Evan S. Connell

Evan S. Connell (1924-2013). Courtesy Boot Hill weblog.

Evan Shelby Connell, Jr. (August 17, 1924 - January 10, 2013) was an American poet, novelist, and short story-writer. His wrote in a variety of genres, although most frequently in fiction.

Life

Connell was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the only son of Ruth (Elton) and Evan S. Connell, Sr. (1890-1974), a physician. He had a sister Barbara (Mrs. Matthew Zimmermann) to whom he dedicated his novel Mrs. Bridge (1959). He graduated from Southwest High School in Kansas City in 1941.

He started undergraduate work at Dartmouth College but joined the Navy in 1943 and became a pilot. After the end of World War II he graduated from the University of Kansas, in 1947, with a B.A. in English. He studied creative writing at Columbia University in New York and Stanford University in California.

He never married, and lived and worked in San Francisco for decades.

Connell was found dead on January 10, 2013 at an assisted-living facility in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Writing

Evan S. Connell

Connell's novels Mrs. Bridge (1959) and Mr. Bridge (1969) are bittersweet, gently satirical portraits of a conventional, unimaginative upper middle-class couple living in Kansas City from the 1920s to the 1940s. The couple tries to live up to societal expectations and to be good parents, but are sadly incapable of bridging the emotional distance between themselves and their children, and between each other.(Citation needed)

The pair of novels was adapted as a 1990 Merchant-Ivory motion picture, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Critics gave the film mixed reviews. Hal Hinson wrote in The Washington Post that "the film comes with a built-in problem. Its subject is emotional repression, and the challenge is to make a film about a soul-deep conservatism that doesn't itself suffer from the excess caution and lack of dynamism that its characters do. However, it's not a challenge that is met."

Connell's 1960 novel, The Patriot, is the story of Melvin Isaacs, aged 17, and his experiences in naval aviation school during the World War II. Melvin faces the terrifying reality of training and the likelihood of his "washing out" (failing). Melvin's attempts to communicate the realities of his experience to his father are rebuffed. The characters of Melvin and his father Jacob are similar in many respects to those of Douglas and Mr. Bridge.(Citation needed)

Dorothy Parker described Connell as "a writer of fine style and amazing variety".[1]

Recognition

Connell's 1984 biography of Custer, Son of the Morning Star, earned critical acclaim, was a bestseller, and was adapted as a television film/miniseries in 1991. The film won 4 Emmy Awards.

In 2009, Connell was nominated for the Man Booker International Prize, for lifetime achievement. On April 23, 2010, he was awarded a Los Angeles Times Book Prize: the Robert Kirsch Award, for "a living author with a substantial connection to the American West, whose contribution to American letters deserves special recognition."

Publications

Poetry

• Notes From A Bottle Found On The Beach At Carmel. New York: Viking Press, 1962.
• Points For A Compass Rose. New York: Knopf, 1973.

Novels

• Mrs. Bridge: A novel. New York: Viking Press, 1959.
• The Patriot. New York: Viking Press, 1960.
• The Diary Of A Rapist. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1966.
• Mr. Bridge. New York: Knopf, 1969.
• The Connoisseur. New York: Knopf, 1974.
• Double Honeymoon. New York: Putname, 1976.

Short fiction

• The Anatomy Lesson, and other stories. New York: Viking Press, 1957; Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1972.
• At The Crossroads: Stories. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1965; London: Heinemann, 1965..
• Saint Augustine's Pigeon: The collected stories of Evan S. Connell (edited by Gus Blaisdell). San Francisco: North Point Press, 1980.
• The Collected Stories of Evan S. Connell. Washington, DC: Counterpoint, 1995.
• Lost in Uttar Pradesh: New and selected stories. Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2008.

Non-fiction

• A Long Desire. (essays). New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1979.
• The White Lantern. (essays). New York : Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1980
  • published in UK as The White Lantern, and other pursuits. London: Pimlico, 2002.
• Son Of The Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn. New York: Promontory Press, 1985.
• The Alchymist's Journal. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1991.
• A Key to the Alchymists's Journal. Berkeley, CA: North Point Press, 1991.
• Deus Io Volt! Chronicle of the Crusades. Washington, DC: Counterpoint, 2000.
• The Aztec Treasure House: Selected essays. Washington, DC: Counterpoint, 2001.
• Francisco Goya: A life. New York: Counterpoint, 2004.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of U.S. poets

External links

Books

• Evan S. Connell at Amazon.com

About

• Evan S. Connell, Jr. at Kansas Literature
• Evan S. Connell obituary at The Guardian
• Evan S. Connell at Boot Hill
• In Memoriam Evan S. Connell at the Halifax Reader.
• In Memoriam Evan S. Connell 1924-2013 at the Paris Review.
• Evan Connell at Salon
• Evan S. Connell: A penetrating voice
• Mark Oppenheimer, "An Era of Awkward Oppression: Evan Connell's Wasps, spent and repressed, offer the truest view of American alienation", Believer, February 2005