Annie Dillard

Annie Dillard, born meta Annie Doak ( born October 30, 1945 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ) is an American poet, essayist and university teacher who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek in 1975.

Biography

Annie Doak, who came from a wealthy family, already developed early a great love for nature, which was sponsored by her parents. Her father also taught in extracurricular subjects like economics, plumbing and let them read works of the Beat Generation as Road by Jack Kerouac. Later she leant temporarily against the embossed by the Presbyterian Church to education, to a priest introduced her to the theological work of CS Lewis. As a teenager, she became interested in the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and began the writing of his first poems. Later she worked with spiritual practices and moved here views of Buddhism, Judaism, Sufism and Christianity, but also customs of the Inuit culture a.

After school she studied English at Hollins College in Roanoke ( Virginia) and graduated in 1967 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA English) from. At Hollins College, she met her first husband, ten years her senior university professor RHW Dillard, and married this in the second year of study. A thereat followed by postgraduate studies she completed in 1968 with a Master of Arts (MA English) with a thesis on the book Walden of the writer Henry David Thoreau in which he described his simple life on the lake and in nature, in which he also topics such as the economy and society built.

Much like Thoreau in Walden she made herself in 1971 its own "exodus" in nature, after they had previously almost died of pneumonia. After recovering her health, she lived then almost a year amid the beautiful scenery of forests by Tinker Creek. She wrote a journal in which she described her views and observations of nature, spirituality and religion. She started 16 hours a day to write, lived from coffee and Coca -Cola and had some days no sleep. During the stay she lost 15 kg in weight and also the plants in the house were received. Established in 1974, published under the title Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, in the form of essays journal her stay in 1975 was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.

Also in 1974 she published with Tickets for a Prayer Wheel, a first anthology. After that she worked from 1975 to 1978 as a resident scholar ( Scholar ) at Western Washington University ( WWU ) before the call took from 1979 to 1981 as a professor at Wesleyan University.

Dillard, whose style is often compared to that of Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, was also by their ökotheologischen or ökospirituellen essays known as Holy the Firm (1977 ), Teaching a Stone to Talk (1982 ) and For the Time Being (1999). After Living by Fiction ( 1982), a book on literary criticism, and the travelogue Encounters with Chinese Writers (1984 ), she wrote in 1987 with An American Childhood ( 1987) her memoirs. This was followed by The Writing Life (1989 ), in which she described the " craft " work of a writer before with The Living (1992 ) wrote a novel, which dealt with the history of the American Indians and the first settlers in the State of Washington and with the was compared to works by Willa Cather, but also of James Joyce.

According to the The Annie Dillard Reader (1994 ) Collection appeared with Mornings Like This: Found Poems (1995 ), another book of poetry. She also wrote articles for newspapers and magazines such as Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, The Christian Science Monitor and Cosmopolitan.

In addition to the Pulitzer Prize she received numerous other awards including the New York Press Club Award, the Literature Prize of the governor of Washington, the art prize of the Governor of Connecticut (1993 ) and the History Makers Award from the Western Pennsylvania Historical Society (1993 ) excellent. Besides her honorary doctorates of Connecticut College, Boston College and the University of Hartford were awarded.

Annie Dillard was finally engaged politically and support the Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004.

2007 appeared The Maytrees, a gambling in Provincetown another novel. Her works have been translated into German, among others, by Henning Ahrens. In 2013 she was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Background literature

  • Linda L. Smith, Annie Dillard, New York, Twayne, 1991
  • Sandra Humble Johnson: The Space Between: Literary Epiphany in the Work of Annie Dillard, Kent State University Press, 1992
  • Scott Slovic: Seeking Awareness in American Nature Writing: Henry Thoreau, Annie Dillard, Edward Abbey, Wendell Berry, Barry Lopez, Salt Lake City, University of Utah Press, 1992
  • James I. McClintock: Nature's Kindred Spirits: Aldo Leopold, Joseph Wood Krutch, Edward Abbey, Annie Dillard, and Gary Snyder, Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1994
  • Nancy C. Parrish: Lee Smith, Annie Dillard, and the Hollins Group: A Genesis of Writers, Louisiana State University Press, 1999
  • Philip Harnden: Journeys of Simplicity: Traveling Light with Thomas Merton, Bashō, Edward Abbey, Annie Dillard and Others, Skylight Paths Publishing, 2003

External links and sources

  • Annie Dillard in the Notable Names Database (English)
  • Homepage of Annie Dillard
  • Biography
  • Featured Author: Annie Dillard -With News and Reviews From the Archives of The New York Times
  • Bibliography ( amazon.de )
  • Citations (women history)
On the Road Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Lyric poetry Spiritualism Roanoke (Virginia) Coca-Cola Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction Scholarly method#Scholars Native Americans in the United States Washington (state) Cosmopolitan (magazine) List of Governors of Washington List of Governors of Connecticut Provincetown, Massachusetts Lee Smith (editor) Integrated Authority File
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