The Columbia History of the American Novel

by John Allen, of Richmond, -800- Virginia, he entered the University of Virginia in 1826, but left after only one year, following a bitter quarrel with Allen over debts. After brief stints in the United States Army and at West Point, Poe, destitute and wholly estranged from his one-time benefactor, located an aunt, Maria Clemm, and her daughter Virginia, whom he married in 1836. The remainder of his life is a chronicle of increasing desperation, as Poe tried to support his dependents on the unreliable income of his journalistic endeavors. Virginia died in 1847; Poe's depression deepened as his health and sanity deteriorated. In October 1849 he was found unconscious on a Baltimore street, and died four days later. Today, his literary legacy marks him as one of the most original creative minds of his time. His single novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838), is difficult to classify, but recounts the horrific adventures of a young stowaway on his voyage into a moral, as well as an Antarctic, abyss.

Elizabeth Payson Prentiss (1818-78)

Though Elizabeth Prentiss was born in Maine, she lived most of her life in New York. She wrote religious and juvenile fiction, the best known of which is Stepping Heavenward (1869), the fictional 'diary' of a religious Woman.

Manuel Puig (1932-)

Puig was born in General Villegas, a small town in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He attended the University of Buenos Aires before traveling in 1957 to Rome, where he studied at the Experimental Film Center. His best-known works are the novels La traición de Rita Hayworth (1968; Betrayed by Rita Hayworth, 1971) and El beso de la mujer araña (1976; Kiss of the Spider Woman, 1979). Apart from a short visit to Buenos Aires in 1967, Puig has made his home abroad, primarily in New York and Rome.

Thomas Pynchon (1937-)

Apart from the broad outlines of Pynchon's personal history, much about his life remains mysterious as a result of his legendary obsession with privacy. Born in Glen Cove, New York, Pynchon attended -801- Cornell University from 1953 to 1955, first studying physics, then English, dropped out to join the Signal Corps, and returned to school in 1957. While working as a technical writer for Boeing in Seattle, Pynchon achieved success writing stories. In 1963 he won the Faulkner Award for his first novel, V. A strange amalgam of spy thriller, quest mythology, alternate history, physics theory, puns, and self-reflexive literary games, the book draws on Pynchon's diverse education and interests, and immediately established him as a prodigious literary talent. Equally complex and challenging, The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) and Gravity's Rainbow (1973) further established Pynchon's reputation as one of the most important writers of the last half of the century. His most recent novel is Vineland (1989).

Ellery Queen

'Ellery Queen' was the name of a fictional detective and also the pseudonym under which two cousins, Manfred Lee (1905-71) and Frederic Dannay (1905-82), wrote numerous detective stories and novels, the first of which was The Roman Hat Mystery (1929). Their last collaboration was A Fine and Private Place (1971). In addition, they were joint editors of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, established in 1941. They also wrote under the name of Barnaby Ross.

John Rechy (1934-)

Born in El Paso, Texas, and a graduate of Texas Western College, Rechy also attended the New School for Social Research in New York City. At home in both the Southwest and New York, Rechy produces works that examine the forbidden, dark aspects of urban existence and homosexuality. Now a relocated Californian, Rechy currently teaches at the University of Southern California. His works include City of Night (1963), This Day's Death (1969), Numbers (1976), The Sexual Outlaw (1977), Rushes (1979), Body and Souls (1983), and Marilyn's Daughter (1988).

Ishmael Reed (1938-)

Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Reed moved with his mother to New York state at the age of four. He grew up in Buffalo and later -802- attended the university there. After graduation, Reed moved to New York City, where he worked with a number of journals and publishing firms. He cofounded the East Village Other and Advance. Relocating in California, Reed was president of Yardbird Publishing Company and director of Reed Cannon and Johnson Communications, becoming increasingly intrigued by the possibilities presented in video technology. During this period, Reed also taught at a number of universities, receiving appointments from the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Washington, and Yale University. Reed's fiction seeks to break away from the narrative-inspired autobiographical style associated with such African American writers as Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, and James Baldwin, seeking instead to reinstate an African mythology and to parody traditional Western aesthetic forms. His works include The Free-Lance Pallbearers (1967), Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down (1971), Catechism of D NeoAmerican Hoodoo Church (1970), Conjure (1972), Mumbo Jumbo (1972), The Last Days of Louisiana Red (1974), The Terrible Twos (1982), and Reckless Eyeballing (1986).

Jean Rhys (1895–1979)

Rhys was born in Dominica, an island in the British West Indies. As her Welsh surname suggests, Rhys's father was born in Wales and moved to the Indies in adulthood. But Rhys's mother was born in the British Indies and Rhys's life and fiction reflect the cultural diversity of her family life. Educated at convent schools and in London, Rhys later toured England as a chorus girl. Married for a time to poet Max Hamer, Rhys spent much of her life on the Continent. Her works include The Left Bank (1927), After Leaving Mr. MacKenzie (1930), the celebrated Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), Tigers Are Better Looking (1968), and Smile Please: An Unfinished Biography (1979).

Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876–1958)

Rinehart was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was the author of popular mystery novels, including The Circular Staircase (1908; dramatized as The Bat in 1920), The Man in Lower Ten (1909), The Door (1930), The Yellow Room (1945), and The Swimming Pool (1952). In addition to horror stories and detective fiction, she wrote -803- several plays and a series of humorous novels featuring 'Tish,' an eccentric spinster (The Amazing Adventures of Letitia Carberry [1911]; Tish [1916]; The Best of Tish [1955]).

Marilynne Robinson (1944-)

An alumna of Brown University, Robinson did her graduate work at the University of Washington in Seattle, and currently lives in Northampton, Massachusetts. Her first novel, Housekeeping (1981), makes reference to Robinson's own experiences in the Northwest. The problematic appearance of the past in contemporary life and the illusory nature of any attempt at permanence mark Robinson's work. Her second novel, Mother Country (1988), explores this familiar terrain.

O. E. Rölvaag (1876–1931)

Ole Edvart Rölvaag was born in Norway, immigrated to the United States in 1896, and graduated from St. Olaf College in Minnesota, where he was for many years a professor of Norwegian (all of his fiction was first written in Norwegian). His best-known work is the trilogy composed of Giants in the Earth (1927), Peder Victorious (1929), and Their Fathers' God (1931), about the struggles of Norwegian immigrants in the Dakotas.

Renato Ignacio Rosaldo (1912-)

Born in Minatatlan, in the state of Veracruz, Mexico, Rosaldo came to the United States in 1930. He attended high school in Chicago and in 1942 he received a Ph.D. in Spanish from the University of Illinois. A committed advocate of Chicano concerns and a promoter of the Spanish language, Rosaldo is active in the MLA and in the American Association of Teachers. He co-authored Six Faces of Mexico (1966) and edited Chicano: The Evolution of a People (1973).

Sinclair Ross (1908-)