Frederick Exley
Frederick Exley, ( born March 28, 1929 in Watertown, New York, † June 17, 1992 ) was an American writer. His most famous work is the novel A Fan's Notes.
Life
Frederick Exleys life was greatly influenced by his father. This died when Exley was 16 years old. His example as a successful athlete and basketball coach wanted or needed to emulate Exley long - or it was reproached to him.
1946 Exley was seriously injured in a car accident and could thus not complete on time from high school. Following a job as a railway worker he attended John Jay High School in Katonah and was elected there in the All-Star basketball team in the local league. Subsequently, he attended Hobart College in Geneva in 1949. A year later he went to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. There he began to obsession the sporting career of a fellow student, the future football star Frank Gifford track - something that would later be reflected in his book A Fan's Notes. The service in the army he escaped in 1951, as made him his injuries sustained in the car accident injuries in 1946 incapacitated.
1952 Exley left the University of Southern California and moved to New York. 1953 however, he returned to Los Angeles and completed his studies with a Bachelor's degree in English from. He then went back to New York, where he worked in the PR department of the New York Central Railroad. In 1954 he settled in Chicago move, where he worked for the rock Iceland Railroad and editor of the newspaper was operating.
In 1956, he was released - which his increasing alcoholism had contributed. The following year he was drinker, mentally unstable, and increasingly stubborn in his obsession with sports. 1958 Exley was admitted to the hospital Stony Lodge in Westchester County. There he met Fritz Francena know. In 1959 he was transferred to the Harlem Valley State Hospital. After his release he married on October 31, 1959 Francena Fritz and moved to Greenwich (Connecticut) with her. In Port Chester, he got a job as a teacher. 1960 his daughter Pamela Rae Exley was born.
1961 could be Francena Fritz divorce. Exley taught in sequence at different locations in the state of New York. Its always more increasing alcoholism, however, led to the fact that these jobs were interrupted by short duration and often of stays in nursing homes. 1965 Exley Nancy Glenn had met in Florida. In 1966 she got a divorce from her husband and moved in with Exley. 1967 Exleys second daughter, Alexandra Exley was born in 1968 severely disabled son, Robert Brandon Exley. During this time, Exley was working on his second novel Pages From A Cold Iceland.
In 1964 Exley had submitted the manuscript of A Fan's Notes by Houghton Mifflin - but it was rejected. Mediated by an agent, it was finally published in 1968 by Harper & Row. Although the book did not sell too well, but was highly respected by critics. This meant that it was nominated for a National Book Award a William Faulkner Award was awarded as the best first novel and was awarded a Rosenthal Award. In addition, Exley received a $ 10,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. Also on other writers, especially of the New Journalism, the book with his subjective style, his everyday subject had a strong influence. Hunter S. Thompson was heavily influenced by Exleys style and called it repeatedly as one of his favorite books.
1970 bought Exleys mother a house in Alexandria Bay. Exley, a retired - and should be there for the next 20 years, interrupted by stays in Florida and Hawaii, live. In 1971, Exley and Nancy Glenn divorced, and in the same year died his son. 1972 Exley was a guest lecturer at the University of Iowa. In the same year A Fan 's Notes was filmed in Canada. Appeared in 1975 Exleys second novel Pages from a Cold Iceland, but found less attention from the critics as his first.
1984 Exley received a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation. In 1988 his third book Last Notes From Home. On June 10, 1992, he died of a heart attack. He was buried in the Brookside Cemetery in Watertown, New York.
Bibliography
- A Fan 's Notes, Harper & Row, 1968
- Pages from a Cold Iceland, Random House, 1975
- Last Notes from Home, Random House, 1988
About Frederick Exley
- Jonathan Yardley: The Strange Life of Frederick Exley, New York, Random House, 1997