Jim Harrison

James 'Jim' Harrison (born December 11, 1937) is an American author known for his poetry, fiction, essays, reviews, and writings about food. He is considered a regional writer and his work has been compared to that of Faulkner and Hemingway.Fact|date=December 2007

Biography

Harrison was born in Grayling, Michigan, to Winfield Sprague Harrison, a county agricultural agent, and Norma Olivia (Wahlgren) Harrison.

He has been blind in one eye since childhood. When he was 21 he lost his father and sister in an automobile accident. After a few years of going to college at Michigan State, constantly dropping out and returning, he graduated and worked for a short time as teacher. He soon realized that he was not cut out for the profession and quite by accident, got a book of poems published.

His work has appeared in "The New Yorker", "Esquire", "Sports Illustrated", "Rolling Stone", "Outside", "Playboy", "Men's Journal", and "The New York Times Magazine". He has published several collections of novellas, including "Legends of the Fall" (1979), which contained two that were eventually turned into films: "Revenge" (1990) and "Legends of the Fall" (1994).

Much of Harrison's writing depicts sparsely populated regions of North America with many stories set in places such as Nebraska's Sand Hills, Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Montana's mountains.

He divides his time between a cabin in Michigan, a ranch in New Mexico and most recently a Montana home.

Jim Harrison's work is a primary subject of a class taught at Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan, "Tradition and the Individual Talent". The class is taught by his friend Michael Delp.

Works

Fiction

*"Wolf: A False Memoir" (1971)
*"A Good Day to Die" (1973)
*"Farmer" (1976)
*"Legends of the Fall" (Three novellas: "Revenge" "The Man Who Gave Up His Name" "Legends of the Fall") (1979)
*"Warlock" (1981)
*"Sundog: The Story of an American Foreman, Robert Corvus Strang" (1984)
*"Dalva" (1988)
*"The Woman Lit By Fireflies" (Three novellas: "Brown Dog" "Sunset Limited" "The Woman Lit by Fireflies") (1990)
*"Julip" (Three novellas: "Julip" "The Seven-Ounce Man" "The Beige Dolorosa") (1994)
*"The Road Home" (1998)
*"The Beast God Forgot to Invent" (Three novellas: "The Beast God Forgot to Invent" "Westward Ho" "I Forgot to Go to Spain") (2000)
*"True North" (2004)
*"The Summer He Didn't Die" (Three novellas: "The Summer He Didn't Die" "Republican Wives" "Tracking") (2005)
*"Returning To Earth" (Grove Press - January 2007)
*"The English Major" (2008)

Children's literature

*"The Boy Who Ran to the Woods" (Illustrated by Tom Pohrt) (2000)

Nonfiction

*"Just Before Dark: Collected Nonfiction" (1991)
*" The Raw and the Cooked" (1992) Dim Gray Bar Press ltd ed
*"The Raw and the Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand" (2001)
*"Off to the Side: A Memoir" (2002)

Poetry

*"Plain Song" (1965)
*"Walking" (1967)
*"Locations" (1968)
*"Outlyer and Ghazals" (1971)
*"Letters to Yesenin" (1973)
*"Returning to Earth" (Court Street Chapbook Series) (1977)
*"Selected and New Poems, 1961-1981" (Drawings by Russell Chatham) (1981)
*"Natural World: A Bestiary" (1982)
*"The Theory & Practice of Rivers" (1986)
*"The Theory & Practice of Rivers and New Poems" (1989)
*"After Ikkyu and Other Poems" (1996)
*"The Shape of the Journey: New and Collected Poems" (1998)
*"Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry" (with Ted Kooser) (2003)
*"Livingston Suite" (Illustrated by Greg Keeler) (2005)
*"Saving Daylight" (2006) ISBN 1-55659-235-3

External links

*
* [http://www.publicradio.org/tools/media/player/publicradioweekend/2007/01/27/27_prw_01?start=14:30.0&end=21:17.0 A walk along the river with Jim Harrison] - audio interview with Scott Carrier
* [http://main.gvsu.edu/cms3/assets/00D0CC14-A2F1-C75D-7C8E7587D95C099E/HarrisonFinding.pdf Jim Harrison Papers at Grand Valley State University]
* [http://main.gvsu.edu/cms3/assets/00D0CC14-A2F1-C75D-7C8E7587D95C099E/Dumsch%20corrected.pdf Mary Harrison Dumsch Papers at Grand Valley State University]