Robert Coover
Encyclopedia
Robert Lowell Coover is an American author and professor in the Literary Arts program 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 is generally considered a writer of fabulation
Fabulation
In literary criticism, the term fabulation was popularized by Robert Scholes, in his work The Fabulators, to describe the large and growing class of mostly 20th century novels that are in a style similar to magical realism, and do not fit into the traditional categories of realism or romance...

 and metafiction
Metafiction
Metafiction, also known as Romantic irony in the context of Romantic works of literature, is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, exposing the fictional illusion...

.

Life and works

Coover was born in Charles City
Charles City, Iowa
Charles City is a city in Floyd County, Iowa, United States. The population was 7,652 at the 2010 census a decrease of 160, or 2%, from 7,812 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Floyd County. Charles City is a significant commercial and transportation center for the area, located on U.S...

, 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...

. He attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Southern Illinois University Carbondale is a public research university located in Carbondale, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1869, SIUC is the flagship campus of the Southern Illinois University system...

, received his B.A. in Slavic Studies from Indiana University
Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington is a public research university located in Bloomington, Indiana, in the United States. IU Bloomington is the flagship campus of the Indiana University system. Being the flagship campus, IU Bloomington is often referred to simply as IU or Indiana...

 in 1955, then served in the United States 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...

. He received an M.A. in General Studies in the Humanities from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

 in 1965. In 1968, he signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. Coover has served as a teacher or writer in residence at many universities.

Coover's first novel was The Origin of the Brunists, in which the sole survivor of a mine disaster starts a religious cult. His second book, The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.
The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.
The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. is Robert Coover's second novel, published in 1968.-Plot summary:J. Henry Waugh is an accountant, albeit an unhappy one...

, deals with the role of the creator. The eponymous Waugh, a shy, lonely accountant, creates a baseball game in which rolls of the dice determine every play, and dreams up players to attach those results to.

Coover's best-known work, The Public Burning
The Public Burning
The Public Burning, Robert Coover's third novel, was published in 1977. It is an account of the events leading to the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg...

, deals with the case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg and Julius Rosenberg were American communists who were convicted and executed in 1953 for conspiracy to commit espionage during a time of war. The charges related to their passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union...

 in terms that have been called magic realism
Magic realism
Magic realism or magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements blend with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the "real" and the "fantastic" in the same stream of...

. Half of the book is devoted to the mythic hero Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam is a common national personification of the American government originally used during the War of 1812. He is depicted as a stern elderly man with white hair and a goatee beard...

 of tall tales, dealing with the equally fantastic Phantom, who represents international Communism. The alternate chapters portray the efforts of Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...

 to find what is really going on amidst the welter of narratives.

A later novella, Whatever Happened to Gloomy Gus of the Chicago Bears offers an alternate Nixon, one who is devoted to football and sex with the same doggedness with which he pursued political success in this reality. The theme anthology A Night at the Movies includes the story "You Must Remember This", a piece about Casablanca
Casablanca (film)
Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, and featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Dooley Wilson. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in...

 that features an explicit description of what Rick and Ilsa did when the camera wasn't on them. Pinocchio in Venice returns to mythical themes.
Coover is one of the founders of the Electronic Literature Organization
Electronic Literature Organization
The Electronic Literature Organisation is a nonprofit organization "established in 1999 to promote and facilitate the writing, publishing, and reading of electronic literature." -History:...

. In 1987 he was chosen as the winner of the Rea Award for the Short Story
Rea Award for the Short Story
The Rea Award for the Short Story is an annual award given to a living American or Canadian author chosen for unusually significant contributions to short story fiction.-The Award:...

. Coover is indeed one of the foremost short story writers of the postmodern period, as exemplified by the "Seven Exemplary Fictions" contained in his 1969 book Pricksongs and Descants, which has influenced a new generation of writers, notably Jayne Joso
Jayne Joso
Jayne Joso is a British novelist.Having lived and worked in Japan and China, she now lives in London.Her first novel Soothing Music for Stray Cats was published in 2009. The Times Literary Supplement review said it ‘may emerge as one of the great, eccentric London novels’...

 for the 2011 novel, Perfect Architect.

Novels

  • The Origin of the Brunists (1966)
  • The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.
    The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.
    The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. is Robert Coover's second novel, published in 1968.-Plot summary:J. Henry Waugh is an accountant, albeit an unhappy one...

     (1968)
  • The Public Burning
    The Public Burning
    The Public Burning, Robert Coover's third novel, was published in 1977. It is an account of the events leading to the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg...

     (1977), completed 1975
  • Gerald's Party
    Gerald's Party
    Gerald’s Party is the fourth full-length novel written by Robert Coover, published in 1986. The book encompasses a single night at a party given by the title character and narrator, Gerald. Though the murder of a beautiful actress is central to the plot, Coover's text has little in common with a...

     (1986)
  • A Night at the Movies or, You Must Remember This (1987) (themed anthology)
  • Pinocchio in Venice (1991)
  • John's Wife (1996)
  • Ghost Town (1998)
  • The Adventures of Lucky Pierre
    The Adventures of Lucky Pierre
    The Adventures of Lucky Pierre is a 1961 nudie cutie sexploitation film created by exploitation filmmakers Herschell Gordon Lewis and David F. Friedman. The first of its kind to be filmed in color, the film starred comedian Billy Falbo...

    : Director's Cut (2002)
  • Noir (2010)

Short stories, Novellas, Plays & Collections

  • Pricksongs & Descants (1969) (collection)
  • The Babysitter
    The Babysitter
    The Babysitter is a 1995 American thriller film directed by Guy Ferland and starring Alicia Silverstone based on the eponymous short story by Robert Coover in his collection Pricksongs and Descants...

     (1969) (short story)
  • A Theological Position (1972) (plays)
  • A Political Fable (1980) (novella)
  • Spanking the Maid (1982) (novella)
  • In Bed One Night & Other Brief Encounters (1983) (collection)
  • Whatever Happened to Gloomy Gus of the Chicago Bears (1987) (novella)
  • Dr. Chen's Amazing Adventure (1991) (novella)
  • Briar Rose
    Briar Rose
    Briar Rose may refer to:* A version of Sleeping Beauty written by the Brothers Grimm, and the name of the princess in it* A pseudonym used by Princess Aurora in Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty* Briar Rose , a novel by Jane Yolen...

     (1996) (novella)
  • The Grand Hotels (of Joseph Cornell) (2002) (novella)
  • Stepmother (2004) (novella)
  • A Child Again (2005) (collection)
  • "The Case of the Severed Hand" Harper's Magazine
    Harper's Magazine
    Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...

     317 [1898] (July 2008): 74-80
  • "White-Bread Jesus" Harper's Magazine
    Harper's Magazine
    Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...

     317 [1903] (December 2008): 79-88
  • "Going for a beer" 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...

     (March 14, 2011)
  • "Matinée" 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...

     (July 25, 2011)

External links

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