Robert Stone is a famous American novelist. He was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his great contributions to contemporary literature. In his creative works, the author touched upon political and social problems. His works are imbued with black humor, plot metaphors and an incredible rebellious spirit.
Early biography
Robert Stone was born on August 21, 1937 in Brooklyn, New York. Until the age of six, the boy was raised by his mother, who suffered from schizophrenia. In 1943, a woman was placed in a Catholic orphanage for people with an unstable psyche. Robert had no other relatives, and his father left the family immediately after his birth. Therefore, specialists from social services sent the child to an orphanage.
The boy reluctantly went to school and practically did not communicate with his peers. As a teenager, he began to use alcohol and drugs in the company of older friends. Coming to lessons, the young man preferred to sleep on the back desks. During recess, he often defended his atheistic beliefs in heated discussions with teachers and classmates. Soon he was expelled from school for immoral behavior.
After failures at school, Robert went to work for the navy. Over the next four years, he traveled to the most remote places on the planet. Stone was especially impressed by the long voyages to Antarctica and Egypt. In the future, the author will describe his impressions in the books "Remembering the Sixties" and "Riding at Dawn".
In the early 1960s, Robert managed to enter New York University. The fact is that on board the ship, the guy constantly read books that he took with him from the city library. The knowledge gained helped him become a student at a leading university. While pursuing an arts and literary education, Stone worked as a freelance reporter for the New York Daily News. For this edition, he wrote short notes, news and essays.
Creative career
In 1963, Robert Stone met the prominent writer Ken Kesey, who invited him to become a member of the literary circle at Stanford University. It was there that the young author met the already famous masters of the word of that time. Jack Kerouac had a particular influence on his subsequent work. Friends repeatedly made bus trips around the suburbs of New York to find new subjects for their works.
A little later, in 1967, Stone wrote the novel Hall of Mirrors, which brought him worldwide fame. In the work, the author reflected the "dark side" of America. He first showed how the US government system is waging a war against the common man. In this piece, Robert Stone sided with American citizens in support of their advocacy for civil rights and freedoms. The novel later received the prestigious William Faulkner Foundation Prize.
After the publication of the work "Dogs of War" in 1974, the writer became a laureate of the National Book Prize. The author draws the plot for this book from his own life experience. In the early 1970s, he worked as a journalist in Vietnam. In his work, he reflected the experience of the Vietnam War, which led the American nation to new ideals and values. Critics note that Stone was able to most accurately convey what the soldiers really felt while on a foreign land.
In 1981, Robert won the first Pulitzer Prize for Flag for Dawn. America's largest publishers began poaching the author by offering large royalties for his novels. However, in this hype, Stone decided to isolate himself from society in order to develop a concept for his new works. Soon he published two popular books "Children of the Light" and "Damascus Gate", which are still included in the compulsory school curriculum for American students.
In 1997, the writer consolidated his success with the second Pulitzer Prize for his short story collection The Bear and His Daughter. And in the early 2000s, he successfully presented the novels "The Bay of Souls" and "The Death of a Black-Haired Girl".
At the age of 72, Stone published his latest collection of short stories, Illness with Problems, based on his personal autobiography. Here, for the first time, he hinted to readers that he was suffering from a serious illness, which was a terrible consequence of smoking.
Teaching, hobbies, personal life
Although Robert never completed his Ph. D., he taught creative writing for a long time at various universities throughout the United States of America. In 1993-1994, he lectured at Johns Hopkis University as well as at Yale University. In the early 2000s, the popular writer taught literary skills to students at Beloit College, and in the 2010s he became the head of the English language department at Texas State University. Robert Stone has always been an active participant in creative workshops and symposia for researchers in Florida.
In his free time, the author liked to travel around America. During his travels, he observed the lives of various people, including teachers, doctors, engineers, rural workers. Later, Robert reflected their everyday life with amazing accuracy in his novels.
In recent years, Stone suffered from a severe form of emphysema, a condition of the respiratory tract. His wife Janice, daughter Deirdre and son Jan were with him during a difficult period. Stone died of chronic lung disease on January 10, 2015 in Key West. At that time, the famous writer was 77 years old.
