Calvin Trillin

About the Author

Calvin Trillin attended public schools in Kansas City and went on to Yale University and graduated in 1957; he later served as a Fellow of the University. He was born on December 5, 1935. He worked as a reporter for Time magazine before joining the staff of The New Yorker in 1963. His reporting for show more The New Yorker on the racial integration of the University of Georgia was published in his first book, An Education in Georgia. Family, travel and food are also themes in Trillin's work. Three of his books American Fried; Alice, Let's Eat; and Third Helpings; were individually published and are also collected in the 1994 compendium The Tummy Trilogy. He has also written a collection of short stories Barnett Frummer Is An Unbloomed Flower (1969) and three comic novels, Runestruck (1977), Floater (1980), and Tepper Isn't Going Out (2001). Among his recent work, is Dogfight: The 2012 Presidential Campaign in Verse. He was awarded the Thurber Prize for American Humor for Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: Forty Years of Funny Stuff, in 2012. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Includes the names: Calvin Trillin, Calvin Trillin, Calvin Trillian

Image credit: Copyright Eye On Books.

Series

Tummy Trilogy

Works by Calvin Trillin

Popular Recent

About Alice (2006) 888 copies

Tepper Isn't Going Out: A Novel (2001) 499 copies

The Tummy Trilogy (1994) 419 copies

Travels with Alice (1989) 394 copies

Alice, Let's Eat: Further Adventures of a Happy Eater (1656) 352 copies

Feeding a Yen: Savoring Local Specialties, from Kansas City to Cuzco (2003) 306 copies

Remembering Denny (1993) 280 copies

Messages From My Father: A Memoir (1996) 270 copies

Family Man (1998) 249 copies

Obliviously On He Sails: The Bush Administration in Rhyme (2004) 211 copies

Killings (1984) 209 copies

Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: Forty Years of Funny Stuff (2011) 189 copies

American Fried: Adventures of a Happy Eater (1974) 158 copies

Too Soon to Tell (1995) 156 copies

American Stories (1991) 152 copies

Uncivil liberties (1982) 140 copies

If You Can't Say Something Nice (1987) 139 copies

Third Helpings (1983) 132 copies

A Heckuva Job: More of the Bush Administration in Rhyme (2006) 129 copies

With All Disrespect: More Uncivil Liberties (1985) 116 copies

Jackson, 1964: And Other Dispatches from Fifty Years of Reporting on Race in America (2016) 113 copies

Deadline Poet Or, My Life As a Doggerelist (1994) 113 copies

Enough's Enough (And Other Rules of Life) (1990) 100 copies

Deciding the Next Decider: The 2008 Presidential Race in Rhyme (2008) 90 copies

Dogfight: The 2012 Presidential Campaign in Verse (2012) 80 copies

Floater (1980) 71 copies

Eating with the Pilgrims and Other Pieces (2010) 55 copies

The Lede: Dispatches from a Life in the Press (2024) 42 copies

Trillin on Texas (Bridwell Texas History) (2011) 35 copies

Runestruck (1977) 33 copies

No Fair! No Fair! And Other Jolly Poems of Childhood (2016) 29 copies

An Education in Georgia: Charlayne Hunter, Hamilton Holmes, and the Integration of the University of Georgia (1964) 27 copies

Barnett Frummer is an Unbloomed Flower (1969) 15 copies

U.S. Journal (1971) 12 copies

Calvin Trillin, Piece by Piece (1996) 11 copies

The Red and the White 7 copies

But Does It Travel : Feeding a Yen for the Local Specialty, from Kansa (2003) 1 copy

Calvin Trillin at the 92nd Street Y (2007) 1 copy

Vtg Uncivil Liberties - Calvin Trillin 1 copy

About Alice (06) by Trillin, Calvin [Hardcover (2006)] 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker (2004) — Contributor — 1,331 copies

Fierce Pajamas: An Anthology of Humor Writing from The New Yorker (2001) — Contributor — 713 copies

Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink (2007) — Contributor — 536 copies

The Portable Sixties Reader (2002) — Contributor — 329 copies

Life Stories: Profiles from the New Yorker (2000) — Contributor — 299 copies

The Best of Modern Humor (1983) — Contributor — 291 copies

The 50 Funniest American Writers: An Anthology of Humor from Mark Twain to The Onion (2011) — Contributor — 247 copies

Reporting Civil Rights, Part 2: American Journalism 1963-1973 (2003) — Contributor — 217 copies

The Best American Travel Writing 2008 (2008) — Contributor — 211 copies

There's No Toilet Paper on the Road Less Traveled: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure (1998) — Contributor — 209 copies

Russell Baker's Book of American Humor (1993) — Contributor — 208 copies

The Best American Travel Writing 2006 (2006) — Contributor — 205 copies

McSorley's Wonderful Saloon (1943) — Foreword, some editions — 187 copies

Great British Cooking: Wellkept Secret, A (1981) — Foreword, some editions — 155 copies

The Big New Yorker Book of Cats (2013) — Contributor — 135 copies

The Best American Travel Writing 2009 (2009) — Contributor — 124 copies

Know the Past, Find the Future: The New York Public Library at 100 (2011) — Contributor — 118 copies

Best Food Writing 2006 (2006) — Contributor — 99 copies

The Matter of Black Lives: Writing from The New Yorker (2021) — Contributor — 92 copies

Voices in Our Blood: America's Best on the Civil Rights Movement (2001) — Contributor — 92 copies

Best Food Writing 2009 (2009) — Contributor — 86 copies

The Best American Essays 1987 (1987) — Contributor — 84 copies

Best Food Writing 2008 (2008) — Contributor — 83 copies

The Best American Magazine Writing 2004 (2004) — Contributor — 82 copies

Best Food Writing 2003 (2003) — Contributor — 67 copies

Best Food Writing 2001 (2001) — Contributor — 66 copies

Best Food Writing 2000 (2000) — Contributor — 60 copies

Best Food Writing 2002 (2002) — Contributor — 58 copies

Critical White Studies: Looking Behind the Mirror (1997) — Contributor — 57 copies

The Best American Crime Reporting 2010 (2011) — Contributor — 57 copies

The Jewish Writer (1998) — Contributor — 53 copies

Howe and Hummel: Their True and Scandalous History (1947) — Introduction, some editions — 52 copies

They Went: The Art and Craft of Travel Writing (1991) — Contributor — 35 copies

National Geographic Magazine 2005 v208 #5 November (2005) — Contributor — 29 copies

Crimes of New York: Stories of Crooks, Killers, and Corruption from the World's Toughest City (Adrenaline Classics) (2003) — Contributor — 22 copies

Tagged

20th century (46) American (68) American literature (66) anthology (358) art (52) biography (210) Calvin Trillin (37) cartoons (223) civil rights (49) collection (50) comics (74) cooking (82) essays (647) fiction (297) first edition (43) food (454) food writing (115) gastronomy (47) history (102) humor (1,232) journalism (132) Library of America (54) literature (84) marriage (47) memoir (369) New York (81) New York City (47) New Yorker (233) non-fiction (720) own (37) poetry (145) politics (142) read (111) satire (41) short stories (121) signed (38) to-read (360) travel (356) Trillin (43) unread (53)

Common Knowledge

Canonical name: Trillin, Calvin
Legal name: Trillin, Calvin Marshall
Other names: Trillin, Buddy
Birthdate: 1935-12-05
Gender: male
Nationality: USA
Birthplace: Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Places of residence: Kansas City, Missouri, USA
New Haven, Connecticut, USA
New York, New York, USA
Education: Yale University (B.A.|1957)
Occupations: actor
journalist
humorist
food writer
novelist
poet
Relationships: Trillin, Alice (wife)
Organizations: Time
The New Yorker
The Nation
United States Army
Awards and honors: Thurber Prize for American Humor (2012)
Short biography: A longtime staff writer at The New Yorker, Calvin Trillin is also The Nation's deadline poet. He lives in Greenwich Village, which he describes as "a neighborhood where people from the suburbs come on weekends to test their car alarms."

Members

Reviews

The Lede: Dispatches from a Life in the Press by Calvin Trillin

For years I’ve enjoyed Calvin Trillin’s columns, but I’ve only ever read one of his books, a moving tribute to his wife Alice, “About Alice,” a tiny (76 pages) book that will challenge anyone’s tear ducts. And this from a man I’ve never considered particularly emotional. The book is just that moving. “The Lede” is a compilation of Trillin’s columns, mostly from his home publication The New Yorker. They are often funny, always interesting, and usually educational. Calvin Trillin is one of those individuals who qualifies as a bona fide national treasure.… (more)

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FormerEnglishTeacher | Mar 8, 2024 |

Tepper Isn't Going Out: A Novel by Calvin Trillin

Smartly and deftly written, I rather enjoyed it.

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mimo | 24 other reviews | Dec 18, 2023 |

Dogfight: The 2012 Presidential Campaign in Verse by Calvin Trillin

I really wanted to like this a lot more. It is occasionally clever, with a few chuckles. But most of it was really just recounting the events of the 2012 presidential campaign with the gimmick that it's in rhyme most of the time. Nothing to do with portraying the participants as dogs, which was a really lost opportunity in selecting breeds and personality traits. Some minor charm, but ultimately disappointing.

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sheldonnylander | 6 other reviews | Apr 5, 2023 |

Tepper Isn't Going Out: A Novel by Calvin Trillin

When it comes to movies, there's a certain kind of movie that my partner and I say is really great on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Usually not an Oscar winner, often not even widely known but one that brings a smile to your face and makes you glad you spent the time to relax and enjoy it.

This book is the literary equivalent. "Comfortable" to read and brought a smile to my face.

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toddtyrtle | 24 other reviews | Dec 28, 2022 |

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