Evan S. Connell

Evan S. Connell
Born	Evan Shelby Connell Jr. (1924-08-17)August 17, 1924 Kansas City, Missouri
Died	January 10, 2013(2013-01-10) (aged 88) Santa Fe, New Mexico
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	American
Period	1957–2013
Genre	Fiction, non-fiction
Notable works	Mrs. Bridge, Mr. Bridge, Son of the Morning Star

Evan Shelby Connell Jr. (August 17, 1924 – January 10, 2013) was a U.S. novelist, short-story writer, essayist and author of epic historical works. He also published under the name Evan S. Connell Jr.

In 2009, Connell was nominated for the Man Booker International Prize for lifetime achievement. On April 23, 2010, he won the Robert Kirsch Award from the Los Angeles Times for "a living author with a substantial connection to the American West, whose contribution to American letters deserves special recognition."

Background

Connell was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the only son of Evan S. Connell, Sr. (1890–1974), a physician, and Ruth Elton Connell. He had a sister Barbara (Mrs. Matthew Zimmermann), to whom he dedicated his novel Mrs. Bridge (1959). Connell grew up in the upper middle-class Country Club District of Kansas City, Missouri, and graduated from Southwest High School in 1941.

He entered Dartmouth College in the fall of 1941, but left in 1943 to become a pilot in the Navy. After the end of World War II, he entered the University of Kansas and graduated in 1947, with a B.A. in English. Connell studied creative writing at Columbia University in New York and Stanford University in California.

Connell never married. He lived and worked in San Francisco and Sausalito, California, from 1954 to 1989, and then moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, when he remained until his death. Connell died on January 10, 2013, at an assisted-living facility in Santa Fe.

Career

Connell's novels Mrs. Bridge (1959) and Mr. Bridge (1969) are bittersweet, gently satirical portraits of a conventional, unimaginative upper middle-class couple living in Kansas City from the 1920s to the 1940s. The couple tries to live up to societal expectations and to be good parents, but they are sadly incapable of bridging the emotional distance between themselves and their children and between each other.

The pair of novels was adapted as a 1990 Merchant-Ivory motion picture, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Critics gave the film mostly positive reviews.

Connell's 1960 novel The Patriot is the story of Melvin Isaacs, aged 17, and his experiences in naval aviation school during the Second World War. Melvin faces the terrifying reality of training and the likelihood of his "washing out" (failing). Melvin's attempts to communicate the realities of his experience to his father are rebuffed. The characters of Melvin and his father Jacob are similar in many respects to those of Douglas and Mr. Bridge. Though not well reviewed, The Patriot contains some rewarding social satire and impressive scenes of aviation.

Connell's 1984 sweeping account of George Armstrong Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Son of the Morning Star, earned critical acclaim and was a bestseller. The book was adapted as a television miniseries in 1991 and won four Emmy Awards.

Dorothy Parker described Connell as "a writer of fine style and amazing variety".

Legacy and honors

• 1959, Mrs. Bridge was a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction.
• 1974, Points for a Compass Rose was a finalist for the National Book Award in poetry.
• 2009, he was nominated for the third Man Booker International Prize for lifetime achievement.
• 2010, he received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize: the Robert Kirsch Award.

Bibliography

Novels

• Mrs. Bridge (1959)
• The Patriot (1960)
• The Diary of a Rapist (1966)
• Mr. Bridge (1969)
• The Connoisseur (1974)
• Double Honeymoon (1976)

Short Fiction

• "I'll Take You To Tennessee," in Stanford Short Stories Nineteen Forty-Nine. Edited by Wallace Stegner. (1949)
• The Anatomy Lesson (1957)
• At The Crossroads (1965)
• "Here it is", in Why Work Series, editor Gordon Lish (1966)
• Saint Augustine's Pigeon: The Selected Stories of Evan S. Connell (1982)
• The Collected Stories of Evan S. Connell (1995)

Non-Fiction

• A Long Desire: Essays (1979)
• White Lantern: Essays (1981)
• Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn (1985, ISBN 0-88394-088-4)
• The Alchymist's Journal (1991, republished in 2006 as Alchymic Journals)
• Deus Lo Volt!: A Chronicle of the Crusades (2000, ISBN 1-58243-140-X)
• The Aztec Treasure House: New and Selected Essays (2001, ISBN 1-58243-253-8)(non-fiction)
• Francisco Goya: A Life (2004, ISBN 1-58243-307-0)
• Lost in Uttar Pradesh (2008, ISBN 978-1-59376-175-2)

Poetry

• Notes From A Bottle Found on the Beach at Carmel (1962)
• Points for A Compass Rose (1973)

Further reading

• Literary Alchemist: The Writing Life of Evan S. Connell, by Steve Paul (2021, ISBN 9780826222466) (biography)

External links

• Mark Oppenheimer, "An Era of Awkward Oppression: Evan Connell's Wasps, Spent and Repressed, Offer the Truest View of American Alienation", Believer, February 2005
• Salon.com piece on Connell
• Special issue on Connell: Three articles about him, Open Letters Monthly: an Arts and Literature Review, August 2008: Sam Sacks, "Familiar Wishes"; Steve Donoghue, "Gathering Driftwood"; and John Cotter, "Backyard Arcana"
• Washington Post obituary
• SPRING2014 the Paris Review, "A Visit with Evan Connell" p. 248-265, Gemma Sief.
• I Am a Lover