LitERAtURE

TOM ROBBINS

BIRTH DATE: July 22, 1936

BIRTHPLACE: Blowing Rock, North Carolina

He was born to George Thomas Robbins and Katherine Ann Robinson. They later on moved to Warsaw, Virgina to settle in with his three younger sisters. He studied journalism at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Washington. He later on was kicked out for discipline problems. Tom did many things before he became a author. For example, he enlisted in the Air Force and was a meteorologist in Korea for two years. He later on spent his time with local painters and entered art school at Richmond Professional Institute. He there was the editor of the campus newspaper and a copy editor for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. He moved to Seattle and earned a master's degree at the School of Far Eastern Studies of the University of Washington. The jobs he had were a sports reporter and later arts reviewer for Seattle-Post Intelligencer. In 1967 he decided to write his first book and continued from there.

FUN FACTS

• He was inspired to write by the rock band "The Doors"
• He's been an extra in several movies
• Has three sons and has been married 5 times
• He's an advisory board of the Marijuana Policy Project

WORKS

• "Still Life with Woodpecker"(1980)


• "Jitterbug Perfume"(1984)

PASSAGE FROM "STILL LIFE WITH WOODPECKER"

"Consider a certain night in August. Princess Leigh-Cheri was gazing out of her attic window. The moon was full. The moon was so bloated it was about to tip over. Imagine awakening to find the moon flat on its face on the bathroom floor, like the late Elvis Presley, poisoned by banana splits. It was a moon that could stir wild passions in a moo cow. A moon that could bring out the devil in a bunny rabbit. A moon that could turn lug nuts into moonstones, turn Little Red Riding Hood into the big bad wolf. For more than an hour, Leigh-Cheri stared into the mandala of the sky. "Does the moon have a purpose?" she inquired of Prince Charming."

WHY SIGNIFICANT?

He was one of the authors in the 1980's that used humor in his books. A lot of his novels are "abstract, often wild stories with strong social undercurrents, a satirical bent and obscure details." He is a good detailed writer, I wanted to read his novel and I only read the first page.