Russell Hoban

Russell Conwell Hoban (born February 4, 1925) is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, mainstream fiction, magic realism, poetry, and children's books. He lives in England.

Biography

Hoban was born in Lansdale, just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of two Jewish Ukrainian immigrants. He was named after Russell Conwell.

After briefly attending Temple University, he enlisted in the Army at age 18 and served in the Philippines and Italy as a radio operator during World War II. During his military service, he married his first wife, Lillian Hoban (née Aberman), who later illustrated many of his books.

Hoban then worked as an illustrator (painting several covers for "TIME", "Sports Illustrated", and "The Saturday Evening Post") and an advertising copywriter—occupations which several of his characters later shared—before writing and illustrating his first children's book, "What Does It Do and How Does It Work".

The notes 'About the artist' in the Macmillan Classics Edition of "Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe" (second printing 1965), which Hoban illustrated, says that he worked in advertising for Batten Barton Durstine & Osborn, and later became the art director of J. Walter Thompson:

"Heavy machinery later became subjects for his paintings, and this led him into the children's book field with the writing and illustrating of "What Does It Do and How Does It Work?" and "The Atomic Submarine"."

The notes to this book, the illustrations to which are copyright 1964, say that Hoban was at that time teaching drawing at the School of Visual Arts in New York, collaborating with his first wife on their fifth children's book and living in Connecticut.

He wrote exclusively for children for the next decade, and was best known for his series of short books starring Frances, a temperamental badger child, whose escapades were in part based on the experiences of his four children, Phoebe, Abrom, Esme and Julia, and their friends. "The Mouse and His Child", a dark philosophical tale for older children, appeared in 1967 and was Hoban's first full-length novel.

In 1969, Hoban, his wife, and their children travelled to London, intending to stay only a short time. The marriage dissolved, and while the rest of the family returned to the United States, Hoban remained in London and has resided there ever since. All of his adult novels except "Riddley Walker", "Pilgermann" and "Fremder" are set in whole or part in contemporary London.

Hoban now lives with his second wife, Gundula Ahl; they have three children, one of whom is the composer Wieland Hoban, to whom "Riddley Walker" is dedicated. Wieland has set one of his father's texts in his piece "Night Roads" (1998-99).

Recent activity

In 2002 an annual fan activity dubbed the Slickman A4 Quotation Event (SA4QE) (named after its founder, a member of experimental Chicago theatre troupe the Neo-Futurists) began, in which Hoban enthusiasts celebrate his birthday by writing down favourite quotes from his books (invariably on sheets of yellow A4 paper, a recurring Hoban motif) and leaving them in public places. The event has now taken place in some 38 cities across 13 countries worldwide and been reported on in the Independent on Sunday [http://www.sa4qe.com/sa4qe-tott.htm] and Guardian [http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,6000,845568,00.html] newspapers.

In 2005 fans from across the world celebrated Hoban's work in London at the first international convention for the author, entitled "The Russell Hoban Some-Poasyum" (a pun on symposium from "Riddley Walker") [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,1411616,00.html] . A booklet was published by the organisers to commemorate the event featuring tributes to Hoban from a variety of contributors including actor and politician Glenda Jackson, novelist David Mitchell, composer Harrison Birtwistle and screenwriter Andrew Davies.

In November 2007 Hoban's own stage adaptation of "Riddley Walker" was produced (for only the third time ever) by [http://red-kettle.com/site/ Red Kettle] in Waterford, Ireland, to positive reviews [http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/features/2007/1112/1194550128837.html] .

Hoban's most recent novel is "My Tango with Barbara Strozzi", published November 2007.

Themes and genres

Hoban is often described as a fantasy writer; only two of his novels, "Turtle Diary" and "The Bat Tattoo", are entirely devoid of supernatural elements. However, the fantasy elements are usually presented as only moderately surprising developments in an otherwise realistic contemporary story, i.e. magic realism. Exceptions include "Kleinzeit" (a comic fantasy whose characters include Death, Hospital, and Underground), "Riddley Walker" (generally considered science fiction because of its futuristic though primitive setting), "Pilgermann" (a historical novel about the Crusades), and "Fremder" (a more recognisably science-fiction novel).

Many of his novels could also be considered romances, following the development of a relationship between two characters who often take turns as narrators, bonding over some common obsession or artistic interest.

There is frequent repetition of the same images and themes in different contexts: for instance, many of Hoban's works refer to lions, Orpheus, Eurydice, Persephone, Vermeer, severed heads, heart disease, flickering, Odilon Redon, and King Kong.

Works

Adult novels

*"The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz" (1973), ISBN 0-8128-1624-2
*"Kleinzeit" (1974), ISBN 0-670-41458-1
*"Turtle Diary" (1975), ISBN 0-394-40199-9
*"Riddley Walker" (1980), ISBN 0-671-42147-6
*"Pilgermann" (1983), ISBN 0-671-45968-6
*"The Medusa Frequency" (1987), ISBN 0-87113-165-X
*"Fremder" (1996), ISBN 0-224-04370-6
*"Mr. Rinyo-Clacton's Offer" (1998), ISBN 0-224-05121-0
*"Angelica's Grotto" (1999), ISBN 0-7475-4611-8
*"Amaryllis Night and Day" (2001), ISBN 0-7475-5285-1
*"The Bat Tattoo" (2002), ISBN 0-7475-6022-6
*"Her Name Was Lola" (2003), ISBN 0-7475-7024-8
*"Come Dance with Me" (2005), ISBN 0-7475-7452-9
*"Linger Awhile" (2006), ISBN 0-7475-7984-9
*"My Tango with Barbara Strozzi" (2007), ISBN 0-7475-9028-6

elected children's books

*"Frances the Badger" series: "Bedtime for Frances", "Bread and Jam for Frances", etc. (1960-1970)
*"The Mouse and His Child" (1968, republished 1990), ISBN 0-06-022378-2 (also filmed)
*"Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas" (1971, republished 1992), ISBN 0-89966-951-4 (also televised)
*"Egg Thoughts and Other Frances Songs" (1972) (poetry), ISBN 0-06-022331-6
*"How Tom Beat Captain Najork and his Hired Sportsmen" (1974), ISBN 0-224-00999-0
*"A Near Thing for Captain Najork" (1975), ISBN 0-224-01197-9
*"La Corona and the Tin Frog" (1979), ISBN 0-224-01397-1
*"The Marzipan Pig" (1986), ISBN 0-224-01687-3
*"The Trokeville Way" (1996), ISBN 0-224-04631-4
*"The Last of the Wallendas" (1997) (poetry), ISBN 0-340-66766-4

Other works

*"The Carrier Frequency" (1984) (stage play)
*"Deadsy and the Sexo-Chanjo" and "Door" (1989, 1990) (text and narration for animated films by David Anderson)
*"The Second Mrs Kong" (1994) (libretto for opera composed by Harrison Birtwistle)
*"The Moment under The Moment" (1992) (stories, a libretto, essays and sketches)

Film

"Turtle Diary" (1985); Screenplay by Harold Pinter; Starring Glenda Jackson, Ben Kingsley and Michael Gambon

External links

* [http://www.ocelotfactory.com/hoban/ The Head of Orpheus] - fan site
* [http://www.hoban2005.co.uk/ The Russell Hoban Some-Poasyum, London, 11-13 February 2005] - information about an international convention in honour of the author
* [http://www.sa4qe.com SA4QE] - documents an annual fan activity whereby favourite quotes are left in public places
* [http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2152 Russell Hoban's entry on Literary Encyclopedia]
* [http://wiredforbooks.org/russellhoban/ 1987 audio interview of Russell Hoban by Don Swaim of CBS Radio - RealAudio at Wired for Books.org]
* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,,845568,00.html 'Secrets of the Yellow Pages'] - 2002 Guardian profile and interview
* [http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/features/article340500.ece 'Odd, and getting odder'] - Independent on Sunday interview, January 2006
* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/graphic/0,,2208617,00.html Russell Hoban's writing room] (from the Guardian Review's Writers' Rooms series)