Stanley Lawrence Elkin (May 11, 1930 – May 31, 1995) was an American
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...
,
short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
writer, and
essay
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...
ist. His extravagant, satirical fiction revolves around American
consumerism
Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. With the Industrial Revolution, but particularly in the 20th century, mass production led to overproduction—the supp ...
,
popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
, and male-female relationships.
Biography
Elkin was born to a Jewish family in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
,
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
* '' ...
, and grew up in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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from age three onwards. He did both his undergraduate and graduate work at the
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...
, receiving a bachelor's degree in English in 1952 and a Ph.D. in 1961 for his dissertation on
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most of ...
. During this period he was drafted and served in the U.S. Army from 1955 to 1957. In 1953 Elkin married Joan Marion Jacobson. He was a member of the English faculty at
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...
from 1960 until his death, and battled
multiple sclerosis
Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...
for most of his adult life. In 1968, he 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.
During his career, Elkin published ten novels, two volumes of novellas, two books of short stories, a collection of essays, and one (unproduced) screenplay. Elkin's work revolves about American pop culture, which it portrays in innumerable darkly comic variations. Characters and especially prose style take full precedence over plot. His language is extravagant and exuberant, baroque and flowery, taking fantastic flight from his characters' endless patter. "He was like a jazz artist who would go off on riffs," said critic
William Gass
William Howard Gass (July 30, 1924 – December 6, 2017) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, critic, and philosophy professor. He wrote three novels, three collections of short stories, a collection of novellas, and seven vol ...
. In a review of '' George Mills'', Ralph B. Sipper wrote, "Elkin's trademark is to tightrope his way from comedy to tragedy with hardly a slip." About the influence of ethnicity on his work Elkin said he admired most "the writers who are stylists, Jewish or not. Bellow is a stylist, and he is Jewish. William Gass is a stylist, and he is not Jewish. What I go for in my work is language."
Although living in the Midwest, Elkin spent his childhood and teenage summers in a bungalow colony called West Oakland, on the Ramapo River in northern New Jersey not far from Mahwah, the home of
Joyce Kilmer
Alfred Joyce Kilmer (December 6, 1886 – July 30, 1918) was an American writer and poet mainly remembered for a short poem titled "Trees" (1913), which was published in the collection ''Trees and Other Poems'' in 1914. Though a prolific poet who ...
. This was a refuge for a close-knit group of several score families, mostly Jewish, from the summer heat of New York City and urban New Jersey. Elkin's writings placed in New Jersey were informed by this experience.
Elkin won the
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".George Mills'' in 1982 and for '' Mrs. Ted Bliss'', his last novel, in 1995. ''The MacGuffin'' was a finalist for the 1991
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 ...
for Fiction. However, although he enjoyed high critical praise, his books have never enjoyed popular success. The 1976
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 ...
film ''
Alex & the Gypsy
''Alex & the Gypsy'' is a 1976 American comedy film directed by John Korty and written by Lawrence B. Marcus. The film stars Jack Lemmon, Geneviève Bujold, James Woods, Gino Ardito, Robert Emhardt and Titos Vandis. The film was released on Octo ...
'' was based on Elkin's novella "The Bailbondsman".
Elkin died May 31, 1995, of a heart attack, twenty days after his 65th birthday. His manuscripts and correspondence are archived in Olin Library at
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...
. Elkin's literary legacy is represented by the literary agency headed by
Georges Borchardt
Georges Borchardt is a literary agent in America; he has represented such figures as General Charles de Gaulle to Jane Fonda.
Early life
Born in Berlin in 1928, Borchardt was in France with his family when war broke out in 1939; his father d ...
.
He has a star on the
St. Louis Walk of Fame
The St. Louis Walk of Fame honors notable people from St. Louis, Missouri, who made contributions to the culture of the United States. All inductees were either born in the Greater St. Louis area or spent their formative or creative years ther ...
.
Works
Novels
* ''Boswell: A Modern Comedy'' (1964)
* ''A Bad Man'' (1967)
* ''The Dick Gibson Show'' (1971)
* ''The Franchiser'' (1976)
* ''The Living End'' (novella) (1979)
* '' George Mills'' (1982)
* ''The Magic Kingdom'' (1985)
* ''The Rabbi of Lud'' (1987)
* ''The MacGuffin'' (1991)
* '' Mrs. Ted Bliss'' (1995)
Story collections
* ''Criers and Kibitzers, Kibitzers and Criers'' (1966)
* ''Early Elkin'' (1985)
Novella collections
* ''Searches and Seizures'' (1973) (U.K. title: ''Eligible Men'' (1974))
* ''Van Gogh's Room at Arles'' (1993)
Other works
* "A Prayer for Losers", from the ''Why Work'' Series (edited by
Gordon Lish
Gordon Lish (born February 11, 1934 in Hewlett, New York) is an American writer. As a literary editor, he championed many American authors, particularly Raymond Carver, Barry Hannah, Amy Hempel, Rick Bass, and Richard Ford. He is the father of t ...
) (1966)
* ''Stanley Elkin's Greatest Hits'' (anthology; foreword by
Robert Coover
Robert Lowell Coover (born February 4, 1932) is an American novelist, short story writer, and T.B. Stowell Professor Emeritus in Literary Arts at Brown University. He is generally considered a writer of fabulation and metafiction.
Background
C ...
* ''The First George Mills'' (Part One of ''George Mills''; 376 copies, all signed by Elkin and the illustrator, Jane E. Hughes) (1980)
* ''Why I Live Where I Live'' (essay; 30 unnumbered copies) (1983)
* ''The Coffee Room'' (radio play; 95 copies, all signed by Elkin and the illustrator, Michael McCurdy) (1987)
Audio
* "A Poetics for Bullies", read by Jackson Beck, with comments by Elkin, in ''New Sounds in American Fiction'', Program 10. (edited by Gordon Lish) (1969)
* 1995 – National Book Critics Circle Award for ''Mrs. Ted Bliss''
* 1994 – PEN Faulkner Award finalist for ''Van Gogh's Room at Arles''
* 1991 – National Book Award finalist for Fiction for ''The MacGuffin''
* 1982 – National Book Critics Circle Award for ''George Mills''