Courtlandt Bryan
Encyclopedia
Courtlandt Dixon Barnes Bryan (April 22, 1936 - December 15, 2009), better known as C. D. B. Bryan, was an American
author
and journalist
.
, Bryan attended Berkshire School in the class of 1954 and earned a Bachelor of Arts
at Yale University
in 1958. His parents were Joseph Bryan, III and Katharine Barnes Bryan; after they divorced his mother married author
John O'Hara
.
He served in the U.S. Army in South Korea
(1958–1960), but not happily. He was mobilized again (1961–1962) for the Berlin Crisis of 1961
. He was an intelligence officer
.
He was editor
of the satirical Monocle (magazine)
(from 1961), Colorado State University
writer-in-residence (winter 1967), visiting lecturer University of Iowa
writers workshop (1967–1969), special editorial consultant at Yale (1970), visiting professor University of Wyoming
(1975), adjunct professor Columbia University
(1976), fiction director at the New York City Writers Community from (1977), lecturer in English
University of Virginia
(spring 1983), and Bard Center fellow Bard College
(spring 1984).
His first novel won the Harper Prize (1965).
Bryan is best known for his non-fiction book Friendly Fire (1976). It began as an idea he sold to William Shawn
for an article in The New Yorker
, then grew into a series of articles, and then a book. It describes an Iowa
farm family, Gene and Peg Mullen
, and their reaction and change of heart after their son's accidental death by friendly fire
in the Vietnam War
. It was made into a 1979 television movie
of the same name
, for which he shared a Peabody Award
. It's also been cited in professional military studies.
Bryan died from cancer
on December 15, 2009 at his home in Guilford, Connecticut
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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:...
and journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
.
Biography
A native of New York CityNew 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...
, Bryan attended Berkshire School in the class of 1954 and earned a Bachelor of Arts
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...
at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in 1958. His parents were Joseph Bryan, III and Katharine Barnes Bryan; after they divorced his mother married 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:...
John O'Hara
John O'Hara
John Henry O'Hara was an American writer. He initially became known for his short stories and later became a best-selling novelist whose works include Appointment in Samarra and BUtterfield 8. He was particularly known for an uncannily accurate ear for dialogue...
.
He served in the U.S. Army in South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
(1958–1960), but not happily. He was mobilized again (1961–1962) for the Berlin Crisis of 1961
Berlin Crisis of 1961
The Berlin Crisis of 1961 was the last major politico-military European incident of the Cold War about the occupational status of the German capital city, Berlin, and of post–World War II Germany. The U.S.S.R...
. He was an intelligence officer
Military intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that exploits a number of information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to commanders in support of their decisions....
.
He was editor
Editor in chief
An editor-in-chief is a publication's primary editor, having final responsibility for the operations and policies. Additionally, the editor-in-chief is held accountable for delegating tasks to staff members as well as keeping up with the time it takes them to complete their task...
of the satirical Monocle (magazine)
Monocle (magazine)
Monocle was an American satirical magazine, published irregularly from the late 1950s until the mid-sixties. For at least the majority of its run, it was edited by Victor Navasky. Calvin Trillin, C. D. B...
(from 1961), Colorado State University
Colorado State University
Colorado State University is a public research university located in Fort Collins, Colorado. The university is the state's land grant university, and the flagship university of the Colorado State University System.The enrollment is approximately 29,932 students, including resident and...
writer-in-residence (winter 1967), visiting lecturer 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...
writers workshop (1967–1969), special editorial consultant at Yale (1970), visiting professor University of Wyoming
University of Wyoming
The University of Wyoming is a land-grant university located in Laramie, Wyoming, situated on Wyoming's high Laramie Plains, at an elevation of 7,200 feet , between the Laramie and Snowy Range mountains. It is known as UW to people close to the university...
(1975), adjunct professor 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...
(1976), fiction director at the New York City Writers Community from (1977), lecturer in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
(spring 1983), and Bard Center fellow Bard College
Bard College
Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...
(spring 1984).
His first novel won the Harper Prize (1965).
Bryan is best known for his non-fiction book Friendly Fire (1976). It began as an idea he sold to William Shawn
William Shawn
William Shawn was an American magazine editor who edited The New Yorker from 1952 until 1987.-Education and Early Life:...
for an article in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, then grew into a series of articles, and then a book. It describes an Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
farm family, Gene and Peg Mullen
Peg Mullen
Margaret E. Mullen , best known as Peg Mullen, became an antiwar activist, after the death of her son in Vietnam, who had been killed by shrapnel fired from friendly artillery in a 1970 incident. She became an active opponent of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and protested against the Gulf War...
, and their reaction and change of heart after their son's accidental death by friendly fire
Friendly fire
Friendly fire is inadvertent firing towards one's own or otherwise friendly forces while attempting to engage enemy forces, particularly where this results in injury or death. A death resulting from a negligent discharge is not considered friendly fire...
in the Vietnam War
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...
. It was made into a 1979 television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
of the same name
Friendly Fire (1979 film)
Friendly Fire is an American television movie first broadcast on the ABC network on April 22, 1979. Watched that night by an estimated 64 million people, Friendly Fire went on to win four Emmy awards, including Outstanding Drama Special....
, for which he shared a Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
. It's also been cited in professional military studies.
Bryan died from 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...
on December 15, 2009 at his home in Guilford, Connecticut
Guilford, Connecticut
Guilford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, that borders Madison, Branford, North Branford and Durham, and is situated on I-95 and the coast. The population was 21,398 at the 2000 census...
.
Partial bibliography
- So Much Unfairness of Things (short story; Literary Guild selection), HarperHarper (publisher)Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins.-History:James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishing business J. & J. Harper in 1817. Their two brothers, Joseph Wesley Harper and Fletcher Harper, joined them...
(New York City), 1965. - The Great Dethriffe (novel), DuttonE. P. DuttonE. P. Dutton was an American book publishing company founded as a book retailer in Boston, Massachusetts in 1852 by Edward Payson Dutton. In 1986, the company was acquired by Penguin Group and split into two imprints: Dutton Penguin and Dutton Children's Books.-History:Edward Payson Dutton founded...
(New York City), 1970. - Friendly Fire (nonfiction; Book-of-the-Month Club selected alternate), PutnamG. P. Putnam's SonsG. P. Putnam's Sons was a major United States book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group.-History:...
(New York City), 1976. - The National Air and Space Museum (nonfiction; Book- of-the-Month Club selected alternate), art by David Larkin, photographs by Michael Freeman, Robert Golden, and Dennis Rolfe, Abrams (New York City), 1979, second edition with photographs by Jonathan Wallen, 1988.
- Beautiful Women; Ugly Scenes (novel; Literary Guild alternate), Doubleday (New York City), 1983.
- The National Geographic Society: 100 Years of Adventure and Discovery, Abrams, 1987, 1997.
- (Author of introduction) In the Eye of Desert Storm: Photographers of the Gulf WarGulf WarThe Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
, Abrams, 1991. - Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: Alien Abduction, UFOs and the Conference at M.I.T.; Alfred A. KnopfAlfred A. KnopfAlfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house, founded by Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. in 1915. It was acquired by Random House in 1960 and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House. The publishing house is known for its borzoi trademark , which was designed by co-founder...
, 1995; ISBN 0-679-42975-1, 1996 - Also author of narration for the Swedish film The Face of War, 1963.
- Contributor to New York Times Magazine, New York Times Book Review, Harper's, EsquireEsquire (magazine)Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
, Saturday Review, The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, and other periodicals.