Harry Mathews (February 14, 1930 – January 25, 2017) was an American writer, the author of various novels, volumes of poetry and short fiction, and essays. Mathews was also a translator of the
French language
French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...
.
Life
Born in New York City to an upper-middle-class family,
Mathews was educated at private schools there and at the
Groton School
Groton School (founded as Groton School for Boys) is a private college-preparatory boarding school located in Groton, Massachusetts. Ranked as one of the top five boarding high schools in the United States in Niche (2021–2022), it is affiliated ...
in
, before enrolling at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
in 1947. He left Princeton in his sophomore year for a tour in the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
, during the course of which (in 1949) he
eloped
Elopement is a term that is used in reference to a marriage which is conducted in a sudden and secretive fashion, usually involving a hurried flight away from one's place of residence together with one's beloved with the intention of getting ma ...
with the artist
Niki de Saint Phalle
Niki de Saint Phalle (; born Catherine Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle; 29 October 193021 May 2002) was a French-American sculptor, painter, filmmaker, and author of colorful hand-illustrated books. Widely noted as one of the few female monume ...
, a childhood friend. His military service completed, Mathews transferred to
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in 1950; the couple's first child,
a daughter, was born the following year. After Mathews graduated in 1952 with a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
degree in music, the family moved to Paris, where he continued studies in
conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary duti ...
at
I’École Normale de Musique.
A second child, their son Phillip, was born in
Majorca, Spain
Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean.
The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bale ...
in 1955.
Mathews and de Saint Phalle separated in 1960, with the two children remaining under his care.
Together with
John Ashbery
John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic.
Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...
,
James Schuyler
James Marcus Schuyler (November 9, 1923 – April 12, 1991) was an American poet. His awards include the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 1980 collection ''The Morning of the Poem''. He was a central figure in the New York School and is of ...
, and
Kenneth Koch
Kenneth Koch ( ; 27 February 1925 – 6 July 2002) was an American poet, playwright, and professor, active from the 1950s until his death at age 77. He was a prominent poet of the New York School of poetry. This was a loose group of poets includ ...
, Mathews founded and edited the short-lived but influential literary journal ''
Locus Solus
''Locus Solus'' is a 1914 French novel by Raymond Roussel.
Plot summary
John Ashbery summarizes ''Locus Solus'' thus in his introduction to Michel Foucault's ''Death and the Labyrinth'':
"A prominent scientist and inventor, Martial Canterel, ...
''
[Tillman, Lynne]
"Harry Mathews"
, ''BOMB Magazine
''Bomb'' (stylized in all caps as ''BOMB'') is an American arts magazine edited by artists and writers, published quarterly in print and daily online. It is composed primarily of interviews between creative people working in a variety of disciplin ...
'' Winter, 1988-1989. Retrieved on ay 15, 2013/ref> (named after a novel by Raymond Roussel
Raymond Roussel (; 20 January 1877 – 14 July 1933) was a French poet, novelist, playwright, musician, and chess enthusiast. Through his novels, poems, and plays he exerted a profound influence on certain groups within 20th century French litera ...
, one of Mathews's chief early influences) from 1961 to 1962.
Mathews was the first American chosen for membership in the French literary society known as Oulipo
Oulipo (, short for french: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle; roughly translated: ''"workshop of potential literature"'', stylized ''OuLiPo'') is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works ...
, which is dedicated to exploring new possibilities in literature, in particular through the use of various constraints and textual algorithms
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing c ...
. The late French writer Georges Perec
Georges Perec (; 7 March 1936 – 3 March 1982) was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group. His father died as a soldier early in the Second World War and his mother was killed in the Holoc ...
, likewise a member, was a good friend, and the two translated some of each other's writings. Mathews considered many of his works to be Oulipian in nature, but even before he encountered the group he was working in a parallel direction.
In the 1960s Mathews had a relationship of several years' duration with ''Paris Review'' editor Maxine Groffsky. Mathews was later married to the writer Marie Chaix, and divided his time among Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, Key West
Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it cons ...
, and New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
Novels
Mathews's first three novels share a common approach, though their stories and characters are not connected. Originally published as separate works (the third in serialization in ''The Paris Review
''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...
''), they were gathered in one omnibus volume in 1975 as ''The Sinking of the Odradek Stadium and Other Novels,'' but have since been reprinted as individual volumes. Each novel displays the author's taste for improbable narrative invention, his humor, and his delight in leading the reader down obscure avenues of learning.
At the outset of his first novel, ''The Conversions,'' the narrator is invited to an evening's social gathering at the home of a wealthy and powerful eccentric named Grent Wayl. During the course of the evening he is invited to take part in an elaborately staged party game, involving, among other things, a race between several small worms. The race having apparently been rigged by Wayl, the narrator is declared the victor and takes home his prize, an adze
An adze (; alternative spelling: adz) is an ancient and versatile cutting tool similar to an axe but with the cutting edge perpendicular to the handle rather than parallel. Adzes have been used since the Stone Age. They are used for smoothing ...
with curious designs, apparently of a ritual nature, engraved on it. Not long after the party, Wayl dies, and the bulk of his vast estate is left to whomever possesses the adze, providing that he or she can answer three riddling questions relating to its nature. The balance of the book is concerned with the narrator's attempts to answer the three questions, attempts that lead him through a series of digressions and stories-within-a-story, many of them quite diverting in themselves. The book has some superficial affinities with Pynchon's ''The Crying of Lot 49
''The Crying of Lot 49'' is a 1966 novel by American author Thomas Pynchon. The shortest of Pynchon's novels, the plot follows Oedipa Maas, a young Californian woman who begins to embrace a conspiracy theory as she possibly unearths a centuries-ol ...
''; the reader, like the narrator, is never sure to what extent he has fallen victim to a hoax. Much of the material dealing with the ritual adze, and the underground cult that it is related to, borrows from Robert Graves
Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was a British poet, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were both Celtic ...
's ''The White Goddess
''The White Goddess: a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth'' is a book-length essay on the nature of poetic myth-making by author and poet Robert Graves. First published in 1948, the book is based on earlier articles published in ''Wales'' magazi ...
.'' Mathews's novel concludes with two appendices, one being in German.
His next novel, ''Tlooth,'' begins in a bizarre Siberian
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...
prison camp, where the inmates are divided according to their affiliation with obscure religious denominations (Americanist, Darbyist, Defective Baptist, and so on), and where baseball, dentistry, and plotting revenge against other inmates are the chief pastimes. A small group of inmates, including the narrator, plot their escape, which they carry out by constructing an ingenious getaway vehicle. After fleeing south and over the Himalayas
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...
, they split up; the later sections of the novel, which take place in various locales (chiefly Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
), are concerned with the narrator's attempts to track down and do away with another inmate, Evelyn Roak, who had been responsible for mutilating the narrator's fingers. Most of the major characters have sex-equivocal names, and it is only towards the end of the book that we are given some indication of whether they are actually male or female. As in ''The Conversions,'' there are numerous subplots that advance the main action only minimally.
''The Sinking of the Odradek Stadium,'' like ''The Conversions,'' is the story of a hunt for treasure, this time told through a series of letters between a Southeast Asian woman named Twang and her American husband, Zachary McCaltex. The couple are researching the fate of a vanished cargo of gold that once belonged to the Medici family
The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Muge ...
. As in the earlier novels, there are various odd occurrences and ambiguous conspiracies; many of the book's set-pieces revolve around a secret society (The Knights of the Spindle), which Zachary is invited to join. Reflecting the author's interest in different languages, one pivotal letter in the book is written in the (fictitious) idiom of Twang's (fictitious) homeland, and to translate it the reader must refer back to earlier chapters to find the meanings of the words. In a typical Mathews conceit, the title of the novel is apparently meaningless until the reader reaches the final pages, at which point it reveals an important twist in the story that is nowhere revealed in the text of the book itself. The novel is provided with an index, which may be deliberately unreliable. David Maurer's ''The Big Con'' provided Mathews with a number of slang terms, and possibly some plot elements as well. Another apparent source was ''The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank
The Medici Bank (Italian: ''Banco dei Medici'' ) was a financial institution created by the Medici family in Italy during the 15th century (1397–1494). It was the largest and most respected bank in Europe during its prime. There are some estima ...
: 1397-1494'' by Raymond de Roover; Mathews implicitly acknowledged his debt by introducing de Roover and his wife in the text as minor characters.
Mathews's next novel, ''Cigarettes,'' marked a change in his work. Less whimsical but no less technically sophisticated than his first three novels, it consists of an interlocking series of narratives revolving around a small group of interconnected characters. The book's approach to narrative is generally realistic, and ''Cigarettes'' is ultimately moving in a way that none of his previous books attempted to be.
''My Life in CIA,'' the last published novel in his lifetime (if it is indeed fiction), was purportedly Mathews's memoir of a period in his life in which he was rumored to be a CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
agent and decided to play along and pretend that he in fact was one.
His final novel, ''The Solitary Twin'', was published posthumously in March 2018 by New Directions.
Other works
Mathews's shorter writings frequently cross or deliberately confuse genres
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
. A case in point is the piece entitled "Country Cooking from Central France: Roast Boned Rolled Stuffed Shoulder of Lamb (Farce Double)." Originally included in an issue of the literary magazine ''Antaeus
Antaeus (; Ancient Greek: Ἀνταῖος ''Antaîos'', "opponent", derived from , ''antao'' – 'I face, I oppose'), known to the Berbers as Anti, was a figure in Berber and Greek mythology. He was famed for his defeat by Heracles as part o ...
'' devoted to travel essays, it is ostensibly a recipe with extended commentary.["Country Cooking from Central France: Roast Boned Rolled Stuffed Shoulder of Lamb (Farce Double)" was performed onstage in London at the ]Cockpit Theatre, Marylebone
The Cockpit Theatre is a fringe theatre in Marylebone, London. Designed by Edward Mendelsohn and built in 1969–70 by the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) as a community theatre, it is notable as London's first purpose-built Theatre ...
by the French actor Sam Spiegel
Samuel P. Spiegel (November 11, 1901December 31, 1985) was an American independent film producer born in the Galician area of Austria-Hungary. Financially responsible for some of the most critically acclaimed motion pictures of the 20th centur ...
but the title was later used for a collection of the author's short stories. Another example is the title section of ''Armenian Papers: Poems 1954 - 1984'': actually prose, this purports to be (but evidently is not) a translation from a fragmentary medieval manuscript. American conductor David Woodard
David Woodard (, ; born April 6, 1964) is an American conductor and writer. During the 1990s he coined the term ''prequiem'', a portmanteau of preemptive and requiem, to describe his Buddhist practice of composing dedicated music to be rendered d ...
praised Mathews' ''Plaisirs singuliers'' (1983) as "a long prose piece about masturbation."
Mathews used proverb
A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phra ...
s in many creative ways in his book ''Selected Declarations of Dependence'', which was based on the words found in 46 common English proverbs. He used them to write poems, following self-invented rules. He also created "Perverbs and Paraphrases", complex riddles based on proverbs. In addition, he created anti-proverbs that he called "snips of the tongue", such as "Look before you leave."
Among the more important collections of his miscellaneous works are ''Immeasurable Distances,'' a gathering of his essays; ''The Human Country: New and Collected Stories''; and ''The Way Home: Selected Longer Prose''. Other works by Mathews include ''Twenty Lines a Day,'' a journal, and ''The Orchard,'' a brief memoir of his friendship with Georges Perec
Georges Perec (; 7 March 1936 – 3 March 1982) was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group. His father died as a soldier early in the Second World War and his mother was killed in the Holoc ...
.
Other
Mathews invented "Mathews's Algorithm", a method for producing literary works by transposing or permuting elements according to a predetermined set of rules.
Death
Mathews died on January 25, 2017, in Key West, Florida
Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Sigsbee Park, Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Isla ...
from natural causes
In many legal jurisdictions, the manner of death is a determination, typically made by the coroner, medical examiner, police, or similar officials, and recorded as a vital statistic. Within the United States and the United Kingdom, a distinct ...
, aged 86.
Appearances in fiction
Mathews, along with his second wife Marie Chaix, appears as a minor character in the novels ''What I Have Written'' by John A. Scott, ''The Correspondence Artist'' by Barbara Browning, and ''The Hidden Keys'' by André Alexis
André Alexis (born 15 January 1957 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago) is a Canadian writer who grew up in Ottawa and lives in Toronto, Ontario. . Mathews, among other literary luminaries, makes an appearance as a party guest in Paul Auster
Paul Benjamin Auster (born February 3, 1947) is an American writer and film director. His notable works include ''The New York Trilogy'' (1987), ''Moon Palace'' (1989), ''The Music of Chance'' (1990), ''The Book of Illusions'' (2002), ''The Broo ...
's novel ''4321''.
Bibliography
* ''The Conversions''. Random House, New York, 1962. Repr.: Dalkey Archive Press
Dalkey Archive Press is an American publisher of fiction, poetry, foreign translations and literary criticism specializing in the publication or republication of lesser-known, often avant-garde works. The company has offices in Funks Grove, Il ...
, 1997.
(novel)
* ''Tlooth''. Paris Review Editions/ Doubleday, Paris/ Garden City, N.Y., 1966. Repr.: Dalkey Archive, 1998. (novel)
* ''The Ring: Poems 1956-69''. Juillard Editions, Leeds, U.K., 1970.
* ''The Planisphere''. Burning Deck, Providence, R.I., 1974 (poetry)
* ''The Sinking of the Odradek Stadium''. Harper & Row, 1975. Repr.: Dalkey Archive, 1999.
(novel)
* ''Le Savoir des rois: poèmes à perverbes''. ''La Bibliothèque oulipienne La Bibliothèque oulipienne is a collection that hosts the works of the individual and collective members of the Oulipo. The short texts that compose them form a fabrique of playful literary creations.
This publication is limited to 150 numbered co ...
'', no. 5, 1976. (poetry)
* ''Trial Impressions''. Burning Deck, Providence, R.I., 1977. (poetry)
* ''Selected Declarations of Dependence''. Z Press, Calais, Vt., 1977. With Alex Katz
Alex Katz (born July 24, 1927) is an American figurative artist known for his paintings, sculptures, and prints.
Early life and career
Alex Katz was born July 24, 1927, to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, as the son of an émigré who ha ...
. Repr.: Sun & Moon, 1996. (poems and short fiction)
* ''Country Cooking and Other Stories''. Burning Deck, Providence, R.I., 1980.
* '' Ellis Island Revisited: Tales of Vagrancy and Hope'' (translation and voiceover
Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non-diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations. ...
). INA. 1995.
* ''La cantatrice sauve''. 1981(fiction)
* ''Plaisirs singuliers''. P.O.L., Paris 1983. (fiction, in French). ''Singular Pleasures''. The Grenfell Press, New York 1988. With Francesco Clemente
Francesco Clemente (born 23 March 1952) is an Italian contemporary artist. He has lived at various times in Italy, India and New York City. Some of his work is influenced by the traditional art and culture of India. He has worked in various ar ...
. Dalkey Archive, 1999.
* ''Le Verger''. P.O.L., Paris 1986. (memoir, in French). ''The Orchard: A Remembrance of Georges Perec''.
* ''Cigarettes''. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987. Repr.: Dalkey Archive, 1998.
(novel)
* ''Armenian Papers: Poems 1954-1984''. Princeton University Press, 1987.
* ''The Orchard: A Remembrance of Georges Perec''. Bamberger Books, 1988. (remembrance)
* ''20 Lines a Day''. Dalkey Archive, Normal, Il., 1988. . (journal)
* ''The Way Home: Collected Longer Prose''. Grenfell Press, New York 1988. With Trevor Winkfield
Trevor Winkfield (born 1944) is a British-born artist and writer. Drawing upon his interest in both modernist literary movements and medieval architecture and pageantry, Winkfield has collaborated with many contemporary poets and writers, includ ...
. . (includes ''The Orchard'', 1988, and ''Autobiography'', from: ''Contemporary Authors'', ''Autobiography Series''. Gale, Detroit 1988)
* ''Out of Bounds'' Burning Deck, Providence, R. I., 1989. . (poetry)
* ''Écrits français''. Oulipo, Paris 1990.
* ''Immeasurable Distances: The Collected Essays''. 1991.
* ''A Mid-Season Sky: Poems 1954-1991''. Carcanet, Manchester 1992.
* ''Giandomenico Tiepolo''. Editions Flohic, Charenton 1993. (essay)
* ''The Journalist''. David R. Godine Books, Boston 1994. Repr.: Dalkey Archive, 1997
. (fiction)
* ''Epithalamium for Judith Kazantzis and Irving Weinman''. Grenfell Press, 1998. (poem). With collages by Marie Chaix.
* Stefano Baroni, Paul Fournel
Paul Fournel (born 20 May 1947 in Saint-Étienne) is a French writer, poet, publisher, and cultural ambassador. He was educated at the École normale supérieure of Saint-Cloud (1968–1972). Fournel wrote his master's thesis on Raymond Queneau a ...
, Harry Mathews, Boris Tissot: ''Alphabet Gourmand''. Seuil Jeunesse, 1998.
* ''Sainte Catherine''. Editions P.O.L., 2000. (fiction, in French).
* ''The Human Country: New and Collected Stories''. Dalkey Archive, 2002.
* ''The Case of the Persevering Maltese'' Dalkey Archive, 2003.
(essays)
* ''Day Shifts''. Editions de la Mule de Cristal, Brussels 2004. (poetry). With .
* ''My Life in CIA: A Chronicle of 1973''. Dalkey Archive Press, 2005. (memoir or fiction)
* ''The New Tourism''. Sand Paper Press, 2010. (poems)
* ''The Solitary Twin''. New Directions, 2018. (novel)
* ''Collected Poems: 1946-2016''. Sand Paper Press, 2020. (poems)
Collaborations
* ''S: Semaines de Suzanne'' (1997), with Jean Echenoz
Jean Echenoz (born 26 December 1947) is a French writer.
Biography
Jean Echenoz was born in Orange, Vaucluse, the son of a psychiatrist, He studied in Rodez, Digne-les-Bains, Lyon, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille and Paris, where he has lived sinc ...
, Mark Polizzotti
Mark may refer to:
Currency
* Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
* East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic
* Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927
* Fi ...
, Florence Delay
Florence Delay (born 19 March 1941 in Paris) is a French academician and actress.
Biography
The daughter of Marie-Madeleine Carrez and Jean Delay, Delay studied at the Lycée Jean de La Fontaine and then the Sorbonne.
In 1962, she played the ti ...
, Olivier Rolin
Olivier Rolin (born 14 May 1947, in Boulogne-Billancourt) is a French writer.
He won the Prix Femina in 1994, for his novel ''Port-Soudan''.
His brother Jean
Jean may refer to:
People
* Jean (female given name)
* Jean (male given name)
* Jean ( ...
, Sonja Greenlee, & Patrick Deville
Patrick Deville (born 14 December 1957 in Saint-Brevin-les-Pins) is a French writer.
Life
After studying comparative literature and philosophy at the University of Nantes, Deville lived in the Middle East, Nigeria and Algeria. In the 1990s, he ...
* ''Oulipo Compendium'' (1998), as editor, with Alastair Brotchie
Alistair is a masculine given name. It is an Anglicised form of the Scottish Gaelic ''Alasdair''. The latter is most likely a Scottish Gaelic variant of the Norman French Alexandre or Latin Alexander, which was incorporated into English in the sam ...
.
Secondary sources
*Leamon, Warren ''Harry Mathews'' (1993)
*McPherson, William "Harry Mathews: A Checklist" ''The Review of Contemporary Fiction: Harry Mathews Number'' (1987)
Notes
References
External links
Works or texts by Mathews
Digital version of Mathews's ''Epithalamium for Judith Kazantzis and Irving Weinman,'' with introductory note
*Mathews, Harr
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20081006165726/http://www.uprightdown.com/observationsofacrab.html "Observations of a Crab," a short story by Harry Mathews on UpRightDownbr>Podcast of "Country Cooking from Central France: Roast Boned Rolled Stuffed Shoulder of Lamb (Farce Double)" as read by Isaiah Sheffer
Conversations
A Conversation with Harry Mathews. By John Ashbery
Harry Mathews: A Meal Should Last Forever.
Interview at Ioggernaut
from The Portable Infinite
Other
*
Harry Mathews / bibliographie
(in French, on the OuLiPo website)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mathews, Harry
1930 births
2017 deaths
New York School poets
Oulipo members
French–English translators
Groton School alumni
Harvard University alumni
United States Navy sailors
Military personnel from New York City
Writers from New York City
American male essayists
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21st-century American male writers
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