Frederick Exley
Encyclopedia
Frederick E. "Fred" Exley, (March 28, 1929, – June 17, 1992) was an American novel
ist best known as the author
of A Fan's Notes
.
Fred Exley was born March 28, 1929, in Watertown, New York. His father, who died in 1945 when Exley was 16, was a celebrated former athlete and local basketball coach whose legacy would be a dominating influence on Exley's early life. A car accident the following year injured Exley and prevented him from graduating from high school on schedule. After being awarded $14,000 in a settlement after the accident, Exley began working in nearby railroad yards. After a brief post-graduate stint at John Jay High School in Katonah, New York
, where he was named to the conference all-star basketball
team, Exley entered Hobart College
in 1949. After a year he transferred to the University of Southern California
, where he began to follow the career of fellow student and future football
legend Frank Gifford
. Exley avoided being drafted in 1951 when he failed his Selective Service examination on account of injuries sustained in the car accident.
In 1952, Exley dropped out of USC
and moved to New York to find employment, only to return a year later to finish an A.B.
degree in English. Subsequently he returned to New York to work in public relations for New York Central Railroad
. After a year there he relocated to their Chicago office, then began working for Rock Island Railroad in the same capacity. Exley soon took over as managing editor of the railroad's employee magazine,The Rocket, where his first published writing appeared.
Itinerant life and instability
After losing his job in 1956, Exley entered an itinerant period of his life marred by acute alcoholism
, obsession with sports, and mental instability that was to provide much of the autobiographical material for his first book, A Fan's Notes
. In 1958, Exley was admitted briefly to Stony Lodge, a private mental institution in Westchester County, New York
where he met Francena Fritz, whom he began courting. Soon after he was admitted to the state institution, Harlem Valley State Hospital
, the model for the "Avalon Valley", facility mentioned in A Fan's Notes
. It was here Exley began writing in earnest. In 1959, he was released from Harlem Valley and married Fritz on October 31. They moved to Greenwich, Connecticut
and Exley was offered a teaching position at a school in Port Chester, New York
. In 1960 his first daughter, Pamela Rae Exley, was born. In 1961 Exley received a provisional appointment as clerk and crier of the courts in Jefferson County, New York
, where a lawyer friend, Gordon Phillips, asked Exley to forge a signature on a check for one of his clients, an action that led to Phillips' disbarment.
Divorce and A Fan's Notes
In 1962, Francena Fritz obtained a divorce from Exley at her father's request. Several years of intermittent teaching jobs in Clayton, Gouverneur, and Indian River, New York followed. His alcoholism
growing worse, Exley began a decade of briefly held jobs and institutionalization, and spent time vacationing on Singer Island in Riviera Beach, Florida
while continuing to work on A Fan's Notes
. In 1964, Exley sent the completed manuscript for A Fan's Notes
to Houghton Mifflin
(who rejected it), and to Joe Fox at Random House
, who suggested an agent, Lynn Nesbit. Nesbit shopped the manuscript around, and eventually sold it to David Segal at Harper & Row
which earned Exley $3000 as an advance against royalties.
Critical success and divorce
In 1965, Exley met Nancy Glenn while on vacation in Palm Beach Shores, Florida
and working as a bookkeeper for The Buccaneer, her husband's resort. The following year, Nancy Glenn separated from her husband and moved in with Exley, beginning a long relationship that saw many temporary separations and reconciliations. She became pregnant while Exley was employed at the Palm Beach Post's copy desk; they married in 1967, and Glenn gave birth to Exley's second daughter, Alexandra Exley, early the following year. Later in the year, Glenn became pregnant with another child, and Exley began working on his second novel Pages From A Cold Island. The child, Robert Brandon Exley, was born with severe birth defects in April 1968. A Fan's Notes
was published in the fall and, although it didn't sell well, its release prompted widespread critical acclaim and the novel was nominated for the National Book Award
. It also received the William Faulkner Award for best first novel, the Rosenthal Award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and earned Exley a Rockefeller Foundation
grant worth $10,000. In 1969 Exley and Glenn began divorce proceedings.
Deaths in the family
In 1970, Exley's mother purchased a small house in Alexandria Bay, New York
and Fred temporarily moved in, though he still spent time in Florida working on Pages from a Cold Island. Charlotte's home was to become Exley's home base for the next 20 years. In the fall of that year he interviewed Gloria Steinem
on Key Biscayne
, in Florida. The resultant essay, "Saint Gloria & the Troll," published in Playboy
a few years later, earned Exley their Editorial Award for the year's best nonfiction piece. In the following year, 1971, Exley's divorce from Glenn was finalized and his son died.
In 1972 Exley was a guest lecturer at the Iowa Writer's Workshop at the University of Iowa
and a film adaptation of A Fan's Notes
starring Jerry Orbach
was released in Canada
. In 1973, Exley's brother, a Vietnam
veteran, died in Hawaii
after a battle with cancer
. In 1975, Exley's second novel, Pages from a Cold Island was published by Random House to considerably less acclaim than his debut and Exley traveled to Hawaii
, where he began work on the final novel of his semi-autobiographical trilogy, Last Notes From Home.
Final years
Rolling Stone
paid Exley $20,000 for up to six excerpts of Last Notes from Home in May, 1977. The following year Exley's papers were acquired by collector Robert C. Stevens and donated to the University of Rochester
. In 1984, Exley received a Guggenheim Foundation
grant of $21,000. Last Notes From Home was published by Random House
in September 1988, with Frank Gifford
himself hosting a publication party for Exley in New York. Soon after, Exley began to work on a spy novel to be titled Mean Greenwich Time, but subsequently abandoned it. He moved in with his aunt Frances Knapp in Alexandria Bay
and became very ill while traveling to London for a journalism assignment. After being diagnosed with congestive heart failure
, Exley cared for his ailing aunt who eventually died in 1991. The following year Exley suffered a stroke while alone in his apartment and died in the hospital the next day, June 10, 1992. His ashes were interred at Brookside Cemetery in Watertown, New York, next to his parents.
Posthumous recognition
A biography
of Exley, Misfit: The Strange Life of Frederick Exley, by prominent literary critic and friend of Exley's Jonathan Yardley
, appeared in 1997. Yardley's central thesis is that Exley was a brilliant one-book writer. Yardley wrote the preface to the Modern Library
reissue of A Fan's Notes
.
In 2010, author Brock Clarke released a novel entitled Exley. In the novel, the main character Miller is obsessed with Frederick Exley, the cultishly beloved author of A Fan's Notes
. Entertainment Weekly
gave the novel a B+ and stated: Frederick Exley’s classic 1968 account of his epic alcoholism
, A Fan’s Notes, bears the oxymoronic subtitle “A Fictional Memoir
.” It is the space between those words, between real and fabricated memory, that Clarke examines. . . . With humor as black as Exley’s liver, Clarke picks apart the fictions we tell one another—and those we tell ourselves.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
ist best known as the author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
of A Fan's Notes
A Fan's Notes
A Fan's Notes is a novel by Frederick Exley, first published in 1968. Subtitled "A Fictional Memoir" and categorized as fiction, the book is somewhat autobiographical. In a brief "Note to the reader" in the opening pages Exley asserts...
.
Biography
Early yearsFred Exley was born March 28, 1929, in Watertown, New York. His father, who died in 1945 when Exley was 16, was a celebrated former athlete and local basketball coach whose legacy would be a dominating influence on Exley's early life. A car accident the following year injured Exley and prevented him from graduating from high school on schedule. After being awarded $14,000 in a settlement after the accident, Exley began working in nearby railroad yards. After a brief post-graduate stint at John Jay High School in Katonah, New York
Katonah, New York
Katonah, New York is one of three unincorporated hamlets within the town of Bedford, Westchester County, New York, United States.-History:Katonah is named for Chief Katonah, an American Indian from whom the land of Bedford was purchased by a group of English colonists...
, where he was named to the conference all-star basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
team, Exley entered Hobart College
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Hobart and William Smith Colleges, located in Geneva, New York, are together a liberal arts college offering Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts in Teaching degrees. In athletics, however, the two schools compete with separate teams, known as the Hobart Statesmen and the...
in 1949. After a year he transferred to the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
, where he began to follow the career of fellow student and future football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
legend Frank Gifford
Frank Gifford
Francis Newton "Frank" Gifford is a Hall of Fame former American football player and American sportscaster.-Early life:Gifford was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Lola Mae and Weldon Gifford, an oil driller....
. Exley avoided being drafted in 1951 when he failed his Selective Service examination on account of injuries sustained in the car accident.
In 1952, Exley dropped out of USC
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
and moved to New York to find employment, only to return a year later to finish an A.B.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in English. Subsequently he returned to New York to work in public relations for New York Central Railroad
New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad , known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the Northeastern United States...
. After a year there he relocated to their Chicago office, then began working for Rock Island Railroad in the same capacity. Exley soon took over as managing editor of the railroad's employee magazine,The Rocket, where his first published writing appeared.
Itinerant life and instability
After losing his job in 1956, Exley entered an itinerant period of his life marred by acute alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
, obsession with sports, and mental instability that was to provide much of the autobiographical material for his first book, A Fan's Notes
A Fan's Notes
A Fan's Notes is a novel by Frederick Exley, first published in 1968. Subtitled "A Fictional Memoir" and categorized as fiction, the book is somewhat autobiographical. In a brief "Note to the reader" in the opening pages Exley asserts...
. In 1958, Exley was admitted briefly to Stony Lodge, a private mental institution in Westchester County, New York
Westchester County, New York
Westchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of and has a population of 949,113 according to the 2010 Census, residing in 45 municipalities...
where he met Francena Fritz, whom he began courting. Soon after he was admitted to the state institution, Harlem Valley State Hospital
Harlem Valley State Hospital
Harlem Valley State Hospital, south of the hamlet of Wingdale in the Town of Dover, was a New York State psychiatric hospital that operated from 1924-1994....
, the model for the "Avalon Valley", facility mentioned in A Fan's Notes
A Fan's Notes
A Fan's Notes is a novel by Frederick Exley, first published in 1968. Subtitled "A Fictional Memoir" and categorized as fiction, the book is somewhat autobiographical. In a brief "Note to the reader" in the opening pages Exley asserts...
. It was here Exley began writing in earnest. In 1959, he was released from Harlem Valley and married Fritz on October 31. They moved to Greenwich, Connecticut
Greenwich, Connecticut
Greenwich is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 61,171. It is home to many hedge funds and other financial service companies. Greenwich is the southernmost and westernmost municipality in Connecticut and is 38+ minutes ...
and Exley was offered a teaching position at a school in Port Chester, New York
Port Chester, New York
Port Chester is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The village is part of the town of Rye. As of the 2010 census, Port Chester had a population of 28,967...
. In 1960 his first daughter, Pamela Rae Exley, was born. In 1961 Exley received a provisional appointment as clerk and crier of the courts in Jefferson County, New York
Jefferson County, New York
Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 116,229. It is named after Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States of America, and president at the time the county was created in 1805...
, where a lawyer friend, Gordon Phillips, asked Exley to forge a signature on a check for one of his clients, an action that led to Phillips' disbarment.
Divorce and A Fan's Notes
In 1962, Francena Fritz obtained a divorce from Exley at her father's request. Several years of intermittent teaching jobs in Clayton, Gouverneur, and Indian River, New York followed. His alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
growing worse, Exley began a decade of briefly held jobs and institutionalization, and spent time vacationing on Singer Island in Riviera Beach, Florida
Riviera Beach, Florida
Riviera Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, U.S.A. which was incorporated September 29, 1922. Because of where its eastern boundary lies, it is also the easternmost municipality in the South Florida metropolitan area. The population was 29,884 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the...
while continuing to work on A Fan's Notes
A Fan's Notes
A Fan's Notes is a novel by Frederick Exley, first published in 1968. Subtitled "A Fictional Memoir" and categorized as fiction, the book is somewhat autobiographical. In a brief "Note to the reader" in the opening pages Exley asserts...
. In 1964, Exley sent the completed manuscript for A Fan's Notes
A Fan's Notes
A Fan's Notes is a novel by Frederick Exley, first published in 1968. Subtitled "A Fictional Memoir" and categorized as fiction, the book is somewhat autobiographical. In a brief "Note to the reader" in the opening pages Exley asserts...
to Houghton Mifflin
Houghton Mifflin
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is an educational and trade publisher in the United States. Headquartered in Boston's Back Bay, it publishes textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults.-History:The company was...
(who rejected it), and to Joe Fox at Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, who suggested an agent, Lynn Nesbit. Nesbit shopped the manuscript around, and eventually sold it to David Segal at Harper & Row
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
which earned Exley $3000 as an advance against royalties.
Critical success and divorce
In 1965, Exley met Nancy Glenn while on vacation in Palm Beach Shores, Florida
Palm Beach Shores, Florida
Palm Beach Shores is a town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population was 1,269 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 1,511.-Geography:...
and working as a bookkeeper for The Buccaneer, her husband's resort. The following year, Nancy Glenn separated from her husband and moved in with Exley, beginning a long relationship that saw many temporary separations and reconciliations. She became pregnant while Exley was employed at the Palm Beach Post's copy desk; they married in 1967, and Glenn gave birth to Exley's second daughter, Alexandra Exley, early the following year. Later in the year, Glenn became pregnant with another child, and Exley began working on his second novel Pages From A Cold Island. The child, Robert Brandon Exley, was born with severe birth defects in April 1968. A Fan's Notes
A Fan's Notes
A Fan's Notes is a novel by Frederick Exley, first published in 1968. Subtitled "A Fictional Memoir" and categorized as fiction, the book is somewhat autobiographical. In a brief "Note to the reader" in the opening pages Exley asserts...
was published in the fall and, although it didn't sell well, its release prompted widespread critical acclaim and the novel was nominated for the National Book Award
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
. It also received the William Faulkner Award for best first novel, the Rosenthal Award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and earned Exley a Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
grant worth $10,000. In 1969 Exley and Glenn began divorce proceedings.
Deaths in the family
In 1970, Exley's mother purchased a small house in Alexandria Bay, New York
Alexandria Bay, New York
Alexandria Bay is a village in Jefferson County, New York, United States. The population was 1,080 at the 2010 census.The Village of Alexandria Bay is in the Town of Alexandria.Keewaydin State Park is southeast of the village...
and Fred temporarily moved in, though he still spent time in Florida working on Pages from a Cold Island. Charlotte's home was to become Exley's home base for the next 20 years. In the fall of that year he interviewed Gloria Steinem
Gloria Steinem
Gloria Marie Steinem is an American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader of, and media spokeswoman for, the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s and 1970s...
on Key Biscayne
Key Biscayne
Key Biscayne is an island located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay. It is the southernmost of the barrier islands along the Atlantic coast of Florida, and lies south of Miami Beach and southeast of Miami...
, in Florida. The resultant essay, "Saint Gloria & the Troll," published in Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
a few years later, earned Exley their Editorial Award for the year's best nonfiction piece. In the following year, 1971, Exley's divorce from Glenn was finalized and his son died.
In 1972 Exley was a guest lecturer at the Iowa Writer's Workshop at the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
and a film adaptation of A Fan's Notes
A Fan's Notes
A Fan's Notes is a novel by Frederick Exley, first published in 1968. Subtitled "A Fictional Memoir" and categorized as fiction, the book is somewhat autobiographical. In a brief "Note to the reader" in the opening pages Exley asserts...
starring Jerry Orbach
Jerry Orbach
Jerome Bernard "Jerry" Orbach was an American actor and singer. He was well known for his starring role as Detective Lennie Briscoe in the Law & Order television series and as the voice of Lumière in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. As well, Orbach was a noted musical theatre star...
was released in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. In 1973, Exley's brother, a Vietnam
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
veteran, died in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
after a battle with cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
. In 1975, Exley's second novel, Pages from a Cold Island was published by Random House to considerably less acclaim than his debut and Exley traveled to Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, where he began work on the final novel of his semi-autobiographical trilogy, Last Notes From Home.
Final years
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
paid Exley $20,000 for up to six excerpts of Last Notes from Home in May, 1977. The following year Exley's papers were acquired by collector Robert C. Stevens and donated to the University of Rochester
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester is a private, nonsectarian, research university in Rochester, New York, United States. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The university has six schools and various interdisciplinary programs.The...
. In 1984, Exley received a Guggenheim Foundation
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Mr. and Mrs. Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died April 26, 1922...
grant of $21,000. Last Notes From Home was published by Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
in September 1988, with Frank Gifford
Frank Gifford
Francis Newton "Frank" Gifford is a Hall of Fame former American football player and American sportscaster.-Early life:Gifford was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Lola Mae and Weldon Gifford, an oil driller....
himself hosting a publication party for Exley in New York. Soon after, Exley began to work on a spy novel to be titled Mean Greenwich Time, but subsequently abandoned it. He moved in with his aunt Frances Knapp in Alexandria Bay
Alexandria Bay, New York
Alexandria Bay is a village in Jefferson County, New York, United States. The population was 1,080 at the 2010 census.The Village of Alexandria Bay is in the Town of Alexandria.Keewaydin State Park is southeast of the village...
and became very ill while traveling to London for a journalism assignment. After being diagnosed with congestive heart failure
Congestive heart failure
Heart failure often called congestive heart failure is generally defined as the inability of the heart to supply sufficient blood flow to meet the needs of the body. Heart failure can cause a number of symptoms including shortness of breath, leg swelling, and exercise intolerance. The condition...
, Exley cared for his ailing aunt who eventually died in 1991. The following year Exley suffered a stroke while alone in his apartment and died in the hospital the next day, June 10, 1992. His ashes were interred at Brookside Cemetery in Watertown, New York, next to his parents.
Posthumous recognition
A biography
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
of Exley, Misfit: The Strange Life of Frederick Exley, by prominent literary critic and friend of Exley's Jonathan Yardley
Jonathan Yardley
Jonathan Yardley is a book critic at The Washington Post, and at one time of the Washington Star. In 1981 he received the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.-Background and education:...
, appeared in 1997. Yardley's central thesis is that Exley was a brilliant one-book writer. Yardley wrote the preface to the Modern Library
Modern Library
The Modern Library is a publishing company. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, it was purchased in 1925 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer...
reissue of A Fan's Notes
A Fan's Notes
A Fan's Notes is a novel by Frederick Exley, first published in 1968. Subtitled "A Fictional Memoir" and categorized as fiction, the book is somewhat autobiographical. In a brief "Note to the reader" in the opening pages Exley asserts...
.
In 2010, author Brock Clarke released a novel entitled Exley. In the novel, the main character Miller is obsessed with Frederick Exley, the cultishly beloved author of A Fan's Notes
A Fan's Notes
A Fan's Notes is a novel by Frederick Exley, first published in 1968. Subtitled "A Fictional Memoir" and categorized as fiction, the book is somewhat autobiographical. In a brief "Note to the reader" in the opening pages Exley asserts...
. Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave the novel a B+ and stated: Frederick Exley’s classic 1968 account of his epic alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
, A Fan’s Notes, bears the oxymoronic subtitle “A Fictional Memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
.” It is the space between those words, between real and fabricated memory, that Clarke examines. . . . With humor as black as Exley’s liver, Clarke picks apart the fictions we tell one another—and those we tell ourselves.
Novels
- A Fan's NotesA Fan's NotesA Fan's Notes is a novel by Frederick Exley, first published in 1968. Subtitled "A Fictional Memoir" and categorized as fiction, the book is somewhat autobiographical. In a brief "Note to the reader" in the opening pages Exley asserts...
. Harper & RowHarperCollinsHarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
(1968) - Pages from a Cold Island. Random HouseRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
(1975) - Last Notes from Home. Random HouseRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
(1988)
Articles
- "He's a Pro." "SPORT magazineSport magazineSPORT magazine was an American sports magazine. Launched in September 1946 by the New York-based publisher, Macfadden Publications, SPORT pioneered the generous use of color photography – it carried eight full colour plates in its first edition – and almost immediately became half-bible, half-guru...
", July 1969 (excerpt from A Fan's Notes). - "Poem from a Man at Middle Age." Esquire, May 1973.
- "Good-bye, Edmund Wilson." The Atlantic Monthly, March 1974 (excerpt from Pages from a Cold Island).
- "Saint Gloria & the Troll." Playboy, July 1974 (excerpt from Pages from a Cold Island).
- "To Oahu with the 'Wild Geese'." Rolling Stone, 30 June 1977 (excerpt from Last Notes from Home).
- Letter to the editor about William Styron in Esquire, 11 April 1978.
- "James Seamus Finbarr O'Twoomey." Rolling Stone, 5 October 1978 (excerpt from Last Notes from Home).
- "Ms. Robin Glenn." Rolling Stone, 22 February 1979 (excerpt from Last Notes from Home).
- "A Fan's Notes Goes to Super Bowl XIII." Inside Sports, October 1979.
- Review of Bill Barich's Laughing in the Hills, for New York Magazine, 11 August 1980.
- Review of Clive James's Unreliable Memoirs, for New York Magazine, 13 April 1981.
- "Holding Penalties Build Men." Inside Sports, November 1981.
- "A Case for Backing Cincinnati--and for Ice Fishing." New York Times, 24 January 1982.
- "Just Who Is 'the Game' in Professional Football?" New York Times, 22 August 1982.
- "Football '83: Side Lines." Rolling Stone, 15 September 1983.
- "The Natural." GQ, February 1984.
- "The Laureate of Alexandria Bay." Esquire, March 1986.
- "Brother in Arms." Rolling Stone, 17 and 31 July 1986 (excerpt from Last Notes from Home).
- "A Fan's Note." American Film, September 1986.
- "The Giants Will Fail and Here's Why." New York Times, 30 November 1986.
- "A Fan's Further Notes." Esquire, June 1987.
- Article (title unknown, about Alexandria Bay fishermen) for Adirondack Life, ca.1989.
- "Women and Football." The Cable Guide, November 1989.
- "If Nixon Could Possess the Soul of this Woman, Why the Hell Can't I?" Esquire, December 1989.
- "Tell'em Frankie's here." The Sunday Correspondent, London, 1 July 1990.
- Article (title unknown, about The Lion's Head saloon) for GQ, December 1990.
- "Exley's Last Notes." Esquire, August 1993 (posthumous extract from unfinished spy novel).