Breece D'J Pancake

Breece D'J Pancake (b. Breece Dexter Pancake, June 29, 1952 – April 8, 1979) was an American author of short fiction. Pancake was a native of West Virginia and published several stories in The Atlantic Monthly during his lifetime. He died in 1979 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Biography

Breece Dexter Pancake was born in South Charleston, West Virginia, the youngest child of Clarence "Wicker" Pancake and Helen Frazier Pancake, and was raised in Milton, West Virginia. Pancake briefly attended West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon before transferring to Marshall University in Huntington where he completed a bachelor's degree in English education in 1974. After graduating from Marshall he spent time out West, visiting his sister in Santa Fe. As a graduate student he studied at the University of Virginia's creative writing program under John Casey and James Alan McPherson. Pancake also worked as an English teacher at two Virginia military academies, Fork Union and Staunton.

While at the University of Virginia, Pancake deliberately styled himself as an uncultured hillbilly, distancing himself from the mostly erudite students at the prestigious school. He was an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed hunting, fishing and camping. Pancake was a devout fan of the music of folk singer Phil Ochs, who had attended Staunton Military Academy,^[1] where Pancake later taught. His favorite song was Ochs' "Jim Dean of Indiana". Ochs committed suicide exactly one day less than three years before Pancake.^[2]

The unusual middle name "D'J" originated from a misprint of Pancake's middle initials by The Atlantic Monthly (D.J., for Dexter John) when Pancake's first published story, Trilobites was published in 1977. Pancake decided not to correct it.^[3] Dexter is Pancake's middle name, while John is the name Pancake adopted after converting to Catholicism in his mid-20s.

Pancake died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Charlottesville, Virginia on the eve of his personal hero Phil Ochs suicidal-death. His death was officially labeled a suicide, although some family members and childhood friends believe his death was accidental, others, including UVA faculty member John Casey, insist they received suicide notes from him, recognizable only in hindsight. [2] Pancake was buried in Milton.

Writing

Pancake published six short stories in his lifetime, mostly in The Atlantic. These and six stories left unpublished at his death were later collected in The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake, a 178 page volume published by Little, Brown and Company in 1983. This includes the short story "Time and Again". It was reprinted in 2002 with a new afterword by Andre Dubus III. Pancake was posthumously nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake.^[3]

His vivid, compact style has been compared to that of Ernest Hemingway. Most of his stories are set in rural West Virginia and revolve around characters and naturalistic settings, often adapted from his own past. His stories received acclaim from readers and critics. The Atlantic's editor recalled receiving letters that "drifted in for months - asking for more stories - inquiring for collected stories, or simply expressing admiration and gratitude ... in 30-something years at The Atlantic, I cannot recall a response to a new author like the response to this one."^[4]

Among the writers who claim Pancake as a strong influence are Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club and Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog. After Pancake's death, author Kurt Vonnegut wrote in a letter to John Casey, "I give you my word of honor that he is merely the best writer, the most sincere writer I've ever read. What I suspect is that it hurt too much, was no fun at all to be that good. You and I will never know."^[5]

Quotes

From a letter to his mother, Helen Pancake, that Breece wrote in Charlottesville, where he was studying writing:^[6]

I'm going to come back to West Virginia when this is over. There's something ancient and deeply-rooted in my soul. I like to think that I have left my ghost up one of those hollows, and I'll never really be able to leave for good until I find it. And I don't want to look for it, because I might find it and have to leave.

Awards and honors

• Governor's Fellowship in Fiction Writing from University of Virginia 1976
• Jefferson Society Fiction Award from University of Virginia 1977,
• Hoyns Fellowship for Fiction Writing from University of Virginia 1978
• WV Library Association Annual Book Award 1983 (posthumous)

References

1. ^ Staunton Hall of Fame
2. ^ Breece Pancake biography> (original page removed; link is to Wayback Machine)
3. ^ ^{a b} [1] West Virginia Wesleyan College
4. ^ Transcripts of a Troubled Mind
5. ^ Whitehead, Jason (September 12, 2002). "John and Breece: Casey reflects on the summer's hottest re-release". The Hook (32). http://www.readthehook.com/Stories/2002/09/12/featureJohnAndBreeceCaseyR.html. 
6. ^ "In Their Own Country: Breece Pancake". http://wvcenterforthebook.org/In%20Their%20Own%20Country/breece_pancake.htm. Retrieved 12/09/2008. 

External links

• Biography from West Virginia Wesleyan College
• Essay on Pancake in Mississippi Review by Cynthia Kadohata
• The complete text of Pancake's "Trilobites"
• The complete text of Pancake's "In the Dry"
• The complete text of Pancake's "The Honored Dead"
• The complete text of Pancake's "Hollow"
• The New York Times Review of The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake by Joyce Carol Oates

Persondata
Name	Pancake, Breece D'J
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	June 29, 1952
Place of birth
Date of death	April 8, 1979
Place of death