Katharine Topkins (born July 22, 1927) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

novelist, short story writer, and recipient of the 1966 Grant for Creative Writing from the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

. She has published five novels and several short stories. She graduated from

Columbia University School of General Studies The School of General Studies, Columbia University (GS) is a liberal arts college and one of the undergraduate colleges of Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights, New York City. GS is known primarily ...

with a B.S. in 1949, and from Claremont Graduate University with an M.A. in 1951. She married Richard Topkins in 1954, with whom she had three children. She currently lives in

Marin, California Marin County is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is acros ...

Adaptations

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...

of her novel, ''Kotch'', was released on September 17, 1971.

Jack Lemmon John Uhler Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001) was an American actor. Considered equally proficient in both dramatic and comic roles, Lemmon was known for his anxious, middle-class everyman screen persona in dramedy pictures, leadin ...

directed the film, ''

Kotch ''Kotch'' is a 1971 American comedy-drama film directed by Jack Lemmon and starring Walter Matthau, Deborah Winters, Felicia Farr, Charles Aidman, and Ellen Geer. Adapted by John Paxton from Katharine Topkins' 1965 novel of the same name, the ...

'', starring

Walter Matthau Walter Matthau (; born Walter John Matthow; October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was an American actor, comedian and film director. He is best known for his film roles in '' A Face in the Crowd'' (1957), ''King Creole'' (1958) and as a coach of a ...

Deborah Winters Deborah Brace Winters (born November 27, 1953) is an American film and television actress and realtor who has appeared in films such as ''Kotch'', '' The People Next Door'', '' Class of '44'' and the television miniseries ''The Winds of War''. ...

Felicia Farr Felicia Farr (born Olive Dines; October 4, 1932) is a American former actress and model Early years Farr was born in Westchester County, New York. She attended Erasmus Hall High School and studied sociology at Penn State. Career Farr beg ...

Charles Aidman Charles Leonard Aidman (January 21, 1925 – November 7, 1993) was an American actor of stage, film, and television. Early life Aidman was born in Frankfort, Indiana, the son of George E. and Etta (Kwitny) Aidman. Aidman graduated from Frank ...

, and

Ellen Geer Ellen Ware Geer is an American actress, professor, and theatre director. Personal life Geer was born in New York City, the daughter of actors Herta Ware and Will Geer. Her father was best-known for playing Grandpa Zebulon "Zeb" Walton on ''Th ...

. In 1996, the Griffin Theatre Company premiered a

theatrical adaptation In a theatrical adaptation, material from another artistic medium, such as a novel or a film is re-written according to the needs and requirements of the theatre and turned into a play or musical. Elision and interpolation Directors must make ar ...

of her novel ''Riding the Dolphin''.

Published works

Novels

* ''All the Tea in China'', Macmillan, 1962. LCCN 62019432 * ''Kotch'', McGraw-Hill, 1965. LCCN 64007872 * ''Passing Go'', Little Brown, with Richard Topkins, 1965. LCCN 68024235 * ''Ill Boom'', Random House, with Richard Topkins, 1974. * ''Riding the Dolphin'', Beaufort, 1987. (published as Amanda Thomas)

Short stories

* "Dearly Beloved", The New Yorker, March 22, 1958 P. 124 * “Forsaking All Others”, Accent, summer, 1960 * “Vista del Sol”, The Minnesota Review, winter, 1961 * “Repeat the Sounding Joy”, Epoch, spring, 1961 * “The Visitation”, The Minnesota Review, 1961 * “Car Pool”, Epoch, spring, 1962 * “The Family Way”, Prairie Schooner, fall, 1961 * “Free and Accepted”, Genesis West, winter, 1963 * “Dun Rovin”, Claremont Quarterly, winter, 1963 * “Janetta”, The University Review, University of Missouri, Dec, 1964

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Topkins, Katharine American women novelists 20th-century American short story writers American women short story writers 1927 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers Columbia University School of General Studies alumni Claremont Graduate University alumni 21st-century American women