Richard Brautigan's life and writing. | Scroll down.
Brautigan > Novels
This node of the American Dust website (formerly Brautigan Bibliography and Archive)
provides comprehensive information about Richard Brautigan's novels.
Brautigan published ten novels during his lifetime. One was published
after his death. Publication and background information is provided,
along with reviews, many with full text. Use the menu tabs below to
learn more.
Background
In each of his eleven published novels, Richard Brautigan is noted for his
Detached, anonymous first person point of view
Idiosyncratic, autobiographical, quirky, yet easy-to-read prose style
Episodic narrative structure full of unconventional but vivid images
powered by imagination, strange and detailed observational metaphors,
humor, and satire
All presented in a seemingly simplistic, childlike manner.
By his own account, this unique style evolved from his efforts to write poetry.
"One day when I was twenty-five years old, I looked down and realized
that I could write a sentence. Let's try one of those classic good-bye
lines, "I don't think we should see so much of each other any more
because I think we're getting a little too serious," which really meant
that I wrote my first novel Trout Fishing in America and followed it with three other novels."
— Richard Brautigan. "Old Lady." The San Francisco Poets. Edited by David Meltzer. Ballantine Books, 1971, pp. 293-294.
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Published Novels
Richard Brautigan's published eleven novels. They are listed here, in order, first to last. First publication dates and publisher information are provided. Follow the links for more information about each. By default all items are presented in ascending order. Use the checkboxes above to present the items in alphabetical and/or reverse order.
A22: An Unfortunate Woman: A Journey
Christian Bourgois, 1994 (In French, Cahier d'un Retour de Troie [Return of the Woman of Troy]) St. Martins Press, 2000 (First Edition in English)
"The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966"
"A Confederate General from Big Sur"
"Dreaming of Babylon: A Private Eye Novel 1942"
"The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western"
"In Watermelon Sugar"
"So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away"
"Sombrero Fallout: A Japanese Novel"
"The Tokyo-Montana Express"
"Trout Fishing in America"
"An Unfortunate Woman: A Journey"
"Willard and His Bowling Trophies: A Perverse Mystery"
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Unpublished Novels
There is one known never published novel by Richard Brautigan and three short novels that remained unpublished until collected in 1996 in
I Watched the World Glide Effortlessly Bye. By default all items are presented in ascending order. Use the checkboxes above to present the items in alphabetical and/or reverse order.
"The God of the Martians"
The God of the Martians
Sometime between December 1955 and February 1956, Brautigan sent D. Vincent Smith, editor of the literary magazine Olivant, a manuscript for this novel.
The manuscript, written apparently May-June 1956, was very similar to
other juvenilia novels written by Brautigan: very short chapters often
containing only a few words. Here is a sample.
Chapter 1
My name is Edward Lincoln.
My father chose my name. My mother wanted to name me Jesse, but my father
thought Jesse was a name for a homosexual.
Chapter 2
My mother was white.
My father was a negro.
The day they were married my father's mother blew her head off with a
shotgun.
My mother's mother only had a nervous breakdown.
Smith never published the manuscript. On the recommendation of Smith,
Brautigan, on 27 August 1956, sent the 600-word, twenty chapter
manuscript to Harry Hooton (1908-1961), a Sydney, Australia poet, for
possible publication in Hooton's magazine 21st Century: The Magazine of a Creative Civilization,
which began publication in September 1955. The second issue was
published in 1957. The accompanying letter from Brautigan noted his
return address as "General Delivery," San Francisco, California.
Hooton never published the manuscript. Following Hooten's death the
manscript remained with Hooten's papers which were eventually purchased
by another Australian publisher, ETT Imprints.
In November 2009, ETT Imprint revealed plans to publish a limited edition of The God of the Martians with drawings by Reg Mombassa. To book is not known to have been published.
"The Conscripted Storyteller"
The Conscripted Storyteller
First Published
I Watched the World Glide Effortlessly Bye
Fairfax, CA: Burton Weiss and James P. Musser, 1996.
Learn more.
Selected Reprints
The Edna Webster Collection of Undiscovered Writings, 1999. Learn more.
"A Visit from Jake"
A Visit from Jake
Recounts a visit by the ghost of Brautigan's brother Jake, dead six years. Brautigan and Jake talk and drink beer. Brautigan concludes that one does not appreciate others until they "have been dead for a few years."
First Published
X-Ray, no. 6, Winter 1996. Learn more.
Selected Reprints
A Visit from Jake, 1996 Learn more.
I Watched the World Glide Effortlessly Bye Learn more.
The Edna Webster Collection of Undiscovered Writings, 1999. Learn more.
"I Watched the World Glide Effortlessly Bye"
I Watched the World Glide Effortlessly Bye
This short novel was included in previously unpublished stories and poems written by Brautigan in the 1950s and allegedly submitted to both Random House and Charles Scribners publishers in hopes they would publish them as a collection. Neither publisher accepted the work.
The novel is a 315-word poetic narrative of Brautigan's trip to the Salem State Hospital on 24 December 1955. Brautigan fictionalized himself as "Tommy," the handcuffed prisoner in the back seat as "Jesus Christ."
Brautigan gave this work, along with other writings, photographs, and personal items, to Edna Webster.
First Published
I Watched the World Glide Effortlessly Bye
Fairfax, CA: Burton Weiss and James P. Musser, 1996.
Learn more.
Selected Reprints
The Edna Webster Collection of Undiscovered Writings, 1999. Learn more.
"The Conscripted Storyteller"
The Conscripted Storyteller
"The God of the Martians"
The God of the Martians
"I Watched the World Glide Effortlessly Bye"
I Watched the World Glide Effortlessly Bye
"A Visit from Jake"
A Visit from Jake
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