Barthelme, Donald
Entry updated 23 January 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1931-1989) US author known primarily as a surrealist and black humorist. Most of his short fiction and at least three of his four novels can be described as Fabulations (see also Absurdist SF): Snow White (1967), an absurdist dissection of the fairy tale; The Dead Father (1975), in which the giant figure of a moribund Father is escorted with trauma and ritual to its final resting place; and The King (1990), which imagines King Arthur and his knights in World War Two. Barthelme's early collections especially – like Come Back, Dr Caligari (coll 1964), Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts (coll 1968) and City Life (coll 1970) – present in the form of discontinuous spoofs and Iconoclasms a number of ideas and themes taken from Mythology, fantasy and sf. They are mostly set in New York, where they seem native. Many of them have been reprinted in sf Anthologies.
The central canon of Barthelme's works – his short fiction as a whole – was conveniently assembled in three volumes as Sixty Stories (coll 1981), Forty Stories (coll 1987), both arranged according to his wishes, and Flying to America: 45 More Stories (coll 2007). A supplemental volume, The Teachings of Don B: Satires, Parodies, Fables, Illustrated Stories, and Plays (coll 1992) completes, as per its subtitle, the presentation of his essential shorter work. Collected Stories (coll 2021) resorts most of the above. [PR/JC]
see also: Fantasy Entries; Magic Realism.
Donald Barthelme Jr
born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 7 April 1931
died Houston, Texas: 23 July 1989
works
- Snow White (New York: Atheneum, 1967) [hb/Lawrence Ratzkin]
- The Dead Father (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1975) [hb/Ruth Ansel]
- The King (New York: Harper and Row, 1990) [illus/hb/Barry Moser]
collections and stories
- Come Back, Dr Caligari (New York: Little, Brown, 1964) [coll: hb/Milton Glaser]
- Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts (New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 1968) [coll: hb/Janet Halverson from Honoré Daumier]
- City Life (New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 1970) [coll: hb/Donald Barthelme]
- The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine, or The Hithering Thithering Djinn (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1971) [chap: for children: National Book Award winner: hb/]
- Sadness (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1972) [coll: hb/Donald Barthelme]
- Guilty Pleasures (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974) [coll: hb/Donald Barthelme]
- Amateurs (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1976) [coll: hb/Muriel Nasser from François Gérard]
- Great Days (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1979) [coll: hb/Muriel Nasser]
- Sixty Stories (New York: G P Putnam's Sons, 1981) [coll: hb/David Gatti]
- Overnight to Many Distant Cities (New York: G P Putnam's Sons, 1983) [coll: hb/Russell Munson]
- Paradise (New York: G P Putnam's Sons, 1986) [coll: hb/Lawrence Ratzkin]
- Forty Stories (New York: G P Putnam's Sons, 1987) [coll: hb/David Gatti]
- The Teachings of Don B: Satires, Parodies, Fables, Illustrated Stories, and Plays (New York: Random House/Turtle Bay Books, 1992) [coll: edited by Kim Herzinger: introduction by Thomas Pynchon: hb/nonpictorial]
- Flying to America: 45 More Stories (Washington, District of Columbia: Shoemaker Hoard, 2007) [coll: hb/Gerilyn Attebery]
- Collected Stories (New York: Library of America, 2021) [coll: edited by Charles McGrath: hb/]
nonfiction
- Not-Knowing: The Essays and Interviews of Donald Barthelme (New York: Random House, 1997) [nonfiction: coll: edited by Kim Hersinger: introduction by John Barth: hb/nonpictorial]
about the author
- Charles Molesworth. Donald Barthelme's Fiction: The Ironist Saved from Drowning (Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1982) [nonfiction: chap: pb/]
links
- Donald Barthelme (unofficial site)
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Picture Gallery
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