| Name | Russell Hoban |
|---|---|
| Caption | Russell Hoban |
| Caption | Russell Hoban, London November 2010 |
| Image alt | Russell Hoban at an event in London, November 2010 |
| Birthname | Russell Conwell Hoban |
| Birthdate | February 04, 1925 |
| Birthplace | Lansdale, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Author |
| Spouse | Lillian Hoban (1944, div 1975), Gundula Ahl (1975) |
| Awards |
Russell Conwell Hoban (born February 4, 1925) is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, mainstream fiction, magic realism, poetry, and children's books who lives in England.
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.
"About the Artist" in the Macmillan Classics Edition of Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (second printing 1965), which Hoban illustrated, notes that he worked in advertising for Batten Barton Durstine & Osborn and that later he 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." That section on the artist points out also that at the time the book's illustrations were copyrighted, in 1964, Hoban was 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, Brom, Esmé, 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; it was later made into an animated film in 1977 by the American arm of Japanese company Sanrio.
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. In 1975 he remarried with Gundula Ahl, who worked in the fashionable London bookshop Truslove and Hanson. All of his adult novels except Riddley Walker, Pilgermann and Fremder are set in whole or part in contemporary London.
In 1971, Hoban wrote a book employing concepts borrowed from "The Gift of the Magi" called Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas, which further reached fans through a 1977 special originally created for HBO by the Jim Henson Company. The book was illustrated by his then-wife, Lillian Hoban, whose drawn renditions of these characters were faithfully replicated by the Muppet creators. The story tells of a poor mother and son who do what they must to try to provide a special Christmas to one another, taking a route neither of them expected.
The 1985 film Turtle Diary was adapted by Harold Pinter from Hoban's novel Turtle Diary .
Hoban now lives with his second wife; 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).
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). 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 the third time) by the Red Kettle Theatre Company, in Waterford, Ireland, and was reviewed positively in the Irish Times.
Hoban's most recent novel is Angelica Lost and Found, published October 2010, in which the hippogriff from Girolamo da Carpi's Ruggiero Saving Angelica breaks free from the 16th-century painting to search for Angelica in 21st-century San Francisco.
Also in October 2010 Hoban took part in Map Marathon: Maps for the 21st Century, a multimedia event in London, UK.
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.
:Martin, Tim. "Russell Hoban: Odd, and Getting Odder". Independent on Sunday 22 Jan. 2006. Web. ("Russell Hoban should be putting his feet up, but his novels are as passionate and perplexing as ever. Tim Martin finds out what keeps the writer firing on all cylinders into his eighties, as he grants us a rare interview.")
:McCalmont, Katie. Russell Hoban". untitledbooks.com. Untitled Books, 6 Nov. 2008. Web. 22 Mar. 2009. ("Russell Hoban talks to Katie McCalmont about his forthcoming novel and why at 83 years old he's proud of what he's done."):Wroe, Nicholas. "Russell Hoban: Life at a Glance", in "Secrets of the Yellow Pages". Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 23 Nov. 2002. Web. 22 Mar. 2009. ("Russell Hoban, an illustrator and would-be artist, was decorated for bravery against the Nazis. After returning to New York he found success with stories for children. He then moved to England and achieved cult status with his novel Riddley Walker. Now 77, he aims to write a book each year.)
Category:1925 births Category:Living people Category:American expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:American children's writers Category:American fantasy writers Category:American novelists Category:American science fiction writers Category:Copywriters Category:Opera librettists Category:Writers from Pennsylvania Category:People from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
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