Donald Barthelme, born April 7, 1931 in Philadelphia. As a student in 1951 he wrote for the Houston Post. He was drafted into the army in 1953, arriving the day they signed the peace treaty. He worked for a short time as an editor of a army newspaper, before returning to his station at the Houston Post. He taught at the University of Buffalo and Boston Collage. In the same year he became the Director of the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston and also published his first short story. During his life he would write over 100 short stories, and twelve books. Many would consider his father a demanding person, and that coupled with a rebellious teenager would be the inspiration of some of his stories like The Dead Father. Mr. Barthelme was known as someone who enjoyed his drinks a little too much. Mr. Barthelme used a style in his writing called "flash fiction" in which he compacted all the points of his story into a few pages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Barthelme
A reading of "The School"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpzY4-wo4EM
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ReplyDeleteI like the facts you decided to include, I feel that they are important, and not superfluous. However, I think you could have done it in a more creative fashion. Maybe even just a list of things rather than a paragraph, but I like how you kept it short and sweet and to the point.
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