Robert Stone
Encyclopedia
Robert Stone is an American
novelist. His work is typically characterized by psychological complexity, political concerns, and dark humor. His novels include the National Book Award
–winning Dog Soldiers (1974), and the PEN/Faulkner Award–winning A Flag for Sunrise (1981). Famous literary critic Harold Bloom
considers him one the best living writers in America.
Stone was born in Brooklyn, New York
. Until the age of six he was raised by his mother, who suffered from schizophrenia
; after she was institutionalized, he spent several years in a Catholic orphanage
. In his short story "Absence of Mercy," which Stone has said is autobiographical, the orphanage into which the protagonist Mackay is placed at age five is described as having had "the social dynamic of a coral reef."
He dropped out of high school in 1954 and joined the Navy
for four years, where he worked as a journalist. In the early 1960s, he briefly attended New York University
; worked as a copyboy at the New York Daily News
; married and moved to New Orleans; attended the Wallace Stegner workshop at Stanford University, where he began writing a novel. Although Stone met the influential Beat Generation
writer Ken Kesey
and other Merry Pranksters
, he was not a passenger on the famous 1964 bus trip to New York, contrary to some media reports. Stone, living in New York at the time, met the bus on its arrival and accompanied Kesey to an “after-bus party”, whose attendees included a dyspeptic Jack Kerouac
.
fellowships, the five-year Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award, the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award. He also taught at the creative writing program at Yale University. For the 2010-2011 school year, he has been the Endowed Chair in the English Department at Texas State University-San Marcos.
Literary Fellowship, and a William Faulkner Foundation award for best first novel. Set in New Orleans in 1962 and based partly on actual events, the novel depicted a political scene dominated by right-wing racism, but its style was more reminiscent of Beat writers than of earlier social realists
: alternating between naturalism
and stream of consciousness, with a large cast of often psychologically unstable characters, it set the template for much of Stone's later writing. It was adapted into the 1970 film WUSA
. The novel's success led to a Guggenheim Fellowship
and began Stone's career as a professional writer and teacher.
In 1971 Stone traveled to Vietnam as a correspondent for a British journal. His time there served as the inspiration for his second novel, Dog Soldiers (1974), following a journalist smuggling heroin from Vietnam
. It was the winner of the 1975 National Book Award
, shared with co-recipient The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams
. Dog Soldiers was also adapted into a film, Who'll Stop the Rain
.
A Flag for Sunrise (1981) further developed Stone's trademark brand of acid-tinged existential realism while continuing to explore broad political and social questions as in his first two novels. The story follows a wide cast of, mostly aimless, characters as their paths intersect in a fictional Central America
n country. Catalyzing the crises of belief faced by each character is a backdrop of violent political struggle between a U.S.-backed dictator and almost equally corrupt Marxist
revolutionaries. The novel won the PEN/Faulkner Award. Stone's next two novels focused on smaller-scale conflicts: the psychotic breakdown of a movie actress in Children of Light
, and a circumnavigation
race in Outerbridge Reach
(based loosely on the story of Donald Crowhurst
). He returned to current events with Damascus Gate (1998), about a man with messianic
delusions caught up in a terrorist plot in Jerusalem.
". It demonstrates Stone's knowledge and insight into a turbulent decade. The autobiographical work begins with his days in the Navy and ends with his days as a correspondent in Vietnam. The work features Stone's insights on Neal Cassady
, Allen Ginsberg
, and Jack Kerouac
from his time spent traveling with them. Stone offers a candid look at sixties drug culture including the use of marijuana
, LSD
, heroin, and peyote
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
novelist. His work is typically characterized by psychological complexity, political concerns, and dark humor. His novels include 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...
–winning Dog Soldiers (1974), and the PEN/Faulkner Award–winning A Flag for Sunrise (1981). Famous literary critic Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom is an American writer and literary critic, and is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. He is known for his defense of 19th-century Romantic poets, his unique and controversial theories of poetic influence, and his prodigious literary output, particularly for a literary...
considers him one the best living writers in America.
Background
Stone was born in Brooklyn, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Until the age of six he was raised by his mother, who suffered from schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
; after she was institutionalized, he spent several years in a Catholic orphanage
Orphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
. In his short story "Absence of Mercy," which Stone has said is autobiographical, the orphanage into which the protagonist Mackay is placed at age five is described as having had "the social dynamic of a coral reef."
He dropped out of high school in 1954 and joined the Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
for four years, where he worked as a journalist. In the early 1960s, he briefly attended New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
; worked as a copyboy at the New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
; married and moved to New Orleans; attended the Wallace Stegner workshop at Stanford University, where he began writing a novel. Although Stone met the influential Beat Generation
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
writer Ken Kesey
Ken Kesey
Kenneth Elton "Ken" Kesey was an American author, best known for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , and as a counter-cultural figure who considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. "I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a...
and other Merry Pranksters
Merry Pranksters
The Merry Pranksters were a group of people who formed around American author Ken Kesey in 1964 and sometimes lived communally at his homes in California and Oregon...
, he was not a passenger on the famous 1964 bus trip to New York, contrary to some media reports. Stone, living in New York at the time, met the bus on its arrival and accompanied Kesey to an “after-bus party”, whose attendees included a dyspeptic Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
.
Career
Stone received Guggenheim, and National Endowment for the HumanitiesNational Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
fellowships, the five-year Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award, the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award. He also taught at the creative writing program at Yale University. For the 2010-2011 school year, he has been the Endowed Chair in the English Department at Texas State University-San Marcos.
Fiction
In 1967 Stone published his first novel, A Hall of Mirrors, which won both a Houghton MifflinHoughton 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...
Literary Fellowship, and a William Faulkner Foundation award for best first novel. Set in New Orleans in 1962 and based partly on actual events, the novel depicted a political scene dominated by right-wing racism, but its style was more reminiscent of Beat writers than of earlier social realists
Social realism
Social Realism, also known as Socio-Realism, is an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts social and racial injustice, economic hardship, through unvarnished pictures of life's struggles; often depicting working class activities as heroic...
: alternating between naturalism
Naturalism (literature)
Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character...
and stream of consciousness, with a large cast of often psychologically unstable characters, it set the template for much of Stone's later writing. It was adapted into the 1970 film WUSA
WUSA (film)
WUSA is a 1970 drama film, directed by Stuart Rosenberg. It was written by Robert Stone, based on his novel A Hall of Mirrors. The story involves a radio station in New Orleans with the eponymous call sign which is apparently involved in a so-called "right-wing conspiracy". It culminates with a...
. The novel's success led to a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
and began Stone's career as a professional writer and teacher.
In 1971 Stone traveled to Vietnam as a correspondent for a British journal. His time there served as the inspiration for his second novel, Dog Soldiers (1974), following a journalist smuggling heroin from Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
. It was the winner of the 1975 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...
, shared with co-recipient The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams
Thomas Williams (writer)
Thomas Williams was an American writer and a National Book Award winning novelist. Williams was twice nominated for the National Book Award. His first nomination was for Town Burning, published in 1959...
. Dog Soldiers was also adapted into a film, Who'll Stop the Rain
Who'll Stop the Rain
Who'll Stop The Rain is a 1978 psychological drama film released by United Artists. It was directed by Karel Reisz and produced by Herb Jaffe and Gabriel Katzka with Sheldon Schrager and Roger Spottiswoode as executive producers. The screenplay was by Judith Rascoe and Robert Stone from Stone's...
.
A Flag for Sunrise (1981) further developed Stone's trademark brand of acid-tinged existential realism while continuing to explore broad political and social questions as in his first two novels. The story follows a wide cast of, mostly aimless, characters as their paths intersect in a fictional Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
n country. Catalyzing the crises of belief faced by each character is a backdrop of violent political struggle between a U.S.-backed dictator and almost equally corrupt Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
revolutionaries. The novel won the PEN/Faulkner Award. Stone's next two novels focused on smaller-scale conflicts: the psychotic breakdown of a movie actress in Children of Light
Children of Light
Children of Light is a 1986 novel by Robert Stone. The story tracks the lives of Gordon Walker, a failed playwright in his 40s and modestly successful screenwriter-actor, and his old flame Lu Anne 'Lee Verger' Bourgeois Morgen, a successful actress who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia...
, and a circumnavigation
Circumnavigation
Circumnavigation – literally, "navigation of a circumference" – refers to travelling all the way around an island, a continent, or the entire planet Earth.- Global circumnavigation :...
race in Outerbridge Reach
Outerbridge Reach
Outerbridge Reach is a 1998 novel by American novelist Robert Stone.-Plot:Stone's incisive, haunting novel follows the story of a copywriter who enters an around-the-world solo boat race.-Commercial success:...
(based loosely on the story of Donald Crowhurst
Donald Crowhurst
Donald Crowhurst was a British businessman and amateur sailor who died while competing in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, a single-handed, round-the-world yacht race. Crowhurst had entered the race in hopes of winning a cash prize from The Sunday Times to aid his failing business...
). He returned to current events with Damascus Gate (1998), about a man with messianic
Messiah
A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...
delusions caught up in a terrorist plot in Jerusalem.
Non-fiction
Prime Green: Remembering the Sixties (2007) is Stone's recent memoir discussing his experiences in the Sixties "countercultureCounterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
". It demonstrates Stone's knowledge and insight into a turbulent decade. The autobiographical work begins with his days in the Navy and ends with his days as a correspondent in Vietnam. The work features Stone's insights on Neal Cassady
Neal Cassady
Neal Leon Cassady was a major figure of the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the psychedelic movement of the 1960s. He served as the model for the character Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road....
, Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
, and Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
from his time spent traveling with them. Stone offers a candid look at sixties drug culture including the use of marijuana
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
, LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
, heroin, and peyote
Peyote
Lophophora williamsii , better known by its common name Peyote , is a small, spineless cactus with psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline.It is native to southwestern Texas and Mexico...
.
Works
- 1967: A Hall of Mirrors
- 1974: Dog Soldiers
- 1981: A Flag for Sunrise
- 1986: Children of LightChildren of LightChildren of Light is a 1986 novel by Robert Stone. The story tracks the lives of Gordon Walker, a failed playwright in his 40s and modestly successful screenwriter-actor, and his old flame Lu Anne 'Lee Verger' Bourgeois Morgen, a successful actress who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia...
- 1992: Outerbridge ReachOuterbridge ReachOuterbridge Reach is a 1998 novel by American novelist Robert Stone.-Plot:Stone's incisive, haunting novel follows the story of a copywriter who enters an around-the-world solo boat race.-Commercial success:...
- 1997: Bear and His Daughter (short stories)
- 1998: Damascus Gate
- 2003: Bay of SoulsBay of SoulsBay of Souls is a novel by renowned author Robert Stone written in the year 2003. It falls in the thriller genre of novels.-Plot summary:...
- 2007: Prime Green: Remembering the Sixties
- 2010: Fun with Problems (short stories)
External links
- "Robert Stone, Classic interview with the author of Damascus Gate", Identity Theory, April 20, 2009
- Interview with Robert Stone after publication of his memoir Prime Green LA Weekly, January 17, 2007
- "Antarctica, 1958" by Robert Stone, The New Yorker (June 12, 2006).
- "The Apostle of the Strung-Out" (Interview), Salon (April 14, 1997).
- "Kera Bolonik Talks to Robert Stone" (Interview) Bookforum (Summer 2003).
- Robert Stone Papers at the NYPL