Hiding Man: A Biography of Donald Barthelme [Hardcover]

Tracy Daugherty (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 3, 2009

In the 1960s Donald Barthelme came to prominence as the leader of the Postmodern movement. He was a fixture at the New Yorker, publishing more than 100 short stories, including such masterpieces as "Me and Miss Mandible," the tale of a thirty-five-year-old sent to elementary school by clerical error, and "A Shower of Gold,"in which a sculptor agrees to appear on the existentialist game show Who Am I? He had a dynamic relationship with his father that influenced much of his fiction. He worked as an editor, a designer, a curator, a news reporter, and a teacher. He was at the forefront of literary Greenwich Village which saw him develop lasting friendships with Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Wolfe, Grace Paley, and Norman Mailer. Married four times, he had a volatile private life. He died of cancer in 1989. The recipient of many prestigious literary awards, he is best remembered for the classic novels Snow White, The Dead Father, and many short stories, all of which remain in print today.  This is the first biography of Donald Barthelme, and it is nothing short of a masterpiece.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. This sprawling first biography of the writer Donald Barthelme (1931–1989) complements an exemplary account of the man and his milieu with a history of 20th-century architecture, film, philosophy, visual art and political activism—not to mention a stunning exegesis of Barthelme's work and a surfeit of vignettes from New York literary life in the 1960s and '70s. Daugherty, a professor of English and creative writing at Oregon State and former student of Barthelme, renders the writer of The Dead Father in all his complexity: the experimental iconoclast, the establishment figure without a university degree who published more than 100 stories in the New Yorker, the citizen-activist, admitted alcoholic, the devoted if distant father and the prankster on the page. While Daugherty firmly takes Barthelme's side in his four troubled marriages, he assesses the writer's legacy, his champions and detractors (e.g., Joyce Carol Oates, John Gardner and the hundreds of readers who canceled their New Yorker subscriptions in 1968 to protest the publication of his catty Snow White). Like Barthelme's best stories, this unapologetically literary and ambitious book is cultural and artistic bricolage at its finest. 16 pages of b&w photos. (Feb.)
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From Bookmarks Magazine

Critics unanimously applaud Daugherty for the first comprehensive, analytical biography of his former teacher. The Oregonian calls Hiding Man a "remarkably tender, sympathetic treatment" of Barthelme, and while Daugherty may have given Barthelme a glowing biography, he doesn't downplay his more negative traits. The book also does an excellent job of connecting the writer to his literary and social context. The Oregonian notes that while Barthelme can be difficult to read, "in Daugherty's hands the stories seem not nearly as challenging as they are inviting," a point echoed by the Washington Post. Readers interested in Barthelme will find an informative, entertaining biography; readers unacquainted with this postmodern giant may wish to start with one of his short story collections.
Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 592 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition; First Printing edition (February 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312378688
• ISBN-13: 978-0312378684
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.9 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,263,168 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating & Award Worthy February 21, 2009

By City Man

Format:Hardcover

This biography is a well researched, fascinating account of an American original. It reads like a novel, but also has the scholarship and insight into Barthelme's work that one would demand. It's also a personal and moving portrait since the author knew Barthelme at one point during his life. I highly recommend this. Should get noticed for awards and certainly deserves to be read for its pleasure.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Top-notch -- bio & analysis w/ something to say March 9, 2009

By John Domini

Format:Hardcover

I finished this over the weekend, in a matter of days after I picking it up, & I found it nothing short of masterly. Tracy Daugherty begins w/ a crucial understanding, namely, that Donald Barthelme's life & career set a challenge for American imaginative literature, for what it holds valuable. So this entire espresso-rich compendium of pertinent life-detail -- reaching back to the founding of Houston & of Greenwich Village, to the structure & symbolism of Dante's DIVINE COMEDY, to the place of Andromache & Penelope in Homeric myth -- the entire book -- neglecting none of Barthelme's busy family, none of his stabs at reporting, at teaching, at art-curating, collage-making, radio-writing, jazz-playing, & none of his heavy drinking either, & certainly neglecting none of his many wives & lovers, a number of them (like Grace Paley) superb artists themselves -- still the entire biography never gets far from its argument. Barthelme's work, in Daugherty's ever-sensitive assessments, never lacks for the *edge* that drove it. As a writer, he was always up against the prevailing powers, & always subverting them w/ wit, intelligence, surprise, & a "golden ear" (to borrow the expression several of the former lovers & friends in this book find themselves using). In HIDING MAN Barthelme has a life-story worthy of the struggle to which he, all light-heartedly, dedicated his vocation. Anyone seeking to matter in the arts could learn from the fascinating, scrupulous, & highly humane scholarship Daugherty brings off here.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hiding Man Artfully Revealed April 6, 2009

By Gail D. Storey

Format:Hardcover

I can't imagine a better person to have written this first-rate biography of Donald Barthelme than Tracy Daugherty, who has brought his perspectives as writer, scholar, protege, friend, and person of integrity to bear on the artful revelation of one of our most important writers. Daugherty gives us a felt sense of the questions that drove Barthelme to become who he was and to make breakthroughs in language and consciousness. A student of Barthelme's at the same time as Tracy Daugherty, I can attest to his portrayal of Barthelme as mentor--demanding, generous, wise. But what fascinates me now, years later, is understanding Barthelme in the context of his time and as a shaper of new realities. Barthelme loved to put "a new thing into the world," and I can almost hear his clipped approval of Daugherty's biography of him, in all his complexity, brilliance, and humanness.