John Treadwell Nichols (born July 23, 1940 in
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...
) is an American novelist. Nichols graduated from
Hamilton College
Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...
in 1962.
Novels
Nichols is the author of the "New Mexico trilogy", a series about the complex relationship among history, race and ethnicity, and land and water rights in the fictional town of Chamisaville,
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
. The trilogy consists of ''The Milagro Beanfield War'' (which was adapted into a
movie of the same title directed by
Robert Redford), ''The Magic Journey'', and ''The Nirvana Blues''.
Two of his other novels have been made into films. ''
The Wizard of Loneliness'' was published in 1966, and the film version with
Lukas Haas
Lukas Daniel Haas (born April 16, 1976) is an American actor and musician. His acting career has spanned four decades, during which he has appeared in more than 50 feature films and a number of television shows and stage productions.
Early life
...
was made in 1988. Another movie adaptation was of ''
The Sterile Cuckoo
''The Sterile Cuckoo'' (released in the UK as ''Pookie'') is a 1969 American comedy-drama film by producer-director Alan J. Pakula that tells the story of an eccentric young couple whose relationship deepens despite their differences and inadeq ...
'', published in 1965 and then adapted for a film by
Alan J. Pakula
Alan Jay Pakula (; April 7, 1928 – November 19, 1998) was an American film director, writer and producer. He was nominated for three Academy Awards: Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Picture for ''To Kill a Mockingbird (film), To Kill a Moc ...
in 1969.
He also had a hand, uncredited due to a decision in an arbitration with the Writers Guild, in the Oscar-winning Best Adapted Screenplay for
Costa-Gavras
Costa-Gavras (short for Konstantinos Gavras; el, Κωνσταντίνος Γαβράς; born 12 February 1933) is a Greek-French film director, screenwriter, and producer who lives and works in France. He is known for films with political and s ...
' 1982 film ''
Missing''.
Non-fiction
Nichols also has written non-fiction, including the trilogy ''If Mountains Die'', ''The Last Beautiful Days of Autumn'' and ''On the Mesa''. Nichols has lived in
Taos, New Mexico
Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Ch ...
for many years. He is the subject of a documentary ''The Milagro Man: The Irrepressible Multicultural Life and Literary Times of John Nichols'', which premiered at the 2012 Albuquerque Film Festival.
Photography
Nichols also is a photographer. Many of his photographs appear in his book ''On the Mesa'', among others. He also participated as an instructor in fine art photographic workshops, most notably with the Los Angeles photographer
Ray McSavaney. He is long-time political activist for progressive and especially environmental causes.
Personal life
He is the grandson of ichthyologist
John Treadwell Nichols
John Treadwell Nichols (June 11, 1883 – November 10, 1958) was an American ichthyologist and ornithologist.
Life and career
Nichols was born in Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Mary Blake (Slocum) and John White Treadwell Nic ...
and a first cousin of Massachusetts politician
William Weld.
Bibliography
;Novels
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* New Mexico Trilogy
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;Non-fiction
* Non-fiction trilogy
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* ''I Got Mine: Confessions of a Midlist Writer''. University of Mexico Press. 2022
References
External links
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John Nichols Interview for New Mexico in FocusNew Mexico PBS, raw footage
Collection: John Nichols Papers University of New Mexico, University Libraries, Center for Southwest Research
Writing the Southwest, University of New Mexico
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Nichols, John
1940 births
Living people
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American novelists
American male novelists
American socialists
Hamilton College (New York) alumni
Writers from Berkeley, California
Writers from Taos, New Mexico
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers
Loomis Chaffee School alumni