Allan Gurganus
Author of Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
About the Author
In 1966, as a conscientious objector faced with possible charges of draft evasion during the Vietnam War, Allan Gurganus found himself on a four-year tour as a message decoder on an aircraft carrier. While at sea, Gurganus, who had studied to be a painter, developed the idea for his first show more successful novel, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (1989) after reading an article that described how Confederate veterans were granted pensions in the 1880s, making them prime marital candidates for much younger women. The novel features Lucy Marsden, a feisty ninety-nine-year-old North Carolina widow, and spans the 1850s to the 1980s. Gurganus's subsequent books include Blessed Assurance: A Moral Tale (1989), The Practical Heart (1993), and Plays Well With Others (1997). He has written a number of short stories that have appeared in periodicals such as Granta, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Harper's, and Paris Review, and in books such as The Faber Book of Short Gay Fiction (1991). Eleven of his short stories are collected in The White People (1991). Gurganus was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in 1947 and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College (B.A., 1972) and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop (M.F.A., 1974). He has taught fiction writing at University of Iowa, Stanford University, Duke University, Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, and has had his paintings displayed in many private and public collections. (Bowker Author Biography) Allan Gurganus lives in a small town in North Carolina. The title novella of this book won the National Magazine Prize, & his other honors include the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Southern Book Prize, & the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. (Publisher Provided) show less
Image credit: Copyright Eye On Books.
Works by Allan Gurganus
Il mio cuore è un serraglio 2 copies
Prendi! 1 copy
He's at the Office 1 copy
Forced Use {short story} 1 copy
Associated Works
You've Got to Read This: Contemporary American Writers Introduce Stories that Held Them in Awe (1994) — Introduction — 380 copies
The Workshop: Seven Decades of the Iowa Writers Workshop - 43 Stories, Recollections, & Essays on Iowa's Place in… (1999) — Contributor — 187 copies
An American Album: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Harper's Magazine (2000) — Contributor — 133 copies
Who's Writing This? Notations on the Authorial I, with Self-Portraits {not Antæus} (1995) — Contributor — 72 copies
The Second Gates of Paradise: The Anthology of Erotic Short Fiction (1997) — Contributor — 37 copies
Antaeus No. 73/74, Spring 1994 - Who’s Writing This: Notations on the Authorial I {magazine} (1994) — Contributor — 5 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1947-06-11
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Rocky Mount, North Carolina, USA
- Places of residence
- Hillsborough, North Carolina, USA
- Education
- Sarah Lawrence College
- Occupations
- writer
- Organizations
- American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature, 2007)
Fellowship of Southern Writers - Awards and honors
- Guggenheim Fellowship (2006)
Members
Reviews
When I picked this one up from my library, I didn't realize it was a set of novellas. I haven't read many novellas, but the ones I have have been tough. I think it's kind of an awkward form -- long enough to feel a little too long but not long enough to feel like a big hearty novel you can really get into. It's like the awkward teenager phase of fiction that nobody really wants to be all that much involved with.
The first two in this collection of three, and a good half of the third, fell pretty flat for me. The words and sentences were good, but the stories didn't do much for me. They didn't seem to have much emotional freight, and so they seemed oddly sized curiosities, little exercises in building a sense of place and maybe a little sense of character. But of course knowing that the story would be chopped off pretty soon after the development had built, I had trouble really connecting with either the fictional town of Falls or its inhabitants.
Well into the final novella, Decoy, after the catastrophe that basically bifurcates the thing, the piece took a turn for the better for me, and I thought the last 20 - 30 pages were good. But, 30 pages out of 300 make for pretty slim pickings, so it's not one I'd suggest.… (more)
The first two in this collection of three, and a good half of the third, fell pretty flat for me. The words and sentences were good, but the stories didn't do much for me. They didn't seem to have much emotional freight, and so they seemed oddly sized curiosities, little exercises in building a sense of place and maybe a little sense of character. But of course knowing that the story would be chopped off pretty soon after the development had built, I had trouble really connecting with either the fictional town of Falls or its inhabitants.
Well into the final novella, Decoy, after the catastrophe that basically bifurcates the thing, the piece took a turn for the better for me, and I thought the last 20 - 30 pages were good. But, 30 pages out of 300 make for pretty slim pickings, so it's not one I'd suggest.… (more)
Wow I am constantly amazed at how much I dislike books I have a fond memory of enjoying decades ago.
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- Works
- 29
- Also by
- 31
- Members
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- Popularity
- #9,434
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 37
- ISBNs
- 83
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Lucy herself is a treat. Married at a mere fifteen years old, she saw the world with a sensitivity and sweetness. She cared about where people came from (Castalia from Africa) or how displaced a foreigner can feel (Wong Chow from China). Even though her husband was in his fifties when they married, Lucy became a baby factory having nine children in eleven years. Her marriage was painful as her husband could be very abusive. Sleeping with a hatchet was not out of the question for Lucy. But I digress. Take your time with Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. Know that every character serves a purpose at the moment of introduction but may not need remembering a hundred pages later.… (more)