Earl Thompson (May 24, 1931 – November 9, 1978) was a leading American writer of

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prose. Nominated for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...

for ''A Garden of Sand'' and chosen by the Book of the Month Club for ''Tattoo'',''Caldo Largo'', author biography, p. 282 Thompson died suddenly at the peak of his success, having published just three novels—the fourth ''The Devil to Pay'', was published posthumously.

Life and career

Thompson was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1931. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1945 to 1946 and in the U.S. Army from 1948 to 1954, serving as a Sergeant First Class, Tank Commander, and First Sergeant. He attended the

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from 1954 to 1957, and

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in 1959–60. His first novel ''A Garden of Sand'' describes the events of his birth and early childhood in vivid detail. ''Tattoo'' picks up where his first novel left off with his protagonist joining the U.S. Navy. Both novels are autobiographical, with the lead character (called Jack MacDeramid in the first and Jack Andersen in the second) a close facsimile of Thompson himself. Thompson's third novel ''Caldo Largo'' was his first to depart from his autobiographical preoccupations, although its main setting—a fishing boat—was one with which Thompson had had first-hand experience. Thompson lived in Europe for several years, and taught a novelist workshop at the University of California at Berkeley. Two years after ''Caldo Largo'' was published, Thompson died of a heart-attack in Sausalito, California. His fourth and last book, ''The Devil to Pay'', returns to his autobiographical narrative—this time with a nearly identical protagonist called Jarl Carlson ("Jarl" is the Scandinavian form of

Earl Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the Peerages in the United Kingdom, peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. A feminine form of ''earl'' never developed; instead, ...

)—and was published after his death by Thompson's friend and estate executor Gilmer Y. Waggoner. The book is considerably shorter than the dense ''A Garden of Sand'' and its counterpart ''Tattoo'', and according to Waggoner, was finished by a ghostwriter.

Bibliography

*''A Garden of Sand''. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1970. paperback edition: New York: Carroll & Graf, 1991. *''Tattoo''. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1974. paperback edition: New York: Carroll & Graf, 1991. *''Caldo Largo''. New York: G. P. Putnam's Son's, 1976. first paperback edition,

Signet Books The New American Library (also known as NAL) is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948. Its initial focus was affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction, but it now publis ...

1977. subsequent paperback edition: New York: Carroll & Graf, 1991. *''The Devil to Pay''. New York: New American Library, 1982.

References

External links

* http://www.pemmicanpress.com/articles/earl-thompson-tom-page.html * http://www.powells.com/blog/?p=2992 * http://www.washburn.edu/reference/cks/mapping/thompson/index.html * http://www.moshplant.com/prob/prob01/something_sleaze.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Earl 20th-century American novelists American male novelists Columbia University alumni Writers from Wichita, Kansas 1931 births 1978 deaths 20th-century American male writers