Hob Broun (born Heywood Orren Broun; 1950 – December 16, 1987) was an author who lived in Portland, Oregon. Following the publication of his first novel, ''Odditorium'', Broun required spinal surgery to remove a tumor that ultimately saved his life but resulted in his paralysis. Subsequently, he wrote two books by blowing air through a tube that activated the specially outfitted keyboard of a computer. Using this technology, he completed a second novel, ''Inner Tube'', and wrote the short stories contained in a posthumously published collection entitled ''Cardinal Numbers'' which won an Oregon Book Award in 1989. He was working on a third novel when he died of asphyxiation after his respirator broke down in his home in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

. He was thirty-seven years old. Broun was born in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

and graduated from the

Dalton School The Dalton School, originally the Children's University School, is a private, coeducational college preparatory school in New York City and a member of both the Ivy Preparatory School League and the New York Interschool. The school is located ...

. He attended

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

in Portland. He was the son of

Heywood Hale Broun Heywood Hale Broun (; March 10, 1918 – September 5, 2001) was an American author, sportswriter, commentator and actor. He was born and reared in New York City, the son of writer and activist Ruth Hale and newspaper columnist Heywood Broun. ...

, the writer and broadcaster, and the grandson of Ruth Hale, a freelance writer and founder of the

Lucy Stone League The Lucy Stone League is a women's rights organization founded in 1921. Its motto is "A wife should no more take her husband's name than he should hers. My name is my identity and must not be lost."“lucystoneleague.org�Archivedfrom the original ...

, and Heywood Broun, the newspaper columnist.

References

1950 births 1987 deaths Writers from Portland, Oregon Reed College alumni 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers American male novelists Novelists from Oregon {{US-novelist-1950s-stub