William Gaddis (December 29, 1922 - December 16, 1998) was an American novelist. He wrote five novels, of which two won the National Book Award. December 29 is the 363rd day of the year (364th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 2 days remaining. ... 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... The National Book Awards is the most important literary prize in the United States, presented annually for the best books by living U.S. citizens published in the U.S. The awards have been presented since 1950 in at least one category, and is presently awarded in each of four...

Gaddis was born in Manhattan to William Thomas Gaddis, who worked "on Wall Street and in politics," and Edith Gaddis, an executive for the New York Steam Corporation. When he was 3, his parents separated and Gaddis was subsequently raised by his mother in Massapequa, Long Island. At age 5 he was sent to Merricourt Boarding School in Berlin, Connecticut. He continued in private school until the eighth grade, after which he returned to Long Island to receive his diploma at Farmingdale High School in 1941. He entered Harvard in 1941 and famously wrote for the Harvard Lampoon (and where he eventually served as President), but was asked to leave in 1944, after a drunken brawl. He worked as a fact checker for The New Yorker for two years, then spent five years traveling in Central America, the Caribbean, North Africa, and Paris, returning to the United States in 1951. Manhattan Borough,highlighted in yellow, lies between the East River and the Hudson River. ... Massapequa is a census-designated place located in Nassau County, New York. ... The four counties of Long Island. ... Berlin is a town located in Hartford County, Connecticut. ... For the movie, see 1941 (film) 1941 (MCMXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Harvard Lampoon is an undergraduate humor organization founded in 1876 at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... A fact checker is a person whose job consists of checking factual assertions made in news copy to determine whether they are correct. ... The New Yorkers first cover, which is reprinted most years on the magazines anniversary. ... Commonly, Central America is the region of North America located between the southern border of Mexico and the northwest border of Colombia, in South America. ... ... North Africa is a region generally considered to include: Algeria Egypt Libya Mauritania Morocco Sudan Tunisia Western Sahara The Azores, Canary Islands, and Madeira are sometimes considered to be a part of North Africa. ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ...

His first novel, The Recognitions, appeared in 1955. A lengthy, complex, and allusive work, it had to wait to find its audience. Newspaper reviewers considered it overly intellectual, overwritten, and perhaps on the principle of omne ignotum per obscaenum, filthy. (The book was defended by Jack Green in a series of broadsheets blasting the critics, which was collected later under the title Fire the Bastards!) Shortly after its publication, Gaddis married his first wife, Patricia Black, who would give birth to his only children: Sarah and Matthew. The Recognitions is a 1955 novel by American William Gaddis. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Gaddis then turned to public relations work and the making of documentary films to support himself and his family. In this role he worked for Pfizer International, Eastman Kodak, IBM, and the United States Army, among others. He also received a National Institute of Arts and Letters grant, a Rockefeller grant and two National Endowment for the Arts grants, all of which helped him write his second novel. In 1975 he published J R, an even more difficult work than The Recognitions, told entirely in dialogue, with no direct indication of who is speaking at any given time. Its eponymous protagonist, an 11-year-old, learns enough about the stock market from a class field trip to build a financial empire of his own. Critical opinion had caught up with him, and the book won the National Book Award. A few years later the hugely successfully television show Dallas featured a tycoon named "JR," albeit somewhat older, and the real-life market of the 80s and since has borne an alarming resemblance to some of the machinations described here. His marriage to his second wife, Judith Thompson, dissolved shortly after the book was published. By the late 1970s, Gaddis had entered into a relationship with Muriel Oxenberg Murphy, and they lived together until the mid-1990s. Public relations is, simply-stated, the art and science of building relationships between an organization and its key audiences. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... J R is a novel by William Gaddis. ... The National Book Awards is the most important literary prize in the United States, presented annually for the best books by living U.S. citizens published in the U.S. The awards have been presented since 1950 in at least one category, and is presently awarded in each of four... Dallas redirects here. ...

Carpenter's Gothic (1985) offered a shorter and more accessible picture of Gaddis's sardonic worldview. The continuing litigation that was a theme in that book takes center place in A Frolic of His Own (1994), where it seems that everyone is suing someone. There is even a Japanese car called the Sosumi. (Gaddis has never been afraid of the pun. There is a character in The Recognitions named Recktall Brown.) This article is about the year. ... A world view, also spelled as worldview is a term calqued from the German word Weltanschauung (look onto the world). The German word is also in wide use in English, as well as the translated form world outlook. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ...

Gaddis died of prostate cancer on December 16, 1998, but not before creating his final work, Agapē Agape (the first word of the title is the Greek Agapē, meaning divine, unconditional love), which was published in 2002, a novella in the form of the last words of a character similar but not identical to his creator. December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... AgapÄ“ (in Greek written αγάπη; pronounced /aga̍pe/ or /a̍gape/) is the Greek word for divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing, actional, volitional, thoughtful love. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

After years of critical neglect, Gaddis is now often acknowledged as being one of the greatest of American post-war novelists. His influence is vast (although frequently subterranean): for example, it is clear that authors such as Don DeLillo and Thomas Pynchon have been influenced by Gaddis. He has received the following awards and honorary positions: the MacArthur Foundation’s "genius award" (1982); elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (1989); the Lannan Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement (1993). His papers are collected at Washington University in St. Louis. Don DeLillo (born November 20, 1936) is an American author best known for his novels, which paint detailed portraits of American life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. ... Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. ... The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private, independent grantmaking institution. ... Washington University in St. ...

Works

• The Recognitions (1955)
• J R - National Book Award (1975)
• Carpenter's Gothic (1985)
• A Frolic of His Own - American Book Award, National Book Award (1994)
• Agape Agape {2002)
• The Rush for Second Place {2002)

The Recognitions is a 1955 novel by American William Gaddis. ... See also: 1954 in literature, other events of 1955, 1956 in literature, list of years in literature. ... J R is a novel by William Gaddis. ... The National Book Awards is the most important literary prize in the United States, presented annually for the best books by living U.S. citizens published in the U.S. The awards have been presented since 1950 in at least one category, and is presently awarded in each of four... See also: 1974 in literature, other events of 1975, 1976 in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 1984 in literature, other events of 1985, 1986 in literature, list of years in literature. ... The American Book Award was established in 1978 by the Before Columbus Foundation. ... The National Book Awards is the most important literary prize in the United States, presented annually for the best books by living U.S. citizens published in the U.S. The awards have been presented since 1950 in at least one category, and is presently awarded in each of four... See also: 1993 in literature, other events of 1994, 1995 in literature, list of years in literature. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• The William Gaddis papers at Washington University in St. Louis

• The William Gaddis pages at The Modern Word website

• The Gaddis Annotations, a comprehensive web site