John Yount (writer)

John Yount
Born	John Alonzo Yount (1935-07-03) 3 July 1935 (age 89) Boone, North Carolina, United States
Occupation	novelist academic
Alma mater	Vanderbilt University Iowa Writers' Workshop
Period	1967–present
Genre	Novel
Notable awards	Rockefeller Grant Guggenheim Fellowship National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship
Spouse	Susan Childe ​ ​ (m. 1957;div. 1986)​

John Yount (born Boone, North Carolina, 3 July 1935) is an American novelist and academic. He is known for novels including Hardcastle (1980).

Life

John Alonzo Yount was born in Boone, North Carolina, on 3 July 1935. ^[1] He graduated BA at Vanderbilt University in 1960 and MFA at Iowa State University in 1962, where he attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He taught English and Creative Writing at Clemson University and the University of Arkansas. He then taught English at the University of New Hampshire, where he is now Professor Emeritus. ^{[1] [2]}

At New Hampshire, Yount was a mentor to the novelist John Irving. In Trying to Save Piggy Sneed (1993), Irving remembers Yount as "the first writer I was conscious of as a mentor." ^[3] Yount recalled: "Other than maybe how to use a semicolon, I never taught him anything of value. … Nor has he to this day ever taken any advice from me, which is probably why he's famous." ^[4]

In 1957, he married Susan Childe. They divorced in 1986. They have two daughters. ^[1]

Reception

Elmore Leonard named Hardcastle (1980) and Toots in Solitude (1984) "classics of the future." ^[5] Andre Dubus III calls Yount "a master novelist whom not nearly enough people have had the pleasure of reading." ^[6] For Charles Simic, Yount is "[o]ne of the finest writers of prose in this country." ^[7]

Yount was profiled by James Whitehead for Ploughshares in 1974. ^[8]

Recognition

In 1981, he received a Friends of American Writers award for Hardcastle (1980). ^[9] He also received grants from the Rockefeller Foundation (1967), the Guggenheim Foundation (1974) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1976). ^{[1] [10]}

Publications

• Wolf at the Door. 1st ed. Random House, 1967. ^[11] 2nd ed. Open Road, 2014. ^[12]
• The Trapper's Last Shot. 1st ed. Random House, 1973. ^[13] 2nd ed. Open Road, 2014. ^[14]
• Hardcastle. 1st ed. Richard Marek, 1980. ^[15] 2nd ed. Southern Methodist University Press, 1992. ^[16] 3rd ed. Open Road, 2014. ^[17]
• Toots in Solitude. 1st ed. St. Martin’s/Marek, 1984. ^[18] 2nd ed. Southern Methodist University Press, 1995. ^[19] 3rd ed. Open Road, 2014. ^[20]
• Thief of Dreams. 1st ed. Viking Penguin, 1991. ^[21] 2nd ed. Southern Methodist University Press, 1994. ^[22] 3rd ed. Open Road, 2014. ^[23]

References

1. Matthew D. Mutter, "John Yount," in Southern Writers: A New Biographical Dictionary, ed. Joseph M. Flora, Amber Vogel and Bryan Giemza (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006) (at Google Books).
2. "John Yount". College of Liberal Arts.
3. John Irving, Trying to Save Piggy Sneed (London: Bloomsbury, 1993) (at Google Books).
4. Jane Harrigan, "Becoming John Irving," University of New Hampshire Magazine (Fall 2005).
5. Alan Cheuse, "Classics of the Future," The Antioch Review , vol. 65, no. 2 (Spring 2007).
6. "Andre Dubus III: By the Book (Published 2018)". The New York Times. October 4, 2018.
7. RLR Associates International Rights List 2018.
8. James Whitehead, "About John Yount and the Trapper's Last Shot," Ploughshares , vol. 2, no. 2 (1974).
9. Friends of American Writers Award, librarything.com.
10. "Literature Fellowships," arts.gov.
11. Wolf At The Door. Open Road Media. 2014. ISBN   978-1-4976-6973-4.{{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
12. "Wolf at the Door". Open Road Media. October 14, 2014.
13. Yount, John (May 27, 1973). "The trapper's last shot". Random House – via Library of Congress ISBN.
14. "The Trapper's Last Shot". Open Road Media. October 14, 2014.
15. "Hardcastle". Goodreads.
16. Yount, John (May 27, 1992). "Hardcastle". Southern Methodist University Press – via Library of Congress ISBN.
17. "Hardcastle". Open Road Media. October 14, 2014.
18. Toots in Solitude: A Novel. Southern Methodist University Press. 1984. ISBN   978-0-87074-384-9.{{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
19. Yount, John (May 27, 1995). "Toots in solitude". Southern Methodist University Press – via Library of Congress ISBN.
20. "Toots in Solitude". Open Road Media. October 14, 2014.
21. Yount, John (May 27, 1991). "Thief of dreams". Viking – via K10plus ISBN.
22. "Thief of Dreams". Goodreads.
23. "Thief of Dreams". Open Road Media. October 14, 2014.