Barthelme, Donald

Barthelme, Donald (bär`thĕlm), 1931–89, American writer, b. Philadelphia. In his short stories and novels, Barthelme describes a world so unreal that traditional modes of fiction can no longer encompass it. His stories employ advertising jargon, counterfeit footnotes, recondite allusions, and various typographical and narrative extravagances to fit his own private vision of an absurd reality. Barthelme's works include the novels Snow White (1967) and The Dead Father (1985); the short-story collections Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts (1968), City Life (1970), Sadness (1972), and Great Days (1979); and a collection of nonfiction pieces, Guilty Pleasures (1974).

Bibliography

See study by W. B. Stengel (1985).

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Barthelme, Donald

(born April 7, 1931, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died July 23, 1989, Houston, Texas) U.S. writer. Barthelme worked as a journalist, journal editor, and museum director before his fiction began to be published. He is known for modernist “collages” marked by technical experimentation and melancholy gaiety. His story collections include Come Back, Dr. Caligari (1964), City Life (1970), Sixty Stories (1981), and Overnight to Many Distant Cities (1983); his novels include Snow White (1967), The Dead Father (1975), Paradise (1986), and The King (1990). His brother Frederick (b. 1943) is also a novelist (Second Marriage, 1984) and short-story writer (Moon Deluxe, 1983).

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Barthelme, Donald (1931–89) writer; born in Philadelphia. He left Houston, Texas, journalism in the early 1960s to live in New York City as a professional fiction writer. A regular New Yorker contributor, he was an influential postmodernist whose deadpan tone, fragmented narrative structure, and linguistic playfulness were widely imitated. His eight volumes of collected stories and four novels include Come Back, Dr. Caligari (1964), Snow White (1967), The Dead Father (1975), and Paradise (1986).