William Humphrey

Stephen Cooper (Troy University)

Ed. by Nick Selby, University of East Anglia
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 18 Jun 1924
Died 20 Aug 1997
Activity 1949-1992

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Activities

Primary

Letter-writer/ Diarist
Novelist
Story-writer

Resources

Humphrey's Works

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Although his writing career began after World War II and spanned the post-modern era, William Humphrey produced a body of work that had more in common with writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His favorite writer was Thomas Hardy, whose grimly ironic view of the world he shared. Like Hardy, Humphrey created characters who are often engaged in a doomed struggle against forces—social, familial, biological—that they cannot overcome. In the process of dramatizing this struggle, he shows the insufficiency of accepted wisdom in dealing with the world. As Humphrey once remarked, “I am a destroyer of myths”, and the way he proceeds to their undoing is to show the havoc they can wreck on ordinary lives. In the process, his work also connects with that of a writer…

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2787 words

Citation: Cooper, Stephen. "William Humphrey". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 June 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2258, accessed 21 November 2024.]