Professional Institute (RPI), a school of art, drama, and music, which later became Virginia Commonwealth University in late 1957. From 1958 to 1959, he served as an editor and columnist for the college newspaper Proscript. He also served on the sports desk of the daily Richmond Times-Dispatch. Robbins joined the Times-Dispatch staff as a copy editor after graduating with honors from RPI in 1959 and indulging in some hitchhiking.

Robbins obtained an M.A. in 1962 while living in Seattle. The University of Washington's Far East Institute is a research center. He spent five years in Seattle (minus one year spent in New York city researching a book on Jackson Pollock) as an art critic. In 1965, he wrote a column on the arts for Seattle Magazine, as well as occasionally for Art in America and Artforum. Notes From the Underground, a non-commercial KRAB-FM, Seattle, hosted Notes From the Underground, a weekly alternative radio show during this period. Robbins claims he discovered his literary voice in 1967 while writing a critique of the rock band The Doors. Robbins served at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's weekend copy desk while writing his first book. Robbins will stay in Seattle for the next forty years, on and off.

Personal life

Robbins was a friend of Terence McKenna, whose fame seems to have heightened in a few of his books. In Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, a main character (Larry Diamond) advocates for a theory based on McKenna's, emphasizing the origins and cultural influences of psychedelic plants. Robbins spent time with Timothy Leary, author Leary, who has said that one of Leary's characters, Jitterbug Perfume (Wiggs Dannyboy) had certain characteristics; Robbins has admitted to using LSD with Leary; Leary has confirmed that he used LSD with Leary.

He is friends with Gus Van Sant and performed the voice-over narration in Van Sant's film version of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. He has worked with writers Robert Altman and Alan Rudolph, as well as other small theater performances in five feature films.

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Writing career

In 1966, Robbins was contacted and then met with Doubleday's West Coast Editor, Luthor Nichols, who asked Robbins about writing a book on Northwest art. Instead Robbins told Nichols he wanted to write a novel and pitched the idea of what was to become Another Roadside Attraction.

In 1967, Robbins moved to South Bend, Washington, where he wrote his first novel. In 1970, Robbins moved to La Conner, Washington, and it was at his home on Second Street that he subsequently authored nine books (although, in the late 1990s, he spent two years living on the Swinomish Indian reservation).

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Robbins regularly published articles and essays in Esquire magazine, and also contributed to Playboy, The New York Times, and GQ.

When Robbins began writing Jitterbug Perfume in 1982, Robbins made a contract with editor Alan Rinzler. As he had a large following, he had the leverage to stipulate a contract with Rinzler where they would accompany Tom on three holiday trips to resorts Tom would choose where he could discuss the work-in-progress novel, which Rinzler later discovered was Jitterbug Perfume. Alan Rinzler later wrote this on the topic of editing for Robbins:

Michael Dare described Robbins' writing style in the following manner: "When he starts a novel, it works like this. First he writes a sentence. Then he rewrites it again and again, examining each word, making sure of its perfection, finely honing each phrase until it reverberates with the subtle texture of the infinite. Sometimes it takes hours. Sometimes an entire day is devoted to one sentence, which gets marked on and expanded upon in every possible direction until he is satisfied. Then, and only then, does he add a period". When Robbins was asked to explain his "gift" for storytelling in 2002, he replied:

Over the course of his writing career, Robbins has given readings on four continents, in addition to the performances that he has delivered at festivals from Seattle to San Miguel de Allende. Robbins also read at Bumbershoot in 2014.

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