Daniel Curley (October 4, 1918 – December 30, 1988) was an American
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...
and
short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
writer.
Life
He was a native of East Bridgewater,
. He was accepted and matriculated at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
(MIT), but transferred to, and graduated from the
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and la ...
.
He taught at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...
. He lived in
Urbana, Illinois
Urbana ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Champaign County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, Urbana had a population of 38,336. As of the 2010 United States Census, Urbana is the List of municipalities in Illinois, 38th-most pop ...
.
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
was a student, and recalled that Curley "introduced me to many of the cornerstones of my life's reading: '
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", commonly known as "Prufrock", is the first professionally published poem by American-born British poet T. S. Eliot (1888–1965). Eliot began writing "Prufrock" in February 1910, and it was first publishe ...
', ''
Crime and Punishment'', ''
Madame Bovary'', ''
The Ambassadors
''The Ambassadors'' is a 1903 novel by Henry James, originally published as a serial in the ''North American Review'' (NAR). The novel is a dark comedy which follows the trip of protagonist Lewis Lambert Strether to Europe to bring the son o ...
'', ''
Nostromo
''Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard'' is a 1904 novel by Joseph Conrad, set in the fictitious South American republic of "Costaguana". It was originally published serially in monthly instalments of '' T.P.'s Weekly''.
In 1998, the Modern Libra ...
,
The Professor's House
''The Professor's House'' is a novel by American novelist Willa Cather. Published in 1925, the novel was written over the course of several years. Cather first wrote the centerpiece, “Tom Outland's Story,” and then later wrote the two framing ...
'', ''
The Great Gatsby'', ''
The Sound and the Fury
''The Sound and the Fury'' is a novel by the American author William Faulkner. It employs several narrative styles, including stream of consciousness. Published in 1929, ''The Sound and the Fury'' was Faulkner's fourth novel, and was not immedi ...
''. One day he handed out a mimeographed booklet of poems by E. E. Cummings, and told us told us to consider the typography as musical notations for reading the poems aloud. Cummings ever after was clear to me, and I know dozens of his poems by heart. He approached these works with undisguised admiration. We discussed felicities of language, patterns of symbolism, motivation, revelation of character." Ebert writes "I was to take every class Curley offered, including Fiction Writing, where one of the other students was
Larry Woiwode
Larry Alfred Woiwode (October 30, 1941April 28, 2022) was an American writer from North Dakota, where he was the state's Poet Laureate from 1995 until his death. His work appeared in ''The New Yorker'', ''Esquire'', ''The Atlantic Monthly'', '' H ...
, then obviously already the real thing. Curley read our stories aloud anonymously, to encourage open discussion. There was never any doubt who wrote Woiwode's." Woiwode would go on to be the Poet Laureate of
North Dakota
North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...
.
He married and had four daughters, and a stepdaughter.
Awards
* 1985
Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction
The Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction is an annual prize awarded by the University of Georgia Press named in honor of the American short story writer and novelist Flannery O'Connor.
Established in 1983 to encourage young writers by bringi ...
for ''Living With Snakes''
Works
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* ''A Stone Man,'' Michael Joseph, 1964.
* ''How Many Angels,'' Beacon Press, 1958
* ''That Marriage Bed of Procrustes'' Beacon Press, (1957),
Anthologies
*
*
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Curley, Daniel
1918 births
1988 deaths
20th-century American novelists
Novelists from Massachusetts
University of Alabama alumni
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty
American male novelists
American male short story writers
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century American male writers
Novelists from Illinois
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni