Frederick Earl "Fred" Exley (March 28, 1929 – June 17, 1992)
[Bruce Lambert]
''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', June 18, 1992. was an American writer. His fictional memoir ''
A Fan's Notes'' received critical acclaim and awards. He followed it up with two more fictional memoirs.
Early life and education
Exley was born (Frederic) March 28, 1929, in
Watertown, New York
Watertown is a city in, and the county seat of, Jefferson County, New York, United States. It is approximately south of the Thousand Islands, along the Black River about east of where it flows into Lake Ontario. The city is bordered by th ...
.
[David L. Ulin]
"The Exley Files: The Sad, Ironic Life Of An Unlikely Literary Hero,"
''Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
'', October 19, 1997. He was the third of four children, including a twin sister, Frances, born to Earl and Charlotte. His father, who died in 1945 when Exley was 16, was a celebrated former athlete and local basketball coach whose legacy would be a dominating influence on Exley's early life. A car accident the following year injured Exley and prevented him from graduating high school on schedule. Exley had a brief stint at
Katonah High School in
Katonah, New York
Katonah is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) within the town of Bedford, Westchester County, in the U.S. state of New York. The Katonah CDP had a population of 1,679 at the 2010 census.
History
Katonah is named for Chief Katonah, an ...
, where he was named to the conference all-star basketball team.
Exley entered
Hobart College in the pre-dental program in 1949.
[William M. Gargan]
"Exley, Frederick Earl,"
''The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives,'' 2001. The next year he transferred to the
University of Southern California
, mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it"
, religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist
, established =
, accreditation = WSCUC
, type = Private research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $8.1 ...
, where he began to follow the career of fellow student and future
football legend
Frank Gifford
Francis Newton Gifford (August 16, 1930 – August 9, 2015) was an American football player, actor, and television sports commentator. After a 12-year playing career as a halfback and flanker for the New York Giants of the National Foo ...
.
Exley avoided being drafted in 1951 when he failed his
Selective Service
The Selective Service System (SSS) is an independent agency of the United States government that maintains information on U.S. citizens and other U.S. residents potentially subject to military conscription (i.e., the draft) and carries out contin ...
examination on account of injuries sustained in the car accident.
In 1952, Exley dropped out of
USC and moved to New York City to find employment, only to return a year later to complete a BA in English.
["Ask the Globe,"](_blank)
''Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'', November 19, 1999.
Early career
He returned to New York to work in public relations for
New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...
. After a year there he relocated to their Chicago office, then began working for
Rock Island Railroad
The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P RW, sometimes called ''Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway'') was an American Class I railroad. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock.
At the end ...
in the same capacity.
Exley soon took over as managing editor of the railroad's employee magazine, ''The Rocket'', where his first published writing appeared.
Itinerant life and instability
Exley was institutionalized three times in the 1950s after entering an itinerant period marked by acute alcoholism, obsession with New York Giants football, mental instability and
schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social wit ...
that was to provide much of the autobiographical material for his first book, ''
A Fan's Notes''.
In 1958, Exley was admitted briefly to Stony Lodge, a private
mental institution
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...
in
Westchester County, New York
Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population ...
, where he met
Francena Fritz, whom he began courting. Soon after, he was admitted to
Harlem Valley State Hospital, the model for the Avalon Valley facility mentioned in ''A Fan's Notes''. It was there that Exley began writing in earnest. In 1959, he was released from Harlem Valley and married Fritz on October 31. They moved to
Greenwich, Connecticut
Greenwich (, ) is a town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast, Greenwich is home to many hedge funds and other ...
and Exley was offered a teaching position at a school in
Port Chester, New York
Port Chester is a village in the U.S. state of New York and the largest part of the town of Rye in Westchester County by population. At the 2010 U.S. census, the village of Port Chester had a population of 28,967 and was the fifth-most popu ...
. In 1960 his first daughter,
Pamela Exley, was born.
In 1961 Exley received a provisional appointment as clerk and crier of the courts in
Jefferson County, New York
Jefferson County is a county on the northern border of the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 116,721. Its county seat is Watertown. The county is named after Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United St ...
, where a lawyer friend, Gordon Phillips (the model for "the Counselor" in ''A Fan's Notes''), asked Exley to forge a signature on a check for one of his clients, an action that led to Phillips' disbarment.
Divorce and ''A Fan's Notes''
In 1962, Fritz obtained a divorce from Exley at her father's request.
Several years of intermittent teaching jobs in
Clayton,
Gouverneur, and Indian River, New York followed. His alcoholism growing worse, Exley began a decade of briefly-held jobs and institutionalization, and spent time vacationing on
Singer Island
Singer Island is a peninsula on the Atlantic coast of Palm Beach County, Florida, in the South Florida metropolitan area. Most of it is in the city of Riviera Beach, but the town of Palm Beach Shores occupies its southern tip. Its latitude of ...
in
Riviera Beach, Florida
Riviera Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States, which was incorporated September 29, 1922. Due to the location of its eastern boundary, it is also the easternmost municipality in the Miami metropolitan area, which was home ...
, while continuing to work on ''
A Fan's Notes''. In 1964, Exley sent the completed manuscript for ''A Fan's Notes'' to
Houghton Mifflin
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...
who rejected it, and to
Joe Fox at
Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
, who suggested an agent,
Lynn Nesbit. Nesbit shopped the manuscript around and, after it was rejected by at least a dozen publishers, she finally sold it to
David Segal at
Harper & Row
Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City.
History
J. & J. Harper (1817–1833)
James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...
.
In 1965, Exley, then 36, met the 20-year-old
Nancy Glenn while on vacation in
Palm Beach Shores, Florida
Palm Beach Shores is a town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population was 1,142 at the 2010 census. As of 2018, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 1,264.
Geography
The town occupies the southern tip of Sing ...
. She was working as a bookkeeper for The Buccaneer, her husband's resort. The following year, Glenn separated from her husband and moved in with Exley, beginning a long relationship that saw many temporary separations and reconciliations. She became pregnant while Exley was employed at ''
The Palm Beach Post
''The Palm Beach Post'' is an American daily newspaper serving Palm Beach County in South Florida, and parts of the Treasure Coast. On March 18, 2018, in a deal worth US$42.35 million, ''The Palm Beach Post'' and ''The Palm Beach Daily News'' ...
''s copy desk; they married on September 13, 1967, and Glenn gave birth to Exley's second daughter,
Alexandra Exley, on January 12, 1968. Exley and Glenn divorced on January 8, 1971.
''A Fan's Notes'' was published in September 1968, and although early sales were not good, its release prompted widespread critical acclaim. The novel, about a longtime failure who makes good by finally writing a memoir about his pained life, was a finalist for the
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors.
The Nat ...
,
and received the
William Faulkner Award for best first novel,
and the
National Institute of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Award.
''Pages From a Cold Island''
In 1969, Exley moved into an apartment on 19th Street in Manhattan, spending much of his time at the Lion's Head bar at 59 Christopher Street. In 1970, Exley's mother purchased a small house in
Alexandria Bay, New York
Alexandria Bay is a village in Jefferson County, New York, United States, within the town of Alexandria. It is located in the Thousand Islands region of northern New York. The population of the village was 1,078 at the 2010 United States Census. I ...
and he temporarily moved in, though he still spent time in Florida working on ''Pages From a Cold Island''. Charlotte's home was to become Exley's home base for the next 20 years. In the fall of that year he interviewed
Gloria Steinem
Gloria Marie Steinem (; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Steinem was a c ...
in
Key Biscayne
Key Biscayne ( es, Cayo Vizcaíno, link=no) is an island located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, located between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay. It is the southernmost of the barrier islands along the Atlantic coast of Florida, and lies sou ...
Florida. The resulting essay, entitled "Saint Gloria & the Troll", was published in ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...
'' in July 1974. It earned Exley an Editorial Award for the year's best nonfiction piece.
His second novel, ''Pages From a Cold Island'', was published by Random House in 1975, to considerably less acclaim than his debut. The book primarily concerns Exley's life in Florida; an afternoon with Steinem; a semester spent teaching at the
Iowa Writer's Workshop
The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative Wri ...
at the
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...
; and an homage to the life and career of literary critic and author
Edmund Wilson
Edmund Wilson Jr. (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer and literary critic who explored Freudian and Marxist themes. He influenced many American authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose unfinished work he edited for publi ...
, who lived near Watertown at Talcottville in upstate New York.
''Last Notes From Home''
Exley traveled to the Hawaiian island of
Lanai, where he began work on the final novel of his semi-autobiographical trilogy, ''Last Notes From Home''. In May 1977, ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' publisher and co-founder
Jann Wenner paid Exley $20,000 to publish up to six excerpts of the work-in-progress. The magazine published three excerpts, in June 1977, October 1978 and February 1979. The following year, Exley's papers were acquired by collector Robert C. Stevens and donated to the
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants Undergraduate education, undergraduate and graduate degrees, including Doctorate, do ...
. In 1984, Exley's major debt was temporarily relieved when he received a
Guggenheim Foundation grant of $21,000.
Frank Gifford
Francis Newton Gifford (August 16, 1930 – August 9, 2015) was an American football player, actor, and television sports commentator. After a 12-year playing career as a halfback and flanker for the New York Giants of the National Foo ...
, who was portrayed as a hero and object of Exley's envy in ''
A Fan's Notes'', invited Exley to attend
Super Bowl XXI in
Pasadena, California, where the
New York Giants defeated the
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...
.
''Last Notes From Home'' was published by
Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
in September 1988. The final volume in Exley's trilogy focuses on his relationship with his older brother, William, a
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
veteran who died in Hawaii in 1973 after a battle with cancer.
[Joseph P. Kahn]
"Notes on a Fan: Frederick Exley in Pasadena; Two decades after his giant novel, the writer follows his team,"
''Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...
'', January 26, 1987.
Soon after, Exley began work on a spy thriller to be titled ''Mean Greenwich Time'', but he did not come close to completing it.
Final years and death
Exley moved in with his aunt Frances Knapp in Alexandria Bay, and became very ill while traveling to London for a journalism assignment. After falling into poor health in late 1990 and being hospitalized with
congestive heart failure
Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, ...
, Exley cared for his ailing aunt who eventually died in 1991. The following year Exley suffered two strokes and died at Edward John Noble Hospital in Alexandria Bay on June 17, 1992.
His ashes were interred at Brookside Cemetery in
Watertown, New York
Watertown is a city in, and the county seat of, Jefferson County, New York, United States. It is approximately south of the Thousand Islands, along the Black River about east of where it flows into Lake Ontario. The city is bordered by th ...
, next to his parents.
Film adaptation
A
1972 film adaptation of ''A Fan's Notes'', directed by
Eric Till and starring
Jerry Orbach
Jerome Bernard Orbach (October 20, 1935 – December 28, 2004) was an American actor and singer, described at the time of his death as "one of the last'' bona fide'' leading men of the Broadway musical and global celebrity on television" and a " ...
, was screened at the
1972 Cannes Film Festival
The 25th annual Cannes Film Festival was held from 4 to 19 May 1972. The Palme d'Or went to the Italian films ''The Working Class Goes to Heaven'' by Elio Petri and '' The Mattei Affair'' by Francesco Rosi.
The festival opened with the French fi ...
and released in Canada, but never put into general release in the US. Exley stated that the film "bore no relationship to anything I'd written."
Posthumous recognition
A biography of Exley, ''Misfit: The Strange Life of Frederick Exley'', by
Pulitzer Prize-winning critic
Jonathan Yardley
Jonathan Yardley (born October 27, 1939) was the book critic at ''The Washington Post'' from 1981 to December 2014, and held the same post from 1978 to 1981 at the ''Washington Star''. In 1981, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
Bac ...
, appeared in 1997. Yardley's central thesis is that Exley was a brilliant one-book writer. Yardley also wrote the preface to the
Modern Library reissue of ''
A Fan's Notes''.
[Henry Kisor]
"The sad saga of Fred Exley and 'A Fan's Notes',"
''Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago ...
'', August 17, 1997.
In 2010, author
Brock Clarke released a novel entitled ''Exley''. In the novel, the main character, Miller, is obsessed with Exley. ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...
'' gave the novel a B+ and stated: "Frederick Exley's classic 1968 account of his epic alcoholism, ''A Fan's Notes'', bears the oxymoronic subtitle 'A Fictional Memoir.' It is the space between those words, between real and fabricated memory, that Clarke examines. . . With humor as black as Exley's liver, Clarke picks apart the fictions we tell one another — and those we tell ourselves."
Also in 2010, and in part in recognition of Clarke's novel,
Alex Kudera began a series of interviews with novelists on the topic of Exley and his influence on their work. His first interview was with
Eleanor Henderson
Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It is the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages.
The name was introd ...
, whose ''Ten Thousand Saints'' went on to be named one of the 10 Best Books of 2011 by ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''. He has also interviewed ''The Funny Man'' author
John Warner, among others.
In 2012, Matthew Ricke and Brandon Chamberlin opened a bar called "the Exley" in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordered by Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant to the south; Bushwick and East Williamsburg to the east; and the East River to the west. As of the 2020 United ...
, named after the author of their favorite book, ''A Fan's Notes''.
[Brian Sloan]
"The Exley,"
''New York Times'', November 21, 2012.
Bibliography
Novels
*''
A Fan's Notes'' (1968,
Harper & Row
Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City.
History
J. & J. Harper (1817–1833)
James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...
)
*''Pages From a Cold Island'' (1975,
Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
)
*''Last Notes From Home'' (1988, Random House)
Articles
*"He's a Pro," ''
SPORT
Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...
'', July 1969 (excerpt from ''A Fan's Notes'').
*"Poem from a Man at Middle Age," ''
Esquire'', May 1973.
*"Good-bye, Edmund Wilson," ''
The Atlantic Monthly
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', March 1974 (excerpt from ''Pages from a Cold Island'').
*"Saint Gloria & the Troll," ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...
'', July 1974 (excerpt from ''Pages from a Cold Island'').
*"To Oahu with the 'Wild Geese'," ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'', June 30, 1977 (excerpt from ''Last Notes from Home'').
*Letter to the editor about William Styron in ''Esquire'', April 11, 1978.
*"James Seamus Finbarr O'Twoomey," ''Rolling Stone'', October 5, 1978 (excerpt from ''Last Notes from Home'').
*"Ms. Robin Glenn," ''Rolling Stone'', February 22, 1979 (excerpt from ''Last Notes from Home'').
*"A Fan's Notes Goes to Super Bowl XIII," ''
Inside Sports
''Inside Sports'' magazine was a major general interest sports magazine in the United States. Launched in 1979 by Newsweek, it was designed as an edgier, monthly alternative to the longer-running ''Sports Illustrated'' and '' SPORT Magazine'' bra ...
'', October 1979.
*Review of Bill Barich's ''Laughing in the Hills'', for ''
New York'', August 11, 1980.
*Review of Clive James's ''Unreliable Memoirs'', for ''New York'', April 13, 1981.
*"Holding Penalties Build Men," ''Inside Sports'', November 1981.
*"A Case for Backing Cincinnati – and for Ice Fishing," ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', January 24, 1982.
*"Just Who Is 'the Game' in Professional Football?" ''New York Times'', August 22, 1982.
*"Football '83: Side Lines," ''Rolling Stone'', September 15, 1983.
*"The Natural," ''
GQ'', February 1984.
*"The Laureate of Alexandria Bay," ''Esquire'', March 1986.
*"Brother in Arms," ''Rolling Stone'', July 17 and 31, 1986 (excerpt from ''Last Notes from Home'').
*"A Fan's Note," ''American Film'', September 1986.
*"The Giants Will Fail and Here's Why," ''New York Times'', November 30, 1986.
*"A Fan's Further Notes," ''Esquire'', June 1987.
*Article (title unknown, about Alexandria Bay fishermen) for ''
Adirondack Life'', ca. 1989.
*"Women and Football," ''The Cable Guide'', November 1989.
*"If Nixon Could Possess the Soul of this Woman, Why the Hell Can't I?" ''Esquire'', December 1989.
*"Tell 'em Frankie's here," ''
The Sunday Correspondent'', London, July 1, 1990.
*"The Last Great Saloon" (about The Lion's Head saloon) for ''GQ'', December 1990.
*"Exley's Last Notes," ''Esquire'', August 1993 (posthumous extract from unfinished spy novel).
References
External links
Exley's papers at the University of Rochester
{{DEFAULTSORT:Exley, Frederick
1929 births
1992 deaths
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American essayists
American male essayists
American male novelists
20th-century American memoirists
People from Katonah, New York
People from Watertown, New York
People with schizophrenia
University of Southern California alumni
20th-century American male writers
Novelists from New York (state)
People from Jefferson County, New York