August 23rd, 2011 / 5:08 pm
 Author Spotlight

Just Fishing

Where are the serious glow Richard Brautigan scholarship texts? The contemplative biography, the critical one, the highbrow, the wrong one, the near-right one, the way-2-academic one, the lazy-as-loon one, the tell-all, etc. Don’t you feel a fucking void? No, no, don’t dare whisper memoirs by his so-called “friend” (Don’t get me started—whole different post) or his daughter dear. Where. Are. They? Lead me. Tell me real. [I am looking forward to this. Maybe it will unruffle me.]

 Do I need to write the damn thing? (Or you?) Maybe.

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13 Comments

  1. August 23rd, 2011 / 9:11 pm stephen—

      i like Brautigan. sounds like he had an interesting life, i would read a biography.

  2. August 23rd, 2011 / 9:15 pm keebler—

      Richard Brautigan : essays on the writings and life / edited by John F. Barber. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., c2007.

  3. August 23rd, 2011 / 9:27 pm cameron pierce—

      It would also be nice if some of his out of print books came back into print.

      I got a chance to see the Brautigan Library (inspired by the library in The Abortion) in January. It was part of a temporary Brautigan exhibit in Vancouver, WA. It was super rad.

  4. August 23rd, 2011 / 10:06 pm Christopher Higgs—

      I just did a little looking…it appears that scholarly stuff exists, but for the most part happened in the 70s-80s and then disappeared.  I love Brautigan, and would gladly co-write a scholarly book about him and his work with you, Sean, if you want to do it get in touch with me, for real.

      At any rate, here’s what I found:

      In addition to the selection keebler notes above, John F. Barber published an anotated bibliography with McFarland Publishing in 1990.

      Marc Chénetier wrote a monograph on B. published by Methuen in 1983.

      Jay Boyer published a monograph on B. with Boise State University Press in 1987.

      Edward Halsey Foster published a monograph on B. with Twayne Publishers in 1983.

      Terence Malley published a monograph on B. with Warner Paperback in 1972.

      According to JSTOR, there appear to be only two published papers on B. (of course, if you got a hold of Barber’s annotated bib. I’m sure there’s more):

      “Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America: Notes of a Native Son” by William L. Stull American Literature, Vol. 56, No. 1 (Mar., 1984), pp. 68-80

      “Richard Brautigan’s Search for Control over Death” by Brooke Horvath American Literature, Vol. 57, No. 3 (Oct., 1985), pp. 434-455

  5. August 23rd, 2011 / 10:06 pm Leapsloth14—

      Any of these in print?

  6. August 23rd, 2011 / 10:10 pm Christopher Higgs—

      hmmm, that I don’t know.  FSU library has all but the Malley book.  Maybe/probably Ball State library holds them?  

  7. August 23rd, 2011 / 10:48 pm Scottmcclanahan—

      Great post.

  8. August 23rd, 2011 / 10:50 pm keebler—

      Also found a dissertation/biography from 2007, Claremont Graduate University, CA by one Jerry Giddens entitled “Brautigan, Richard: A literary and cultural biography” fal…so I spoze there could be a bio coming if a publisher picked it up.

  9. August 24th, 2011 / 12:21 am Leapsloth14—

      Christopher,

      I certainly have the interest in a Brautigan book (or several) and, oddly, most likely have the access to funds for such a project. So maybe we can talk bizzness. Since we are talking business, let’s get off a comment thread. Email me (leapsloth14@hotmail.com) and let’s discuss. I have ideas, you probably have better ones, so we’ll end up with good ideas. 

  10. August 24th, 2011 / 3:20 am Russ—

      I want to read the product of this thread.

  11. August 25th, 2011 / 6:05 am Seymour Blake—

      I saw this picture and my heart stopped beating for a second and I thought, “I wasn’t expecting to see Mr. Brautigan, but there he is!”

      I’m glad you wrote this little thing. Made my night… which is kind of sad. But maybe not?

  12. August 27th, 2011 / 3:03 am Anonymous—

      tinyurl.com/429zubp

  13. August 29th, 2011 / 12:40 pm Anonymous—