Steven Millhauser
Encyclopedia
Steven Millhauser is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 novelist and short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 writer. He won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction has been awarded for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. It originated as the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel, which was awarded between 1918 and 1947.-1910s:...

 for his novel Martin Dressler
Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer
Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer is a 1996 novel by Steven Millhauser. It won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The novel follows the exploits of a young, optimistic entrepreneur, the eponymous Martin Dressler, in late nineteenth century New York City...

. The prize brought many of his older books back into print.

Life and career

Millhauser was born in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, grew up in Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

, and earned a B.A. from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 in 1965. He then pursued a doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...

 in English at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

. He never completed his dissertation but wrote parts of Edwin Mullhouse and From the Realm of Morpheus in two separate stays at Brown. Between times at the university, he wrote Portrait of a Romantic at his parents' house in Connecticut. His story "The Invention of Robert Herendeen" (in The Barnum Museum) features a failed student who has moved back in with his parents; the story is loosely based on this period of Millhauser's life.

Until the Pulitzer Prize, Millhauser was best known for his 1972 debut novel, Edwin Mullhouse. This novel, about a precocious writer whose career ends abruptly with his death at age eleven, features the fictional Jeffrey Cartwright playing Boswell
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson....

 to Edwin's Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...

. Edwin Mullhouse brought critical acclaim, and Millhauser followed with a second novel, Portrait of a Romantic, in 1977, and his first collection of short stories, In The Penny Arcade
In the Penny Arcade
In the Penny Arcade is one of seven short stories written by Steven Millhauser and published in 1986. These seven short stories were previously published in the early 1980s in venues such as the New Yorker, Grand Street, Antaeus, and the Hudson Review. Like Mr...

, in 1986.

Possibly the most well-known of his short stories is "Eisenheim the Illusionist", based on a pseudo-mythical tale of a magician who stunned audiences in Vienna in the latter part of the 19th century. It was made into the film, The Illusionist (2006). Although the film is not entirely true to Millhauser's work, the same could be said about Millhauser's adaptation of the original tale; both adaptations romanticize the rumored magical feats. Millhauser is the only critically renowned author to have explored the extraordinary tale of Eisenheim the Magician, which, while being entirely implausible, was nevertheless believed by his huge audiences at the time, who claimed that Eisenheim created spirits in front of audiences nightly.

Millhauser's stories often treat fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 themes in a manner reminiscent of Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...

 or Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...

, with a distinctively American voice. As critic Russell Potter
Russell Potter
Russell A. Potter is an American writer and college professor. His work encompasses Hip hop culture, popular music, and the history of British exploration of the Arctic in the nineteenth century...

 has noted, "in (Millhauser's stories), mechanical cowboys at penny arcades come to life; curious amusement parks, museums, or catacombs beckon with secret passageways and walking automata; dreamers dream and children fly out their windows at night on magic carpets."

Millhauser's collections of stories continued with The Barnum Museum
The Barnum Museum
The Barnum Museum is a 1990 collection of fantasy themed short stories by Steven Millhauser perhaps most notable for its closing story, 'Eisenheim the Illusionist', which was filmed in 2006 as The Illusionist.- Short stories :* A Game of Clue...

(1990), Little Kingdoms (1993), and The Knife Thrower and Other Stories
The Knife Thrower and Other Stories
The Knife Thrower and Other Stories by Steven Millhauser, first published in 1998 by Crown Publishers, Inc., New York. It is a collection of short stories, some of which were published by various journals, such as The Paris Review, Harper's Magazine, and The New Yorker...

(1998). The unexpected success of Martin Dressler in 1997 brought Millhauser increased attention. Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories made the New York Times Book Review list of "10 Best Books of 2008" .

Millhauser lives in Saratoga Springs, New York
Saratoga Springs, New York
Saratoga Springs, also known as simply Saratoga, is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 26,586 at the 2010 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the area. While the word "Saratoga" is known to be a corruption of a Native American name, ...

 and teaches at Skidmore College
Skidmore College
Skidmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,500 students. The college is located in the town of Saratoga Springs, New York State....

.

Published works

  • Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-1954, by Jeffrey Cartwright (1972) ISBN 0-679-76652-9
  • Portrait of a Romantic (1977) ISBN 0-671-63089-X
  • In the Penny Arcade (1986) ISBN 1-56478-182-8
  • From the Realm of Morpheus (1986) ISBN 0-688-06501-5
  • The Barnum Museum
    The Barnum Museum
    The Barnum Museum is a 1990 collection of fantasy themed short stories by Steven Millhauser perhaps most notable for its closing story, 'Eisenheim the Illusionist', which was filmed in 2006 as The Illusionist.- Short stories :* A Game of Clue...

    (1990) ISBN 1-56478-179-8
  • Little Kingdoms (1993) ISBN 0-375-70143-5
  • Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer
    Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer
    Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer is a 1996 novel by Steven Millhauser. It won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The novel follows the exploits of a young, optimistic entrepreneur, the eponymous Martin Dressler, in late nineteenth century New York City...

    (1996) ISBN 0-517-70319-X
  • The Knife Thrower (1998) ISBN 0-679-78163-3
  • Enchanted Night (1999) ISBN 0-375-70696-8
  • The King in the Tree (2003) ISBN 0-375-41540-8
  • Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories (2008) ISBN 0-307-26756-3
  • We Others: New and Selected Stories (2011) ISBN 0-307-59590-0

External links

  • Interview conducted by Jim Shepard for BOMB Magazine
  • Excerpt from Enchanted Night
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