David W. Shetzline (born 1934,

Yonkers Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as enu ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

), (died 2023, Marcola,

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

) was an American author residing in

Marcola, Oregon Marcola is an unincorporated community in Lane County, Oregon, United States, northeast of Springfield on the Mohawk River. Demographics History The post office at this location was established in 1876 and originally called "Isabel" for early ...

. Shetzline received his bachelor of arts from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

in 1956 and his masters in literature from the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

in 1997. His dissertation was entitled "Quantum Dialogues: The Rhetorics of Religion and the Metaphors of Postmodern Science (English, 2000). He served as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army, in addition to being a ditchdigger and a student at Columbia University. He wrote in "the Cornell school" of writing in the 1960s with

Thomas Pynchon Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, genres and themes, including history, music, scie ...

and

Richard Fariña Richard George Fariña (Spanish IPA: ) (March 8, 1937 – April 30, 1966) was an American folksinger, songwriter, poet and novelist. Early years and education Fariña was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States, the son of an Irish mother, T ...

. This school of writing has been defined as having three preoccupations (1) socio-political paranoia, (2) concern with

environmental degradation Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment (biophysical), environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; an ...

, and (3) awareness of popular culture’s unique impact on the American mind. In addition to Pynchon and Fariña, the Cornell School would also include Mary F. Beal, to whom Shetzline was married. The Cornell School could also be said to include, or be influenced by,

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bo ...

and

Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and ...

. It stands in contrast to Cornell's older literary traditions, such as the literary traditions represented by

E.B. White Elwyn Brooks White (July 11, 1899 – October 1, 1985) was an American writer. He was the author of several highly popular books for children, including ''Stuart Little'' (1945), '' Charlotte's Web'' (1952), and ''The Trumpet of the Swan'' ...

and

Hiram Corson Hiram Corson (November 6, 1828 – June 15, 1911) was an American professor of literature. Life Corson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He held a position in the library of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (1849-1856), was a l ...

. In 1968, Shetzline signed the "

Writers and Editors War Tax Protest Tax resistance, the practice of refusing to pay taxes that are considered unjust, has probably existed ever since rulers began imposing taxes on their subjects. It has been suggested that tax resistance played a significant role in the collapse of ...

" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.

Primary Fiction

His first work, ''DeFord'', was published in 1968. ''DeFord'' is dedicated to the memory of Fariña. Reviewing DeFord, author

wrote, "What makes Shetzline's voice a truly original and important one is the way he uses these interference-patterns to build his novel, combining an amazing talent for seeing and listening with a yarn-spinner's native gift for picking you up, keeping you in the spell of the action, the chase, not letting go of you till you've said, yes, I see; yes, this is how it is." ''DeFord'' was a seminal contra use of geography as a metaphor. ''Heckletooth 3'' followed the next year as ''DeFord'', and was noted as a lead text in the new ecology movement of the 1970s. Of ''Heckletooth 3'', ''The Whole Earth Catalog'' wrote, " ere are some writers and books that I only hear about from others. William Eastlake is one. So is David Shetzline, notably for his forest fire novel Heckletooth 3.

Ken Kesey Ken Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. Kesey was born in ...

went on about it to me years ago. And last week Don Carpenter firmly put the book into my hand. Well they’ve got my agreement. My summer logging the Oregon woods tells me that Shetzline has the work right, the fire and the men right. He especially has the language – Oregon laconic. It’s an introspective action-novel about virtue. I mean, about detail."

Other works

A short story, "A Country of Painted Freaks" appeared in the Paris Review in 1972. Shetzline also conducted the critically acclaimed memoir interviews of

William Appleman Williams William Appleman Williams (June 12, 1921 – March 5, 1990) was one of the 20th century's most prominent revisionist historians of American diplomacy. He achieved the height of his influence while on the faculty of the department of history at t ...

in 1976, entitled ''Typescript: A Boy from Iowa Becomes a Revolutionary.''

Network

Shetzline was friends with both Fariña and Pynchon. As Shetzline noted regarding the relationship between Fariña and Pynchon, "I think Tom recognized that Richard had a magic with language, that he was genuinely gifted, and I think Tom recognized that Richard worked with his gifts, he worked consciously to hone them. Tom always hung back. You didn’t find out much about his writing from him, but he was always complaining that he wasn’t getting enough writing done, and that is the tip-off that somebody is absolutely haunted as a writer. Richard knew Tom was as serious about writing as he was. I think Pynchon was also fascinated with Richard’s effect on women, which was powerful. Pynchon developed a capacity to appeal to women who would then sort of go after him." In the foreword to Greening the Lyre, David Gilcrest described Shetzline as "a true artisan of the pen and fly rod, has earned my respect and thanks as an exemplar in all things philosophical and anadromous."Acknowledgements, David W. Gilcrest, Greening the lyre: environmental poetics and ethics (200). He is currently an organizer of the Wickes Beal Studio, in Oregon.

References

External links

The Writing Life II: Whatever happened to David Shetzline?
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shetzline, David American tax resisters Writers from Oregon 1934 births Cornell University alumni University of Oregon alumni Living people American male writers