“His studies were not as foolish as he”
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John Irving
John Winslow Irving is an American and Canadian novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter.
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culture · American and Canadian novelist and screenwriter (born 1942) · novelist · screenwriter · writer · also John Irving, John Wallace Blunt, Jr., John Winslow Irving, Irving
Born 2 March 1942 · Q310379
49 published statements · 0 followers
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2026· 5 entries
“I recall thinking that the richness of his past life could never be accessible to me.”
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“more like mentoring than teaching. An old writer can perhaps save a young writer a little bit of time, but Vonnegut has said that he didn”
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“I took a long time to do everything at school so I felt I had to have better discipline than other people and work more hours in the day. Part of that came from the wrestling, which I found simultaneously with writing when I was about 14.”
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“a dinosaur in respect of being just about the only person left doing the large-scale multi-layered novel. I suspect he feels less of a dinosaur and less alone now, partly because of his own success in using the form. But it is still good to have such an exponent as him out there at the moment.”
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2025· 3 entries
The Anniston Star: John Irving's new novel revisits an old one
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The Guardian: Queen Esther by John Irving review – a disappointing companion to The Cider House Rules
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StarTribune: John Irving's 'Queen Esther' returns readers to setting of 'The Cider House Rules'
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2022· 1 entry
The Guardian: The Last Chairlift by John Irving review – an outlandish family epic
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2019· 1 entry
Irving became a Canadian citizen
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2018· 1 entry
Irving was an honorary degree recipient at Williams College
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2017· 3 entries
Irving revealed that the title of his novel-in-progress was "Darkness As a Bride
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Irving revealed on Facebook that his new novel was primarily a ghost story
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The Guardian: John Irving attacks 'intolerant' Trump in defence of political awards speeches
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2016· 4 entries
The Guardian: John Irving in conversation with Jeanette Winterson - Guardian Live
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The Guardian: John Irving on Donald Trump, Caitlyn Jenner – and the right way to wrestle an angry bear
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The Guardian: Avenue of Mysteries by John Irving review – portrait of the artist as a spoilt adolescent
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The Guardian: Avenue of Mysteries by John Irving review – dreaming the past into life
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2015· 1 entry
Irving revealed that HBO and Warner Brothers asked him to reconstruct The World According to Garp as a miniseries
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2014· 1 entry
Irving posted a message on Facebook that he had "finished 'Avenue of Mysteries
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2013· 3 entries
Awarded Lambda Literary Award (2013).
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Irving announced his 14th novel, Avenue of Mysteries, named for a street in Mexico City
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In the Bisexual Fiction category for In One Person, and was also awarded the organization's Bridge Builder Award to honor him as an ally of the LGBT community
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2009· 2 entries
Irving's central character is a novelist with, as critic Boyd Tonkin puts it, "a career that teasingly follows Irving's own
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Irving stated that he had begun work on his 13th novel inspired by Shakespeare's Richard II
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2007· 2 entries
And subsequently had a radical prostatectomy
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Irving was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2007 and subsequently had a radical prostatectomy.
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2005· 2 entries
The New York Times published an article revealing that Until I Find You (2005) contains two personal elements about his life that he had never discussed publicly: his sexual abuse at age 11 by an older woman, and the en
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Irving received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement
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2004· 1 entry
A Sound Like Someone Trying Not to Make a Sound, a children's picture book originally included in A Widow for One Year, was published with illustrations by Tatjana Hauptmann
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2002· 1 entry
His four most highly regarded novels, The World According to Garp, The Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and A Widow for One Year, were published in Modern Library editions
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2000· 3 entries
Awarded Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules (2000).
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For his script of the film adaptation of The Cider House Rules
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Irving revealed that he and Tod "Kip" Williams were co-writing a screenplay for an adaptation of the novel A Widow for One Year (1998)
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1999· 3 entries
After nearly 10 years in development, Irving's screenplay for The Cider House Rules was made into a film directed by Lasse Hallström, starring Michael Caine, Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron, and Delroy Lindo
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Calling Irving, Norman Mailer, and John Updike his "three stooges" who were panicked by his newest novel, A Man in Full (1998)
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Appeared on the CBC Television program Hot Type to promote the book
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1998· 1 entry
With A Widow for One Year, which was named a New York Times Notable Book
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1987· 1 entry
Married Janet Turnbull, who had been his publisher at Bantam-Seal Books and is now one of his literary agents
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1985· 1 entry
Irving published The Cider House Rules
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1981· 2 entries
Awarded O. Henry Award (1981).
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At the invitation of the Jerusalem International Book Fair and his meeting with a Holocaust survivor who invented a technique for growing asparagus in the desert, as a source of inspiration in his writing
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1980· 1 entry
Awarded National Book Award for Fiction (1980).
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1979· 1 entry
(which ultimately went to Tim O'Brien for Going After Cacciato) and its first paperback edition won the Award the next year
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1976· 1 entry
Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship (1976).
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1975· 1 entry
Irving accepted a position as assistant professor of English at Mount Holyoke College
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1964· 1 entry
Irving married Shyla Leary, whom he had met at Harvard in 1963 while taking a summer course in German, before traveling to Vienna with IES Abroad
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1942· 2 entries
Born 1942-03-02.
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“s Richard II. Simon & Schuster In One Person (2012), taking over from Random House. In One Person is a first-person narrative. He uses the same perspective in A Prayer for Owen Meany. He also used first person in Until I Find You but changed it to third person less than a year before publication. In One Person features a 60-year-old, bisexual protagonist named William, looking back on his life in the 1950s and”
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