Trevanian
Encyclopedia
Rodney William Whitaker was an American film scholar and writer who wrote several successful novels under the pen name
Trevanian. Whitaker also published works as Nicholas Seare, Beñat Le Cagot and Edoard Moran. He published the non-fiction The Language of Film under his own name.
Whitaker wrote in a wide variety of genres, achieved best-seller status, and published under several names, but was best known as Trevanian. Between 1972 to 1983, five of his novels sold more than a million copies each. He was described as "the only writer of airport paperbacks to be compared to Zola
, Ian Fleming
, Poe
and Chaucer
." He revealed his real name in an interview with the New York Times in 1979.
, Whitaker became enthralled with stories as a boy. His family struggled with poverty. He lived for several years in Albany, New York
as a youth (a time portrayed in his last published work).
Whitaker earned bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Washington
. While there he wrote and directed his three-act play Eve of the Bursting, which was his Master's thesis production in the UW Playhouse. The Company Manager and Assistant Director of the production was Jerry Pournelle
. Whitaker went on to earn a doctorate in communications and film at Northwestern University
.
He taught at Dana College
in Blair, Nebraska
, where he was chairman of the communications division. He served in the US Navy during the Korean War
. Later he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship
for study in England
.
When Whitaker wrote his first two novels, he was chairman of the Department of Radio, TV and Film at the University of Texas, Austin
, where he continued to teach for many years.
Whitaker married the former Diane Brandon, and they had four children: sons Lance and Christian, and daughters Alexandra and Tomasin. They lived for years in the Basque countryside of France
.
Whitaker died December 14, 2005 in the English
West Country
. He was survived by his wife and grown children.
His first novel, published at the age of forty when he was teaching at the University of Texas, was The Eiger Sanction
, an intelligent, gritty and thrilling spy spoof. It became a worldwide best seller. In 1975 it was adapted as a movie directed by and starring Clint Eastwood
. Trevanian described the movie as "vapid" in a footnote in his later novel Shibumi. He requested (and received) a screenwriting credit as Rod Whitaker. The balance of the script was written by Warren Murphy
, the mystery writer perhaps best known for co-writing the Destroyer series of men's action novels.
Saddened that some critics did not 'get' the spoof, Trevanian followed it with an even more intense spoof, The Loo Sanction (1973), which depicted an ingenious art theft
(which was copied by thieves in Turin). Then came The Main (1976), a roman policier set in a poor neighborhood of Montreal with Claude LaPointe, a police lieutenant in his mid-50s whose wife had died young, as the lead character. Trevanian originally intended to publish The Main under the pen name Jean-Paul Morin.
Next came Shibumi in 1979, Trevanian's meta-spy novel, which received the most critical acclaim. In 1983 he published The Summer of Katya, a psychological horror novel. The widely diverse books solidified the myth that "Trevanian" was a collective pen name for a group of writers working together. Under the name Nicolas Seare, Trevanian also published 1339 or So: Being an Apology for a Pedlar (1975), a witty medieval tale of love and courage; and Rude Tales and Glorious (1983), a bawdy re-telling of Arthurian
tales.
After a 15-year absence from domestic publishing, in 1998 Trevanian reappeared as the author of a Western novel called Incident at Twenty-Mile, and a collection of short stories: Hot Night in the City (2000). His last novel, written while he was in declining health, took a surprising turn.
The Crazyladies of Pearl Street (2005) depicted the coming-of-age story of Jean-Luc LaPointe, a boy surviving with his mother and sister in the slums of Albany, New York in the years preceding and during World War II. Although the book was published as fiction, commentators described it as autobiographical. In November 2005 it was selected as one of eleven Editors' Choice books by the Historical Novel Society.
In the summer of 2005, Crown Publishers relaunched a trade paperback set of five of Trevanian's earlier books: The Eiger Sanction, The Loo Sanction, The Main, The Summer of Katya and Shibumi.
Street of the Four Winds, Trevanian's tale of Parisian artists caught in the 1848 revolution, based on his meticulous research of the era, remains unpublished. An excerpt is posted on Trevanian's web site.
Whitaker kept his true identity unknown for years. He refused to grant interviews or contribute to the publicity efforts of his publishers. His first known interview was granted to Carol Lawson of The New York Times
for a June 10, 1979 article coinciding with the release of Shibumi. In this article Trevanian stated that "Trevanian is going out of business. Now he can talk."
It was rumored that Trevanian was Robert Ludlum
writing under a pen name. Trevanian rejected that idea stating, "I don't even know who he is. I read Proust
, but not much else written in the 20th century."
Trevanian wrote successfully in several genres. In a 1998 interview with Newsweek, he said that with each new book, he first decided what author should tell the story. He used Method-acting techniques to imagine himself as the author in order to work into the story he wanted to tell. Trevanian fans followed his style changes with delight.
Trevanian said of his fans:
This was another poke at the masses—most notably the United States and Americans in general—since his apparent disillusion with the country led him to abandon it. In later years Trevanian was more outspoken about the reasons surrounding his voluntary exile from the country of his birth; he cited America's material obsession was one of the main reasons behind the declining quality of life in the U.S. He said that one day Americans would wake up and realize that cheaper is not necessarily better. Trevanian also addressed the issue of value on his website.
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
Trevanian. Whitaker also published works as Nicholas Seare, Beñat Le Cagot and Edoard Moran. He published the non-fiction The Language of Film under his own name.
Whitaker wrote in a wide variety of genres, achieved best-seller status, and published under several names, but was best known as Trevanian. Between 1972 to 1983, five of his novels sold more than a million copies each. He was described as "the only writer of airport paperbacks to be compared to Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
, Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books 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...
and Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...
." He revealed his real name in an interview with the New York Times in 1979.
Life
Born in Granville, New YorkGranville, New York
Granville is a town on the eastern border of Washington County, New York, United States. It is part of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, Whitaker became enthralled with stories as a boy. His family struggled with poverty. He lived for several years in Albany, New York
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
as a youth (a time portrayed in his last published work).
Whitaker earned bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
. While there he wrote and directed his three-act play Eve of the Bursting, which was his Master's thesis production in the UW Playhouse. The Company Manager and Assistant Director of the production was Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Eugene Pournelle is an American science fiction writer, essayist and journalist who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte and has since 1998 been maintaining his own website/blog....
. Whitaker went on to earn a doctorate in communications and film at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
.
He taught at Dana College
Dana College
Dana College is a now defunct baccalaureate college located in Blair, Nebraska. Its rural 150-acre campus is approximately 25 miles northwest of Omaha, and overlooks a portion of the Missouri River Valley....
in Blair, Nebraska
Blair, Nebraska
Blair is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 7,990 at the 2000 census. Blair is a part of the Omaha-Council Bluffs Metropolitan Statistical Area.- History :...
, where he was chairman of the communications division. He served in the US Navy during the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. Later he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship
Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. Under the...
for study in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
When Whitaker wrote his first two novels, he was chairman of the Department of Radio, TV and Film at the University of Texas, Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, where he continued to teach for many years.
Whitaker married the former Diane Brandon, and they had four children: sons Lance and Christian, and daughters Alexandra and Tomasin. They lived for years in the Basque countryside of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
Whitaker died December 14, 2005 in the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
West Country
West Country
The West Country is an informal term for the area of south western England roughly corresponding to the modern South West England government region. It is often defined to encompass the historic counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset and the City of Bristol, while the counties of...
. He was survived by his wife and grown children.
Literary works
Whitaker said his wife chose the pen name Trevanian based on her appreciation of English historian G.M. Trevelyan. Trevanian wrote many bestselling novels in different genres, which received highly favorable critical reviews.His first novel, published at the age of forty when he was teaching at the University of Texas, was The Eiger Sanction
The Eiger Sanction
The Eiger Sanction is a 1972 thriller novel by Rodney William Whitaker, written under the pseudonym Trevanian. The story was made into a film directed by and starring Clint Eastwood in 1975.Whitaker wrote a sequel entitled The Loo Sanction....
, an intelligent, gritty and thrilling spy spoof. It became a worldwide best seller. In 1975 it was adapted as a movie directed by and starring Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
. Trevanian described the movie as "vapid" in a footnote in his later novel Shibumi. He requested (and received) a screenwriting credit as Rod Whitaker. The balance of the script was written by Warren Murphy
Warren Murphy
Warren Murphy is an American author, most famous as the co-creator of The Destroyer series, the basis for the film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. He worked as a reporter and editor and after service during the Korean War, he drifted into politics.Murphy also wrote the screenplay for Lethal...
, the mystery writer perhaps best known for co-writing the Destroyer series of men's action novels.
Saddened that some critics did not 'get' the spoof, Trevanian followed it with an even more intense spoof, The Loo Sanction (1973), which depicted an ingenious art theft
Art theft
Art theft is usually for the purpose of resale or for ransom . Stolen art is sometimes used by criminals to secure loans.. One must realize that only a small percentage of stolen art is recovered. Estimates range from 5 to 10%. This means that little is known about the scope and characteristics of...
(which was copied by thieves in Turin). Then came The Main (1976), a roman policier set in a poor neighborhood of Montreal with Claude LaPointe, a police lieutenant in his mid-50s whose wife had died young, as the lead character. Trevanian originally intended to publish The Main under the pen name Jean-Paul Morin.
Next came Shibumi in 1979, Trevanian's meta-spy novel, which received the most critical acclaim. In 1983 he published The Summer of Katya, a psychological horror novel. The widely diverse books solidified the myth that "Trevanian" was a collective pen name for a group of writers working together. Under the name Nicolas Seare, Trevanian also published 1339 or So: Being an Apology for a Pedlar (1975), a witty medieval tale of love and courage; and Rude Tales and Glorious (1983), a bawdy re-telling of Arthurian
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
tales.
After a 15-year absence from domestic publishing, in 1998 Trevanian reappeared as the author of a Western novel called Incident at Twenty-Mile, and a collection of short stories: Hot Night in the City (2000). His last novel, written while he was in declining health, took a surprising turn.
The Crazyladies of Pearl Street (2005) depicted the coming-of-age story of Jean-Luc LaPointe, a boy surviving with his mother and sister in the slums of Albany, New York in the years preceding and during World War II. Although the book was published as fiction, commentators described it as autobiographical. In November 2005 it was selected as one of eleven Editors' Choice books by the Historical Novel Society.
In the summer of 2005, Crown Publishers relaunched a trade paperback set of five of Trevanian's earlier books: The Eiger Sanction, The Loo Sanction, The Main, The Summer of Katya and Shibumi.
Street of the Four Winds, Trevanian's tale of Parisian artists caught in the 1848 revolution, based on his meticulous research of the era, remains unpublished. An excerpt is posted on Trevanian's web site.
Whitaker kept his true identity unknown for years. He refused to grant interviews or contribute to the publicity efforts of his publishers. His first known interview was granted to Carol Lawson of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
for a June 10, 1979 article coinciding with the release of Shibumi. In this article Trevanian stated that "Trevanian is going out of business. Now he can talk."
It was rumored that Trevanian was Robert Ludlum
Robert Ludlum
Robert Ludlum was an American author of 23 thriller novels. The number of his books in print is estimated between 290–500 million copies. They have been published in 33 languages and 40 countries. Ludlum also published books under the pseudonyms Jonathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd.-Life and...
writing under a pen name. Trevanian rejected that idea stating, "I don't even know who he is. I read Proust
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
, but not much else written in the 20th century."
Trevanian wrote successfully in several genres. In a 1998 interview with Newsweek, he said that with each new book, he first decided what author should tell the story. He used Method-acting techniques to imagine himself as the author in order to work into the story he wanted to tell. Trevanian fans followed his style changes with delight.
Trevanian said of his fans:
"The Trevanian Buff is a strange and wonderful creature: an outsider, a natural elitist, not so much a cynic as an idealist mugged by reality, not just one of those who march to a different drummer, but the solo drummer in a parade of one."
This was another poke at the masses—most notably the United States and Americans in general—since his apparent disillusion with the country led him to abandon it. In later years Trevanian was more outspoken about the reasons surrounding his voluntary exile from the country of his birth; he cited America's material obsession was one of the main reasons behind the declining quality of life in the U.S. He said that one day Americans would wake up and realize that cheaper is not necessarily better. Trevanian also addressed the issue of value on his website.
Nonfiction (as Rod Whitaker)
- The Language of Film (1970)
- "Christ on Stage", Dialog 5, Summer 1966, pp. 226–7 (1966).
- "Conversation: On translating Senecan tragedy into film", James Hynd (an interview with Rod Whitaker). Arion (Boston), v. 7 (Spring 1968), pp. 58–67 (1968).
- Stasis. Script to a film by Rod Whitaker and Richard Kooris (1968).
- "The Lawyer, The Lawman, and The Law: Public Image", Texas Law Review: Volume 50, Issue 4. pp. 822–7 (1972).
As Trevanian
- The Eiger SanctionThe Eiger SanctionThe Eiger Sanction is a 1972 thriller novel by Rodney William Whitaker, written under the pseudonym Trevanian. The story was made into a film directed by and starring Clint Eastwood in 1975.Whitaker wrote a sequel entitled The Loo Sanction....
(1972) - The Loo Sanction (1973)
- The Main (1976)
- ShibumiShibumi (novel)Shibumi is a novel issued in 1979, written in English by Trevanian, a pseudonym of Rodney William Whitaker, an American academic who remained mysterious throughout most of his life...
(1979) - The Summer of Katya (1983)
- Incident at Twenty-Mile (1998)
- Hot Night in the City (2000)
- The Crazyladies of Pearl Street (2005)
As Nicholas Seare
- 1339 or So ...Being An Apology for A Pedlar (1975) (1339 or So... was, in early form, a stage play titled Eve of the Bursting)
- Rude Tales And Glorious (1983)
Short stories
- "Switching", Trevanian. Playboy Magazine. December 1978. (A revised version of this story appeared in Hot Night in the City as After Hours at Rick's)
- "Minutes of a Village Meeting", by Beñat Le Cagot, translated by Trevanian. Harper's Monthly. February 1979. pgs. 60 - 63. (A revised version of this story appeared in Hot Night in the City.)
- "That Fox-of-a-Beñat", by Beñat Le Cagot, translated by Trevanian. Yale Literary Magazine. 1984. Vol. 151, No 1, pgs 25-33. (A revised version of this story appeared in Hot Night in the City.)
- "The Secrets of Miss Plimsoll, Private Secretary", by Trevanian. Redbook. March 1984. (A revised version of this story appeared in Hot Night in the City as "The Sacking of Miss Plimsoll".)
- "The Apple Tree", by Trevanian. The Antioch ReviewAntioch ReviewThe Antioch Review is an American literary magazine established in 1941 at Antioch College in Ohio. One of the oldest continuously published literary magazines in the United States, it publishes fiction, essays and poetry from both emerging and established authors.The magazine continues to publish...
, Yellow Springs: Spring 2000. Vol. 58, Iss. 2; p. 195 (14 pages). "The Apple Tree" was also anthologized in the Best American Short StoriesBest American Short StoriesThe Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of The Best American Series published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in contemporary American literature.-Edward O'Brien:The...
collection for 2001. - "Waking to the Spirit Clock", The Antioch Review, Yellow Springs: Summer 2003. Vol. 61, Iss. 3; p. 409
Other works
- Eve of the Bursting, Rod Whitaker. A drama in three acts, 1959; performed at the University Playhouse at the University of Washington. Whitaker also directed this performance.
- Introduction to the 1998 Re-issue of A Climb Up to Hell by Jack Olsen. 1st Ed. Harper & Row, 1962, New York, 1962. Reprint Edition by Griffin House (St. Martins Press), New York, 1998.
- Editor and Introduction to the short-story mystery collection Death Dance: Suspenseful Stories of the Dance Macabre. Cumberland House, 2002.
- The Crazyladies of Pearl Street Cybernotes Companion (2005)
- The Street of the Four Winds - Part I Internet Edition (2005)
- Threads for the Emperor, a one-act children's play retelling of The Emperor's New Clothes.
See also
- Assassinations in fiction
- Mononymous person