Richard Brautigan
|
The cover of Trout Fishing in America, Brautigan's first novel, 1974 paperback edition. His photo appears on several of his book covers, as it does here. |
Richard Gary Brautigan (
January 30,
1935 â€"
September 14 ?,
1984) was an
American writer, best known for the novel
Trout Fishing in America. Brautigan's work became identified with the
counterculture youth movement of the late 1960s, even though he was said to be contemptuous of
hippies (as noted in
Lawrence Wright's article in the
April 11,
1985 issue of
Rolling Stone [
1]). Brautigan's eccentric appearance and manner did not help to dissuade this conception of him and his work.
Brautigan was born in
Tacoma, Washington, and grew up with his mother in
Eugene, Oregon, where they lived in a small shack in a state of poverty. In
1955 he was arrested for throwing a rock through a police station window, supposedly in order to be sent to prison and fed. Instead he was sent to
Oregon State Hospital and treated there with
electroconvulsive therapy.
In
1957 he moved to
San Francisco and married
Virginia Adler. Their daughter
Ianthe Elizabeth Brautigan was born in
1960. The marriage broke up soon afterwards.
By the beginning of the
1960s Brautigan had published three volumes of poetry. Throughout the decade that followed, he became greatly involved in the burgeoning
San Francisco artistic scene, often appearing as a performance poet at concerts and participating in the various activities of
The Diggers. In the spring of
1967, Brautigan was Poet-in-Residence at the
California Institute of Technology.
During the
1960s several of Brautigan's short stories appeared in
Rolling Stone and were later collected in
The Revenge of the Lawn.
|
Listening to Richard Brautigan |
From late
1968 to February
1969, Brautigan recorded a spoken-word
album for
The Beatles' short-lived record label,
Zapple. The label was shut down by
Allen Klein before the recording could be released, but it was eventually released in
1970 on
Harvest Records as
Listening to Richard Brautigan[
2].
Brautigan's writings are also characterized by a remarkable and humorous imagination. The permeation of inventive metaphors lent even his prose works the feeling of poetry. To his critics, Brautigan was willfully naive.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti said of him, "I always kept waiting for Richard to grow up as a writer. I never could stand cute writing. He could never be an important writer with that childish voice of his. Essentially he had a naïf style, a style based on a childlike perception of the world. The hippie cult was itself a childlike movement. I guess Richard was all the novelist the hippies needed. It was a nonliterate age." This negative view of his work from the new literary establishment took hold in the late
1970s and early
1980s, though it could be said that his unpopularity was based on fashion and wilful misunderstanding. "He was a great artist," said novelist
Don Carpenter, "I don't think his work has ever been really recognized for its impact. He's unique. His ability to compress emotion into such small space was second to none." Brautigan once wrote, "All of us have a place in history. Mine is clouds." Brautigan was also heavily influenced by
Zen Buddhism. Themes of the duality of the past and the future and the impermanance of the present can be found in most of his works. Zen Buddhism and elements of the Japanese culture can be found in his novels, including
The Tokyo-Montana Express and
Sombrero Fallout: A Japanese Novel.
In
1984, at age 49, Richard Brautigan died of a self-inflicted .44-calibre gunshot wound to the head in
Bolinas, California. The exact date of his suicide is unknown, but it is speculated that Brautigan ended his life on
September 14,
1984 after talking to Marcia Clay on the telephone. Robert Yench, a private investigator hired by Brautigan's agent to find him and inform him of a new contract offer, found Richard Brautigan's body on the living room floor of his house on
October 25,
1984. [
3]
"When the 1960s ended, he was the baby thrown out with the bath water," said his friend and fellow writer,
Tom McGuane. "He was a gentle, troubled, deeply odd guy."
Brautigan's daughter
Ianthe Elizabeth Brautigan describes her memories of her father in her book
You Can't Catch Death (
2000).
In April 1994 a Santa Barbara teenager named
Peter Eastman Jr. legally changed his name to Trout Fishing in America.
Fiction
*
A Confederate General From Big Sur, (
1964 ISBN 0-224-61923-3)
*
Trout Fishing in America, (
1967 ISBN 0-395-50076-1) Omnibus edition
*
In Watermelon Sugar, (
1968 ISBN 0-440-34026-8)
*
Revenge of the Lawn, (
1970 ISBN 0-671-20960-4)
*
The Abortion: An Historical Romance, (
1971 ISBN 0-671-20872-1)
*
The Revenge of the Lawn,, (
1971 ISBN 0-671-20960-4)
*
The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western, (
1974 ISBN 0-671-21809-3)
*
Willard and His Bowling Trophies: A Perverse Mystery, (
1975 ISBN 0-671-22065-9)
*
Sombrero Fallout: A Japanese Novel, (
1976 ISBN 0-671-22331-3)
*
Dreaming of Babylon: A Private Eye Novel 1942, (
1977 ISBN 0-4400-2146-4)
*
The Tokyo-Montana Express, (
1980 ISBN 0-440-08770-8)
*
So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away, (
1982 ISBN 0-395-70674-2)
*
An Unfortunate Woman: A Journey, (
1982, but first published in
2000 ISBN 0-312-27710-5)
Poetry
*
The Galilee Hitch-Hiker,
1958*
Lay the Marble Tea,
1959*
The Octopus Frontier,
1960*
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace,
1963*
Please Plant This Book,
1968 *
The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster,
1968*
Rommel Drives on Deep into Egypt,
1970*
Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork, (
1971 ISBN 0-671-22263-5. ISBN 0-671-22271-6 pbk)
*
June 30th, June 30th, (
1978 ISBN 044004295X)
*
The Edna Webster Collection of Undiscovered Writings, (
1999 ISBN 0-395-97469-0)
*
the brautigan pages promotes the works of richard brautigan and brings together people who enjoy reading and discussing brautigan.*
The most comprehensive website available focusing on the life and work of Richard Brautigan.*
Selected Poems and Directory of Richard Brautigan*
The Brautigan Archives*
Brief critique on the life and legacy of Richard Brautigan.*
Great photo!
