Steven Millhauser

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Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Steven Millhauser (born August 3, 1943) is an American novelist and short story writer. He won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel Martin Dressler.

Life and career

Template:Box quote Millhauser was born in New York City, grew up in Connecticut, and earned a B.A. from Columbia University in 1965. He then pursued a doctorate in English at Brown University. He never completed his dissertation but wrote parts of Edwin Mullhouse and From the Realm of Morpheus (1986) in two separate stays at Brown. Between times at the university, he wrote Portrait of a Romantic at his parents' house in Connecticut in 1971-1976.[1] 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.[2]

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 to Edwin's Johnson. 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 1986.[3]

Millhauser’s first published story, “The New Automaton Theater,” (1981) was not collected until 1999 in The Knife Thrower and Other Stories.[4]

Perhaps the most well-known of his short stories is "Eisenheim the Illusionist} (published in The Barnum Museum), 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).[5] The story is ranked by The Best American Short Stories for 1990 and was short-listed for the Best American Short Stories of the [20th] century by editors Katrina Kenison and John Updike.[6][7]

Millhauser's stories often treat fantasy themes in a manner reminiscent of Poe or Borges, with a distinctively American voice. As critic Russell Potter 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."[8]

Millhauser's collections of stories continued with The Barnum Museum (1990), Little Kingdoms: Three Novellas (1993), and The Knife Thrower and Other Stories (1998). The unexpected success of Martin Dressler in 1997 brought him increased attention. Dangerous Laughter: 13 Stories (2008) made the New York Times Book Review list of 10 Best Books of 2008.[9]

Personal life

Millhauser lives in Saratoga Springs, New York. He taught at Skidmore College for almost 30 years before retiring in 2017.[10] He was previously married to Cathy Allis, an occupational therapist and crossword constructor.[11][12]

Together they have a daughter, Anna, and a son, Jonathan.[13]

Awards and honors

Novels

Short fiction

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Novellas

Short story collections


Stories[14]
Title Year First published Reprinted/collected Notes
Miracle Polish 2011 Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
Coming soon 2013 Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".

Essays

Critical studies and reviews of Millhauser's work

  • Understanding Steven Millhauser (Understanding Contemporary American Fiction), by Earl G. Ingersoll. University of South Carolina Press, 2014 Template:ISBN
  • Steven Millhauser : la précision de l'impossible, by Marc Chénetier. Paris: Belin, 2013 ISSN 1275-0018

Footnotes

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  1. ↑ Ingersoll, 2014 p. 3
  2. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  3. ↑ Ingersoll, 2014 p. 241: Selected Bibliography
  4. ↑ Ingersoll, 2014 p. 4: Millhauser’s “first published story…”And: p. 89: The story was “omitted from In the Penny Arcade (1986) because [the story] ‘August Eschenburg’ [also] focused on automaton-making.”
  5. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ Updike and Kenison, 1999 p. Xvi: Introduction. And p. 821: Index of Best American Short Stories, 1915-1999
  7. ↑ Ingersoll, 2014 p. 64: “...one of Millhauser’s finest stories.” And p. 134n 3: “Millhauser’s interest n magicians [reaches] its fullest expression in ‘Eisenheim the Illusionist,’ a short story with the feel of a novella.”
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ Ingersoll, 2014 p. 3: Millhauser and Allis were married in 1984.
  14. ↑ Short stories unless otherwise noted.

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Sources

External links

Template:PulitzerPrize Fiction 1976–2000 Template:World Fantasy Award Best Short Fiction

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