Brock Brower (November 27, 1931 – April 16, 2014) was an American novelist, magazine journalist, and TV writer of various magazines, including ''
Esquire'', ''
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...
'', ''
Harper’s Magazine
''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...
'', and ''
The New York Times Magazine
''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...
''.
[
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]
Background
The son of
Charles H. Brower, Brock Hendrickson Brower was born in
Plainfield, New Jersey
Plainfield is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, known by its nickname as "The Queen City." , and raised in
Westfield, New Jersey
Westfield is a town in Union County, New Jersey, United States, located southwest of Manhattan. As of the 2010 United States census, the town's population was 30,316,[Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...]
, where he served as managing editor for ''
The Dartmouth
''The Dartmouth'' is the daily student newspaper at Dartmouth College and America's oldest college newspaper. Originally named the ''Dartmouth Gazette'', the first issue was published on August 27, 1799, under the motto "Here range the world— ...
''. He then attended
Harvard Law School but left to study English literature for his MA as a
Rhodes Scholar at
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...
's
Merton College.
Career
From 1956 to 1958, Brower served two years in the U.S. Army in intelligence at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
In 1959, he joined ''Esquire''], for which he wrote profiles of
Alger Hiss,
Norman Mailer, and
Mary McCarthy.
He also wrote profiles of Vice Presidents
Spiro T. Agnew
Spiro Theodore Agnew (November 9, 1918 – September 17, 1996) was the 39th vice president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1973. He is the second vice president to resign the position, the other being John ...
and
Walter F. Mondale. He profiled presidential candidates including
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...
,
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
,
George W. Romney
George Wilcken Romney (July 8, 1907 – July 26, 1995) was an American businessman and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served as chairman and president of American Motors Corporation from 1954 to 1962, the 43rd gover ...
, and
Eugene McCarthy. He was writing about
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...
just before the Chappaquiddick incident in 1969.
In the late 1970s, he "helped originate" the ABC News program ''
20/20
Visual acuity (VA) commonly refers to the clarity of vision, but technically rates an examinee's ability to recognize small details with precision. Visual acuity is dependent on optical and neural factors, i.e. (1) the sharpness of the retinal ...
'' for
Hugh Downs
Hugh Malcolm Downs (February 14, 1921July 1, 2020) was an American radio and television broadcaster, announcer and programmer; television host; news anchor; TV producer; author; game show host; talk show sidekick; and music composer. A regular t ...
and for ''
3-2-1 Contact'' (a science show produced by the
Children’s Television Workshop
Sesame Workshop (SW), originally known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), is an American nonprofit organization that has been responsible for the production of several educational children's programs—including its first and best-know ...
).
From 1989 to 1991, he was a speechwriter for Attorney General
Richard Thornburgh
Richard Lewis Thornburgh (July 16, 1932 – December 31, 2020) was an American lawyer, author, and Republican politician who served as the 41st governor of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1987, and then as the United States attorney general fro ...
.
From 1996 to 2006, he taught journalism at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and was a writer-in-residence at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
.
Personal life and death
In 1956, he married Ann Montgomery, an American fashion model, in Paris.
Brower died of cancer in
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Co ...
, on April 16, 2014, at age 82.
Survivors include his wife, five children (Monty, Emily, Elizabeth, Margaret, and
Alison), brother Charles, and five grandchildren. He was predeceased by Anne C. Brower, bone radiologist and Episcopal priest.
Awards
Awards made to Brower include:
* 1986 –
O. Henry Prize for short story, "Storm Still"
* 1968 –
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...
Award
* 1973 –
Guggenheim Fellowship
His 1972 comedic novel ''The Late Great Creature'' was nominated for the
National Book Award for Fiction
The National Book Award for Fiction is one of five annual National Book Awards, which recognize outstanding literary work by United States citizens. Since 1987 the awards have been administered and presented by the National Book Foundation, but ...
.
Works
Books:
*''Debris'' (1967)
*''The Inchworm War and the Butterfly Peace'' (1970)
*''The Late Great Creature'' (1972, 2011)
*''Putting America’s House in Order'' (1996) with co-author
David M. Abshire
*''Blue Dog, Green River'' (2005)
Articles for ''Esquire'':
* "The Art of Fiction CXI" (December 1959)
* "A Lament for Old-Time Radio" (April 1960)
* "The Great Bubble Gum War" (September 1960)
* "The Problems of Alger Hiss" (December 1960)
* "Who's in Among the Analysts" (July 1961)
* "Fraternities" (October 1961)
* "The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Revisited" (March 1962)
* "Mary McCarthyism" (July 1962)
* "The Brothers Cassini" (February 1963)
* "The Vulgarization of American Demonology" (June 1964)
* "Rockabye" (April 1968)
* "Dylan’s Boathouse" (January 1971)
* "Play It Again, Sam, Bogie, Harry, Wendell, Claude" (November 1971)
* "The Conscience of Leon Jaworski" (February 1975)
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References
External links
Papers of Brock Brower at Dartmouth College
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brower, Brock
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American novelists
1931 births
2014 deaths
American male novelists
Writers from Plainfield, New Jersey
People from Westfield, New Jersey
Dartmouth College alumni
Harvard Law School alumni
American magazine writers
American television writers
American male television writers
American male screenwriters
American male short story writers
20th-century American short story writers
21st-century American short story writers
Dartmouth College faculty
Princeton University faculty
Deaths from cancer in California
American Rhodes Scholars
21st-century American male writers
Novelists from New Jersey
Screenwriters from New Jersey
Screenwriters from New Hampshire
Alumni of Merton College, Oxford