Tom Robbins | |
|---|---|
 Robbins at Booksmith inSan Francisco, 2005 | |
| Born | Thomas Eugene Robbins (1932-07-22)July 22, 1932 Blowing Rock, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Died | February 9, 2025(2025-02-09) (aged 92) La Conner, Washington, U.S. |
| Occupation |
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| Genre | Postmodernism |
Thomas Eugene Robbins (July 22, 1932 – February 9, 2025) was an American novelist. His most notable works are "seriocomedies" (also known as "comedy dramas").[1] Robbins had lived inLa Conner, Washington, since 1970, where he wrote nine of his books.[2] His 1976 novelEven Cowgirls Get the Blues was adapted into the1993 film version byGus Van Sant.[3] His last work, published in 2014, wasTibetan Peach Pie, a self-declared "un-memoir".
Robbins was born on July 22, 1932,[4] inBlowing Rock, North Carolina, to George Thomas Robbins and Katherine Belle Robinson. Both of his grandfathers wereSouthern Baptist preachers. The Robbins family lived in Blowing Rock before moving toWarsaw,Virginia, when the author was still a young boy.[5] In adulthood, Robbins has described his young self as being a "hillbilly".[6]
Robbins attended Warsaw High School (class of 1949) andHargrave Military Academy inChatham, Virginia, where he won the Senior Essay Medal. The next year he enrolled atWashington and Lee University inLexington, Virginia, to major in journalism, leaving at the end of his sophomore year after being disciplined by his fraternity for bad behavior and failing to earn a letter in basketball.[7]
In 1953, he enlisted in theU.S. Air Force after receiving his draft notice, spending a year as ameteorologist inKorea, followed by two years in the Special Weather Intelligence unit of theStrategic Air Command inNebraska. He was discharged in 1957 and returned toRichmond, Virginia, where his poetry readings at the Rhinoceros Coffee House led to his gaining a reputation on the local bohemian scene.[8]
In late 1957, Robbins enrolled atRichmond Professional Institute (RPI), a school of art, drama, and music, which later becameVirginia Commonwealth University. He served as an editor and columnist for the college newspaper,Proscript, from 1958 to 1959.[9] He also worked nights on the sports desk of the dailyRichmond Times-Dispatch.[5] After graduating with honors from RPI in 1959 and indulging in some hitchhiking, Robbins joined the staff of theTimes-Dispatch as a copy editor.[10]
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In 1962, Robbins moved toSeattle to seek anM.A. at the Far East Institute of theUniversity of Washington. During the next five years in Seattle (minus a year spent in New York City researching a book onJackson Pollock) he worked for theSeattle Times as an art critic.[11] In 1965, he wrote a column on the arts forSeattle Magazine as well as occasionally forArt in America andArtforum.[12] Also during this time, he hosted a weekly alternative radio show,Notes from the Underground, at non-commercialKRAB-FM, Seattle.[13] It was in 1967, while writing a review of the rock bandThe Doors, that Robbins said he found his literary voice.[14] While working on his first novel, Robbins worked the weekend copy desk of theSeattle Post-Intelligencer.[15] Robbins would remain in Seattle, on and off, for the following forty years.[5][16]
In 1966, Robbins was contacted byDoubleday'sWest Coast editor, Luthor Nichols. Nichols asked Robbins about writing a book on Northwest art. Instead Robbins told Nichols he wanted to write a novel and pitched the idea of what was to becomeAnother Roadside Attraction.[17] In 1967, Robbins moved toSouth Bend, Washington, where he wrote his first novel. In 1970, Robbins moved toLa Conner, Washington, and it was at his home on Second Street that he subsequently authored nine books (although, in the late 1990s, he spent two years living on theSwinomishIndian reservation).In the 1980s and early 1990s, Robbins regularly published articles and essays inEsquire magazine,[18][19][20] and also contributed toPlayboy,The New York Times,[21] andGQ.[22]
Robbins's 1982 contract with editor Alan Rinzler[23] stipulated that he would accompany Robbins on three holiday trips to resorts Robbins would choose where he could discuss the work-in-progress novel. Rinzler later discovered it wasJitterbug Perfume.[23] He later wrote this on the topic of editing for Robbins:
Tom would read out loud from his work in progress, and I would comment. Just a few pages at a time. He was a real southern gentleman, and welcomed intellectual discourse about his theme, characters, and intentions, from the inside. He took the process of conception, research, trial and error, moving things around, changing voices and pitch very seriously, wrote slowly and carefully, revised constantly, developing, refining and evolving this novel over the course of about two years.[23]
Michael Dare described Robbins's writing style: "When he starts a novel, it works like this. First he writes a sentence. Then he rewrites it again and again, examining each word, making sure of its perfection, finely honing each phrase until it reverberates with the subtle texture of the infinite. Sometimes it takes hours. Sometimes an entire day is devoted to one sentence, which gets marked on and expanded upon in every possible direction until he is satisfied. Then, and only then, does he add a period".[24] When Robbins was asked to explain his "gift" for storytelling in 2002, he replied:
I'm descended from a long line of preachers and policemen. Now, it's common knowledge that cops are congenital liars, and evangelists spend their lives telling fantastic tales in such a way as to convince otherwise rational people that they're factual. So, I guess I come by my narrative inclinations naturally.[25]
Over the course of his writing career, Robbins delivered readings on four continents, in addition to performances he gave at festivals fromSeattle toSan Miguel de Allende.[2][26] Robbins also read atBumbershoot in 2014.[27]
In 1997, Robbins won the Bumbershoot Golden Umbrella Award for Lifetime Achievement in the arts that is presented annually by theBumbershoot arts festival inSeattle.[28] In 2000, Robbins was named one of the 100 Best Writers of the 20th Century byWriter's Digest magazine,[29] while the legendary Italian criticFernanda Pivano called Robbins "the most dangerous writer in the world".[30]
In October 2012, Robbins received the 2012 Literary Lifetime Achievement Award from theLibrary of Virginia.[31] In 2015, he was awarded theWillamette Writers' Lifetime Achievement Award and received the award at the Gala Awards Event at the Willamette Writers Conference on August 8, 2015.[32] On September 2, 2023, a "King for a Day" gala and parade was held in Robbins's honor in his hometown of La Conner, Washington. The event also raised money for a children's art program at the local library.[33][34]
During his brief stint in New York in 1965 Robbins joined theNew York Filmmakers' Cinematheque [de].[35] In the mid-1960s, as a member of the Seattle Arts scene, Robbins reviewed art for several publications in Seattle, wrote essays for museum catalogs, organized gallery exhibits, and was the self-described ringleader in a "boisterous neo-Dada gang of guerilla artists, the Shazam Society".[36][37]
Robbins defended, in print, Indian mysticOsho, although he was never a follower.[38] Robbins spent three weeks at ceremonial sites inMexico andCentral America with mythologistJoseph Campbell, and studied mythology in Greece and Sicily with the poetRobert Bly. Robbins also traveled toTimbuktu.[16] Robbins was a member of theMarijuana Policy Project's advisory board, alongside numerous other notable figures such asJack Black,Ani DiFranco,Tommy Chong, andJello Biafra;[39] he was honoured at the Laureate Dinner of Seattle'sRainier Club that has also recognized other local figures, such as Charles Johnson, Stephen Wadsworth,Timothy Egan andAugust Wilson;[40] and he sat on the board of directors ofThe Greater Seattle Bureau of Fearless Ideas (formerly 826 Seattle), "a nonprofit writing and tutoring center dedicated to helping youth, ages six to 18, improve their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write."[41][42]
Madame Zoe, a Richmond psychic and palm reader who once lived in Richmond's South Side, was fictionalized in Robbins'sEven Cowgirls Get the Blues. In 2016 Richmond artists Noah Scalin and Thea Duskin recreated her bedroom as an installation in the art gallery at Chop Suey Books inCarytown in Richmond.[43] The novelEven Cowgirls Get the Blues was adapted intoa film in 1993 byGus Van Sant, starringUma Thurman,Lorraine Bracco, andKeanu Reeves.[44]
Robbins was a friend ofTerence McKenna, whose influence appears evident in a couple of his books.[45] A main character (Larry Diamond) inHalf Asleep in Frog Pajamas advocates a theory similar to those of McKenna, involving the history and cultural influences of psychedelic plants. Robbins also spent time withTimothy Leary and the author said that one of the protagonists inJitterbug Perfume (Wiggs Dannyboy) exhibited certain characteristics of Leary's personality; Robbins acknowledged usingLSD with Leary.[46]
He was friends with Gus Van Sant, and performed thevoice-over narration in Van Sant's film adaptation ofEven Cowgirls Get the Blues. He was friends with directorsRobert Altman andAlan Rudolph, as well, and had small speaking parts in five feature films.[47]
Robbins lived inLa Conner, Washington, and died there on February 9, 2025, at the age of 92.[48]
Robbins was the author of eight published novels. He wrote numerous short stories and essays, mostly collected in the volumeWild Ducks Flying Backward, and one novella,B Is for Beer.[49]
