David Leavitt | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1961-06-23)June 23, 1961 (age 63) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US |
| Occupation |
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| Education | Yale University (BA) |
| Literary movement | Minimalism,Gay literature |
| Notable works | Family Dancing,The Lost Language of Cranes,While England Sleeps |
David Leavitt (/ˈlɛvɪt/; born June 23, 1961) is an Americannovelist, short story writer, and biographer.
Leavitt was born inPittsburgh,Pennsylvania to Gloria andHarold Leavitt. Harold was a professor who taught at Stanford University and Gloria was a political activist. Leavitt grew up inPalo Alto, California, and graduated fromYale University with a B.A. in English in 1983. After his first book's success, he spent much of the 1990s living in Italy working and restoring an old house inSemproniano inTuscany with his partner. He has also taught atPrinceton University.[1]
While a student at Yale, Leavitt published two stories inThe New Yorker, "Territory" and "Out Here", both of which were included in his first collection,Family Dancing (nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award and finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award). Other published fiction includes the short-story collectionsA Place I've Never Been,Arkansas: Three Novellas andThe Marble Quilt and the novelsThe Lost Language of Cranes,Equal Affections,While England Sleeps (finalist for the Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize),The Page Turner,Martin Bauman,The Body of Jonah Boyd andThe Indian Clerk (finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Award).
In 2000, Leavitt moved toGainesville, Florida, and became a member of the Creative Writing faculty at theUniversity of Florida as well as the founder and editor of the literary journalSubtropics.
Leavitt, who is gay, has frequently explored gay issues in his works.[2] As a teenager, he was frequently frightened by gay novels that emphasized the ideal male body. He found this theme, and its suggestion that homoerotic fulfillment was reserved for the exceptionally beautiful young men, intrusive.[3] His writing explores universal themes such as complex family relationships and class and sex exploitation.[4] Illness and death are also recurrent themes in his work, inspired by his experience with his mother's cancer and death when he was growing up.[5]
Leavitt's 2004 novelThe Body of Jonah Boyd is dedicated to the Palo Alto house he grew up in, 743 Cooksey Lane. This house has since then gained notoriety for being the site ofSam Bankman-Fried's house arrest.[6]
Despite writing many novels, Leavitt has said he feels more confident as a short story writer.[5] He has been criticized for writing too quickly, which he attributes to early experiences with death convincing him that his life as a writer would be short.[5] His work has been consideredminimalist as well as part of the literaryBrat Pack, but he has made "a fierce effort to disassociate" himself from both. He considers his works too long, emotional and descriptive to be minimalist.[5]
Leavitt's favorite novelist isPenelope Fitzgerald, his favorite works of hers beingThe Beginning of Spring,The Gate of Angels andThe Blue Flower. He has also been influenced byJohn Cheever,Alice Munro,Cynthia Ozick,Joseph Roth,W. G. Sebald, andGrace Paley, whom he credits for teaching him the importance of humble experiences in great fiction.[7]
In 1993, the English poetStephen Spender sued Leavitt for copyright infringement over the publication of his novelWhile England Sleeps, accusing him of using elements of Spender's memoirWorld Within World in the novel.[8] Viking-Penguin, Leavitt's publisher at the time, withdrew the book. In 1995, Houghton Mifflin published a revised version with a preface by Leavitt addressing the controversy.
In "Courage in the Telling: The Critical Rise and Fall of David Leavitt", Drew Patrick Shannon argues that the critical backlash that accompanied Spender's suit "allowed [critics] to reinforce the boundaries between gay and mainstream literature that Leavitt had previously crossed".[9] Subsequent reviews of Leavitt's work were more favorable.[10][11] The episode provided Leavitt with the basis for his novellaThe Term-Paper Artist.[12]
Two of Leavitt's novels have been filmed:The Lost Language of Cranes (1991) was directed byNigel Finch andThe Page Turner (released under the titleFood of Love) was directed byVentura Pons. The rights to a third,The Indian Clerk, have been optioned by Scott Rudin.
