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John Irving (1)

This page covers the author of A Prayer for Owen Meany.

For other authors named John Irving, see the disambiguation page.

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John Irving published his first novel at the age of twenty-six. He has received awards from the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation; he has won an O. Henry Award, a National Book Award, and an Academy Award. (Publisher Provided) John Irving was born John Wallace Blunt, Jr. on March 2, 1942 in Exeter, New Hampshire. His named was changed to John Winslow Irving when his stepfather adopted him at the age of six. He was a dyslexic child and it took him five years to get through Exeter Academy, which is where his adoptive father taught Russian history. He received a B.A. (cum laude) from the University of New Hampshire in 1965 and an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, in 1967, where he studied with Kurt Vonnegut Jr. His first novel was Setting Free the Bears (1969) but it wasn't until The World According to Garp was published in 1978, that he became a literary star. The novel spent six months on the bestseller list and won the American Book Award in 1980. It was also made into a movie in 1982 starring Robin Williams and costarring Glenn Close and John Lithgow. In 1981, he received an O. Henry Award for the short story Interior Space. Some of his other novels were also made into movies including The Hotel New Hampshire starring Jodie Foster and Rob Lowe; A Prayer for Owen Meany, which was titled Simon Birch starring Jim Carrey; and The Cider House Rules starring Michael Caine. He won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules in 2000. Irving also wrote two memoirs; one detailing his wrestling adventures entitled The Imaginary Girlfriend, and another concerning his novels made into Hollywood films entitled My Movie Business: A Memoir. (Bowker Author Biography) — biography from A Prayer for Owen Meany… (more)
A Prayer for Owen Meany 17,568 copies, 322 reviews
The World According to Garp 14,916 copies, 189 reviews
The Cider House Rules 11,410 copies, 151 reviews
A Widow for One Year 8,201 copies, 108 reviews
The Hotel New Hampshire 7,155 copies, 73 reviews
The Fourth Hand 4,421 copies, 62 reviews
Until I Find You 4,113 copies, 65 reviews
A Son of the Circus 3,760 copies, 38 reviews
Last Night in Twisted River 2,997 copies, 137 reviews
The Water-Method Man 2,418 copies, 19 reviews
The 158-Pound Marriage 1,963 copies, 22 reviews
Setting Free the Bears 1,860 copies, 17 reviews
In One Person 1,825 copies, 74 reviews
Trying to Save Piggy Sneed 1,806 copies, 11 reviews
Avenue of Mysteries 1,058 copies, 47 reviews
The Imaginary Girlfriend 513 copies, 9 reviews
My Movie Business: A Memoir 425 copies, 8 reviews
The Last Chairlift 256 copies, 12 reviews
3 by Irving 171 copies
The Cider House Rules [1999 film] (Screenwriter; Author) 112 copies, 3 reviews
The Hotel New Hampshire [1984 film] (Author) 40 copies, 1 review
Ruimte binnenshuis 24 copies, 2 reviews

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