John Winslow Irving (born March 2, 1942 as John Wallace Blunt, Jr.) is a bestselling American novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter. Image File history File linksMetadata Johnirving. ... March 2 is the 61st day of the year (62nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... Location in Rockingham County, New Hampshire Coordinates: Country United States State New Hampshire County Rockingham County Incorporated 1638  - Board of Selectmen Paul Binette, Chairman Robert Eastman Joe Pace William Campbell Lionel Ingram Area    - Town 51. ... For the album by the Kaiser Chiefs see Employment (album) Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ... Dickens redirects here. ... Nathaniel Hawthorne (born Nathaniel Hathorne; July 4, 1804 - May 19, 1864) was a 19th century American novelist and short story writer. ... Günter Wilhelm Grass (born October 16, 1927) is a Nobel Prize-winning German author. ... Theodore R. Seabrooke was the longtime wrestling coach at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire. ... March 2 is the 61st day of the year (62nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent and most watched film awards ceremony in the world. ...

Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of The World According to Garp in 1978. All of Irving's novels, such as The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany, have been bestsellers and many have been made into movies. Several of Irving's books (Garp, Meany, Widow) and short stores have been set in and around Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire where Irving grew up as the son of an Exeter faculty member ("fac brat"). The World According to Garp book cover The World According to Garp is a novel by John Irving. ... The Cider House Rules book cover This article relates to the novel, The Cider House Rules by John Irving. ... A Prayer for Owen Meany is a novel by American writer John Irving, first published in 1989. ... A bestseller is a book that is identified as extremely popular by its inclusion on a list of top-sellers. ... Meany could refer to: George Meany, an American labor leader, first president of the AFL-CIO. A Prayer for Owen Meany, a novel by American novelist John Irving. ... A widow is a woman whose spouse has died. ... Phillips Exeter Academy (most commonly called Exeter, also Phillips Exeter or PEA) is a co-educational independent boarding school for grades 9–12, located on 619 acres[1] in Exeter, New Hampshire, USA, fifty miles north of Boston. ... Location in Rockingham County, New Hampshire Coordinates: Country United States State New Hampshire County Rockingham County Incorporated 1638  - Board of Selectmen Paul Binette, Chairman Robert Eastman Joe Pace William Campbell Lionel Ingram Area    - Town 51. ... The city of Exeter is the county town of Devon, in the southwest of England, also known as the Westcountry. ...

In the Wrestling program at Exeter under Wrestling Coach Ted Seabrooke he found himself, hence wrestling features prominently in his books, stories and his life. The city of Exeter is the county town of Devon, in the southwest of England, also known as the Westcountry. ... Theodore R. Seabrooke was the longtime wrestling coach at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire. ...

He also won the 2000 Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award for his script The Cider House Rules. This article relates to the film, The Cider House Rules (film) directed by Lasse Hallström. ...

Career

Irving's career began at the age of 26 with the publication of his first novel, Setting Free the Bears. The novel was reasonably well reviewed, but failed to garner much of an audience. In the late 1960s he studied with Kurt Vonnegut at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. His second and third novels, The Water-Method Man and The 158-Pound Marriage, were similarly received. At around this time, in 1975, Irving accepted a position as Assistant Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College. Setting Free the Bears is the first novel by American author John Irving, published in 1968 by Random House. ... Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. ... The Program in Creative Writing, more commonly known as the Iowa Writers Workshop, at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa is a prestigious college and graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. ... The Water Method Man (1972) is the second novel written by American novelist John Irving (1942-). The novel revolves around the mishaps of its narrator, Fred Trumper, a floundering late-twenty-something graduate student with serious commitment and honesty issues that earn him the nickname Bogus. ... The 158-Pound Marriage book cover John Irvings third and perhaps darkest novel, The 158-Pound Marriage examines the sexual revolution-era trend of swinging (wife swapping) via a glimpse into the lives of two couples in a small New England college town who enter casually into such an... Mount Holyoke College is a liberal arts womens college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. ...

Frustrated at the lack of promotion his novels were garnering from his first publisher, Random House, Irving chose to offer his fourth novel, The World According to Garp (1978), to Dutton, which promised him a stronger marketing push. The novel went on to become a massive international bestseller and cultural phenomenon, and was a finalist for the American Book Award (now the National Book Award) for hardcover fiction in 1979 (the award went to Tim O'Brien for Going After Cacciato). Garp won the National Book Foundation's award for paperback fiction the following year. Garp was later made into a film directed by George Roy Hill and starring Robin Williams in the title role and Glenn Close as his mother; it garnered several Academy Award nominations, including nominations for Close and John Lithgow. Irving makes a brief cameo in the film as an official in one of Garp's high school wrestling matches. Irving also has a cameo appearance in the film version of The Cider House Rules as a train station agent. Random House is a publishing division of the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann based in New York City. ... The World According to Garp book cover The World According to Garp is a novel by John Irving. ... Year 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar). ... E. P. Dutton is an American book publishing company founded as a book retailer in Boston, Massachusetts in 1852 by Edward Payson Dutton. ... The American Book Award was established in 1978 by the Before Columbus Foundation. ... The National Book Awards is one of the most preeminent literary prizes in the United States. ... Tim OBrien Tim OBrien (born October 1, 1946) American novelist who mainly writes about his experiences in the Vietnam War and the impact that the war had on the American soldiers who fought there. ... Written by author Tim OBrien and winner of the National Big Dick Award for fiction in 1890, this complex novel is set during the Vietnam War and is told from the point of view of the protagonist, Dick Cheney. ... The National Book Foundation, founded 1988, is a non-profit American literary foundation established to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America. ... George Roy Hill (December 20, 1922 – December 27, 2002) was an American film director. ... Robin McLaurin Williams (born July 21, 1951 or 1952)[1] is an Academy Award-winning American actor and comedian. ... Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is a five time Academy Award-nominated American film and stage actress. ... Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ... John Arthur Lithgow (IPA: [ʤɔn lɪˌθ.ĝo]) (born October 19, 1945) is an American actor perhaps best-known for his starring role as Dick Solomon in the NBC sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun. ... The Cider House Rules book cover This article relates to the novel, The Cider House Rules by John Irving. ...

John Irving in Warsaw, Poland, 10.09.2006

Garp transformed Irving from an obscure, academic literary writer to a household name, guaranteeing bestseller status for all of his subsequent books. The first of these was The Hotel New Hampshire (1981), which sold well despite being poorly received by critics and, like Garp, was quickly made into a film, this time directed by Tony Richardson and starring Jodie Foster, Rob Lowe, and Beau Bridges. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Motto: Contemnit procellas (It defies the storms) Semper invicta (Always invincible) Coordinates: Country Poland Voivodeship Masovia Powiat city county Gmina Warszawa Districts 18 boroughs City Rights turn of the 13th century Government  - Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz (PO) Area  - City 516. ... Categories: Literature stubs | 1981 books | Novels | Books starting with H ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Tony Richardson (June 5, 1928 - November 14, 1991) was a British theatre and film director and producer. ... Jodie Foster (born November 19, 1962) is a two-time Academy Award-winning American actress, director, and producer. ... Robert Hepler Lowe (born March 17, 1964) is an American actor. ... Born Lloyd Vernet Bridges III on December 9, 1941 in Los Angeles, California is an United States American actor. ...

In 1985 Irving published The Cider House Rules, a sprawling epic centered around a Maine orphanage. Its central topic is abortion, and the novel is perhaps the most obvious example of Charles Dickens' influence on Irving's writing. Irving followed it in 1989 with A Prayer for Owen Meany, another New England family epic centered around themes of religiousness. Again, the main setting is a New England boarding school, and inspirations for the characters can be found in many of Irving's influences, including The Tin Drum by Günter Grass, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the works of Dickens. In Owen Meany, Irving for the first time examined the consequences of the Vietnam War - particularly mandatory conscription, which Irving avoided since he was already a married father and a teacher when eligible for the draft. Owen Meany became Irving's bestselling book since Garp, and is now a frequent feature on high school English reading lists. 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Cider House Rules book cover This article relates to the novel, The Cider House Rules by John Irving. ... Dickens redirects here. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A Prayer for Owen Meany is a novel by American writer John Irving, first published in 1989. ... The Tin Drum (German: Die Blechtrommel) is a 1959 novel by Günter Grass. ... Günter Wilhelm Grass (born October 16, 1927) is a Nobel Prize-winning German author. ... This article is about the 1850 book. ... Nathaniel Hawthorne (born Nathaniel Hathorne; July 4, 1804 - May 19, 1864) was a 19th century American novelist and short story writer. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000... Conscription is a general term for forced labor demanded by some established authority, e. ...

Irving returned to Random House for his next book, A Son of the Circus (1995). Arguably his most complicated and difficult book, it was dismissed by critics but became a national bestseller on the strength of Irving's reputation for fashioning literate, engrossing page-turners. Irving returned to better form in 1998 with A Widow for One Year, which was named a New York Times Notable Book. 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... A Widow for One Year book cover A Widow for One Year is a John Irving novel, released in 1998, The novel is about the lives of Ruth Cole and Eddie OHare, both novelists. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

In 1999, after nearly ten 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. The film was nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and earned Irving an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Year 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar). ... The Cider House Rules book cover This article relates to the novel, The Cider House Rules by John Irving. ... Lena Olin, Lasse Hallström, and Juliette Binoche at the premiere of Chocolat at the 2001 Berlinale (photo by Michael Weiner) Lars Sven (Lasse) Hallström (born 2 June 1946 in Stockholm) is a Swedish film director. ... Sir Maurice Joseph Micklewhite CBE (born March 14, 1933), known professionally as Michael Caine, is a two-time Academy Award-winning British film actor. ... Tobias Vincent Maguire (born June 27, 1975) is an American actor. ... Charlize Theron (born August 7, 1975) is an Academy Award winning South African actress and former fashion model. ... Delroy Lindo (born November 18, 1952, Eltham, London, England, UK) is a British actor. ... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent and most watched film awards ceremony in the world. ... Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ...

The Fourth Hand, was published in 2001; savaged by critics, it nevertheless became a bestseller. A Sound Like Someone Trying Not to Make a Sound, a children's story originally included in A Widow for One Year, was published as a book with illustrations by Tatjana Hauptmann in 2004. Irving's most recent novel, entitled Until I Find You, was released on July 12, 2005. The Fourth Hand book cover The Fourth Hand is a novel written by the American novelist John Irving in 2001. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A Sound Like Someone Trying Not to Make a Sound (Doubleday Books for Young Readers, September 28, 2004, ISBN 0-385-74680-6) is a childrens picture book by John Irving, and is also a story from the 1998 novel A Widow for One Year, also by Irving. ... shelby was here 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Until I Find You is a 2005 novel by John Irving about a Canadian actor named Jack Burns. ... July 12 is the 193rd day (194th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 172 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

On June 28, 2005, The New York Times published an article [1] revealing that Until I Find You contains two specifically personal elements about his life that he has never before discussed publicly: his sexual abuse at age 11 by an older woman, and the recent entrance in his life of his biological father's family. June 28 is the 179th day of the year (180th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 186 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The New York Times is a daily newspaper published in New York City by Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. ... Until I Find You is a 2005 novel by John Irving about a Canadian actor named Jack Burns. ...

Other projects

Since the publication of "Garp" made him independently wealthy, Irving has been able to concentrate solely on fiction writing as a vocation, sporadically accepting short-term teaching positions (including one at his alma mater, the Iowa Writers' Workshop) and serving as an assistant coach on his sons' high school wrestling teams. In addition to his novels, he has also published Trying to Save Piggy Sneed, a collection of his writings including a brief memoir and unpublished short fiction, My Movie Business, an account of the protracted process of bringing The Cider House Rules to the big screen, and The Imaginary Girlfriend, a short memoir focusing on writing and wrestling. The Program in Creative Writing, more commonly known as the Iowa Writers Workshop, at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa is a prestigious college and graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. ... Trying to Save Piggy Sneed is a collection of short works by John Irving, first published by Arcade Publishing in 1996. ... The Cider House Rules book cover This article relates to the novel, The Cider House Rules by John Irving. ...

Recent

In recent years, his three most highly regarded novels, The World According to Garp, The Cider House Rules, and A Prayer for Owen Meany, have been published in Modern Library editions. Owen Meany was adapted into a children's film, Simon Birch (Irving disowned this adaptation, going so far as to request that all of the characters' names be changed for the film version). In 2004, a portion of A Widow for One Year was adapted into The Door in the Floor, starring Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger. The World According to Garp book cover The World According to Garp is a novel by John Irving. ... The Cider House Rules book cover This article relates to the novel, The Cider House Rules by John Irving. ... A Prayer for Owen Meany is a novel by American writer John Irving, first published in 1989. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Simon Birch is a 1998 drama and comedy film loosely based on the novel A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. ... shelby was here 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A Widow for One Year book cover A Widow for One Year is a John Irving novel, released in 1998, The novel is about the lives of Ruth Cole and Eddie OHare, both novelists. ... The Door in the Floor is a 2004 film directed by Tod Williams. ... Jeffrey Leon Bridges (born December 4, 1949 in Los Angeles, California) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor. ... Kimila Ann Basinger (pronounced (bay-sing-ger), often mispronounced ) (born December 8, 1953 in Athens, Georgia) is an Academy Award-winning American film actress and former fashion model. ...

Bibliography

• Setting Free the Bears (1968)
• The Water-Method Man (1972)
• The 158-Pound Marriage (1974)
• The World According to Garp (1978)
• The Hotel New Hampshire (1981)
• The Cider House Rules (1985)
• A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989)
• Trying to Save Piggy Sneed (collection, 1993)
• A Son of the Circus (1994)
• A Widow for One Year (1998)
• My Movie Business (non-fiction, 2000)
• The Fourth Hand (2001)
• The Imaginary Girlfriend (non-fiction, 2002)
• A Sound Like Someone Trying Not to Make a Sound (2004)
• Until I Find You (2005)

Setting Free the Bears is the first novel by American author John Irving, published in 1968 by Random House. ... Year 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the 1968 Gregorian calendar. ... The Water Method Man (1972) is the second novel written by American novelist John Irving (1942-). The novel revolves around the mishaps of its narrator, Fred Trumper, a floundering late-twenty-something graduate student with serious commitment and honesty issues that earn him the nickname Bogus. ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... The 158-Pound Marriage book cover John Irvings third and perhaps darkest novel, The 158-Pound Marriage examines the sexual revolution-era trend of swinging (wife swapping) via a glimpse into the lives of two couples in a small New England college town who enter casually into such an... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... The World According to Garp book cover The World According to Garp is a novel by John Irving. ... Year 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar). ... Categories: Literature stubs | 1981 books | Novels | Books starting with H ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Cider House Rules book cover This article relates to the novel, The Cider House Rules by John Irving. ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A Prayer for Owen Meany is a novel by American writer John Irving, first published in 1989. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Trying to Save Piggy Sneed is a collection of short works by John Irving, first published by Arcade Publishing in 1996. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ... A Widow for One Year book cover A Widow for One Year is a John Irving novel, released in 1998, The novel is about the lives of Ruth Cole and Eddie OHare, both novelists. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Fourth Hand book cover The Fourth Hand is a novel written by the American novelist John Irving in 2001. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... A Sound Like Someone Trying Not to Make a Sound (Doubleday Books for Young Readers, September 28, 2004, ISBN 0-385-74680-6) is a childrens picture book by John Irving, and is also a story from the 1998 novel A Widow for One Year, also by Irving. ... shelby was here 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Until I Find You is a 2005 novel by John Irving about a Canadian actor named Jack Burns. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Quotes

• "The building of the architecture of a novel-- the craft of it--is something I never tire of."

• "In this way, in increments both measurable and not, our childhood is stolen from us -- not always in one momentous event but often in a series of small robberies, which add up to the same loss."

• "I spend about two to three months planning the path of the book in my head before I write the last sentence of the novel. From there I work back to the beginning. From the day I think of the last sentence to the book's publication date, not more than a semicolon has changed."

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

John Irving

• Literary Encyclopedia
• 1985 and 1989 audio interviews of John Irving by Don Swaim
• John Irving at the Internet Movie Database
• InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse: John Irving (TV Interview)
• John Irving Is God (information, including large bibliography)