Wright Marion Morris (January 6, 1910 – April 25, 1998) was an American novelist, photographer, and essayist. He is known for his portrayals of the people and artifacts of the Great Plains in words and pictures, as well as for experimenting with narrative forms.
Early life
Morris was born in Central City, Nebraska; his boyhood home is on the National Register of Historic Places.[1] His mother, Grace Osborn Morris, died six days after he was born. His father, William Henry Morris, worked for the Union Pacific Railroad. After Grace's death, Wright was cared for by a nanny, until his father made a trip to Omaha and returned with a young wife, Gertrude. In Will's Boy, Morris states, "Gertrude was closer to my age than to my father's".[2] Gertrude hated small-town life, but got along famously with Wright, as they shared many of the same childish tastes (both loved games, movies, and ice cream). In 1919, the family moved to Omaha, where they resided until 1924.
During that interlude, Morris spent two summers on his uncle's farm near Norfolk, Nebraska.[3] Photographs of the farm, as well as the real-life characters of Uncle Harry and Aunt Clara, appear in Morris's books.
Career
Morris moved to Chicago in 1924.[4] Later that year, he accompanied his father on a road trip to the west coast that formed the basis for his first novel, My Uncle Dudley. He also lived briefly with his uncle in Texas before enrolling in Pacific Union College in California. He graduated from Pomona College in 1933.[5] He married Mary Ellen Finfrock in 1934;[5] the couple divorced in 1959. He later married Josephine Mary Kantor.
Following college, Morris traveled through Europe on a "wanderjahr," which he later fictionalized in Cause for Wonder.[6]
From 1944 to 1954, Morris lived in Philadelphia.[5] From 1954–1962, he divided his time between California and Mexico.[7] In 1963, he accepted a teaching position at San Francisco State College. He retired from teaching in 1975.
Morris developed close friendships with several other American authors, most notably John O'Hara and Thornton Wilder, and was a pall bearer at O'Hara's funeral in 1970.[7] He also conducted a weekly correspondence with Scottish author Muriel Spark from 1962 until his death.[8]
Morris received numerous honors in addition to the National Book Awards for The Field of Vision[11] and Plains Song.[14][a]
He was granted Guggenheim Fellowships[16] in 1942, 1946, and 1954. In 1975, he won the Mari Sandoz Award recognizing "significant, enduring contribution to the Nebraska book world".[17] In 1979, he received the Western Literature Association's Distinguished Achievement Award. In 1981, he won the Los Angeles Times' Book Prize Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement.[18] In 1982, a jury of Modern Language Association members selected him for the Common Wealth Award for distinguished service in literature.[19] In 1985, he was one of the inaugural recipients of the Whiting Award.[20] In 1986, he was honored with a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.[21]
^ abPlains Song won the 1981 award for hardcover Fiction. From 1980 to 1983 in National Book Awards history there were dual hardcover and paperback awards in most categories. Most of the paperback award-winners were reprints, including the 1981 Fiction.
^"Wright Morris Biography". Center for Great Plains Studies. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
^Waterman, Arthur E. "The Novels of Wright Morris: An Escape from Nostalgia." Critique 4. (Winter 1961-62): 24-40.
^ abcHoward, Leon. Wright Morris. Pamphlets on American Writers 69. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1968.
^ abKnoll, Robert E. Conversations with Wright Morris: Critical Views and Responses. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1977.
^ abCrump, G. B. "Wright Morris." In A Literary History of the American West, edited by Thomas J. Lyon. Western Literary Association. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1987.
^ ab"National Book Awards - 1981". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-15. (With essay by Patricia Smith from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)
