David Kherdian

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David Kherdian
David Kherdian.jpg
Born (1931-12-17) December 17, 1931 (age 92)
Racine, Wisconsin, United States
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • poet
  • biographer
  • publisher
  • editor
Nationality Armenian American
Notable works Monkey: A Journey to the West David of Sassoun
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1971;died 2024)​
Signature
David Signature.jpg

David Kherdian (born December 17, 1931) is an Armenian-American writer, poet, and editor. He is known best for his book, The Road from Home (1979), in which he depicts his mother's childhood. His works have been translated into 14 languages. [1]

Contents

Biography

Kherdian was born on December 17, 1931, in Racine, Wisconsin, to Veron Duhmejian and Melkon Kherdian, both of whom were survivors of the Armenian genocide.

As an editor, writer, and publisher, he is influenced by the Transcendental American poets Walt Whitman and Henry Thoreau, and American poet Emily Dickinson. [2]

Permanent collections of Kherdian's work can be found in the University of Connecticut Archive and Special Collections. [3]

Early years

In 2017, he published Starting from San Francisco: A Life In Writing, where he wrote about his school years. He dropped out of high school during the first semester of his junior year. After his service within the United States Army, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a B.S. degree in Philosophy.[ citation needed ]

Kherdian credited the three large Kaiserlian families (comprising ten children in all) as his first literary influences during his childhood years. His best friend, Mikey Kaiserlian, was the subject of The Dividing River / The Meeting Shore, [4] poems in his honor following his friend's untimely death. Mikey and his cousin, Ardie, appeared frequently in Kherdian's poems. Maggie, the oldest of all the Kaiserlian children, appeared in his autobiographical novella, Asking the River. [4]

Career

The majority of his early poems were written over a period of one month during his first visit to the Berkshires of Massachusetts in the summer of 1970. [5]

Anthologies

In the early 1970s, the Poets in Schools project was established, with Kherdian named for New Hampshire, where the Kherdians were living in their first home. During this period, he published with Macmillan a series of three anthologies on contemporary American poetry: Visions of America: By the Poets of Our Time, Traveling America: With Today's Poets, and Settling America: The Ethnic Expression of 14 Contemporary American Poets.[ citation needed ]

Awards

Kherdian won the 1979 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for children's non-fiction, and he was the only runner-up for the 1980 Newbery Medal, recognizing The Road from Home (1979), about the childhood of his mother Veron Dumehjian before and during the Armenian genocide. The book has been published in most European countries and in many other places, including Japan. [6] It has been reissued several times in the United States. In the sequel Finding Home (1981), she settles in America as a mail-order bride; it is sometimes cataloged as fiction. [7]

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<i>The Road from Home</i> 1979 non-fiction book by David Kherdian

The Road from Home: A True Story of Courage, Survival, and Hope, earlier titled The Road from Home: The Story of an Armenian Girl, is a non-fiction book written by David Kherdian, originally published in 1979. It is based on the life of the author's mother, Veron Dumehjian (1907-1981), who survived the Armenian genocide. During the deportations, the rest of her immediate family died. She returned to her native town, only to be displaced again by the Greco-Turkish War (1919–22). After settling in Smyrna, she was forced to flee once more due to the Great Fire of Smyrna. Veron escaped to ultimately settle in the United States. The book is widely read by middle school children throughout the U.S. and has been published throughout Europe. It has received a number of prestigious awards.

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References

  1. ↑ "David Kherdian". National Book Foundation. Archived from the original on May 16, 2024. Retrieved May 16, 2024.
  2. ↑ Kherdian, David (May 8, 2020). Becoming A Writer. Cascade Press. ISBN   978-1948730938.
  3. ↑ "David Kherdian Papers". UCONN Library. University of Connecticut. Retrieved May 17, 2024.
  4. 1 2 Kherdian, David (January 1, 1990). The Dividing River. Globe Pr Books. ISBN   978-0936385013.
  5. ↑ Kherdian, David (March 4, 2017). Starting from San Francisco: A Life In Writing. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN   978-1544200590.
  6. ↑ Soghomonian, Sarah (May 2005). "Authors David Kherdian and Nonny Hogogrian Speak on Campus" (PDF). Hye Sharzhoom. 26 (4): 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 26, 2014.
  7. ↑ Kherdian, David (1981). Finding home. New York: Greenwillow Books. ISBN   978-0688004019. OCLC   6789278.
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