Fielding Dawson
Fielding Dawson was an influential American writer born in New York in 1930, known for his contributions to literature as a short story author, memoirist, and educator. His early life was marked by significant upheaval, including the loss of his father at a young age and subsequent relocations due to the Great Depression. At fifteen, his mother encouraged his writing ambitions, leading him to Black Mountain College, where he encountered notable figures like Charles Olson and Franz Kline, who greatly influenced his artistic development. Dawson's writing style is characterized by its personal and autobiographical nature, often incorporating postmodern techniques and themes derived from his experiences in therapy and dreams.
Throughout his career, Dawson penned over two hundred short stories, many published by the independent Black Sparrow Press, and established himself with works like "An Emotional Memoir of Franz Kline." He also engaged in teaching writing in prisons and had a significant role with the American PEN Prison Writing Committee, reflecting his commitment to supporting marginalized voices. Dawson's literary output includes several notable collections, such as "Krazy Kat" and "Tiger Lilies: An American Childhood," and his life was marked by personal challenges, including battles with cancer and complex relationships. He passed away in 2002, leaving behind a legacy that continues to resonate within the literary community.
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Subject Terms
Fielding Dawson
Writer
- Born: August 2, 1930
- Birthplace: New York, New York
- Died: January 5, 2002
- Place of death: New York, New York
Biography
Fielding Dawson was born in New York in 1930. The family moved away during the Depression, first to Florida, then to Pennsylvania, and then on to Kirkwood, Missouri, his mother’s hometown. His father returned to New York as a journalist, dying when Dawson was only twelve years old. At fifteen, his mother, a writer herself, gave him a typewriter and challenged him to become a writer. In 1949, he became a student at Black Mountain College in western North Carolina, then the center of avant-garde literary and artistic teaching. His writing tutor was Charles Olson; his painting tutor was Franz Kline. Both these men influenced him tremendously. Dawson was as much a designer and photographer as a writer.
After a spell in the military, he returned to New York City, where he worked at the Bon Marché department store to support his early career as a writer. His An Emotional Memoir of Franz Kline established him as a full-time writer. The book is a classic of the Black Mountain College. Dawson’s real forte, however, was to be in short stories, of which he wrote well over two hundred before his death in 2002, starting with “Father” in 1951. His stories were almost entirely published by Black Sparrow Press, a small, California- based publishing house. This was typical of his literary career: never mainstream, never conforming to the tastes of publishers or public.
In 1962, he married Barbara Kraft, a psychologist. They were divorced in 1976. She, however, awoke in him an interest in Jungian psychology, and he went through an intense and prolonged amount of psychotherapy in the 1970’s. In 1977, his partner became Susan Maldovan, an editor, with whom he lived until his death of heart failure. He had previously successfully fought throat cancer. In 1984, he started teaching writing in prisons, and he was soon offered the chair of the American PEN Prison Writing Committee, a post he enthusiastically fulfilled for the rest of his life. A number of awards have been named for him for prisoner writing. He also spent time working with troubled high school students. Dawson never held an academic position, but he was occasionally writer-in-residence at the Naropa Institute in Colorado.
Much of Dawson’s writing is personal, often autobiographical, sometimes shaped by therapy and dreams, sometimes in the form of the Künstlerroman (novel of artistic development). The style is highly idiosyncratic and reflexive, incorporating many postmodern techniques of perspective and audience involvement. Significant volumes are his first collection, “Krazy Kat,” “The Unveiling,” and Other Stories, published in 1969; The Mandalay Dream, a novella and stories loosely structured as a novel, and one of the few books to be published by a mainstream publisher; the three Penny Lane novels; Tiger Lilies: An American Childhood, his memoirs to date; Virginia Dare: Stories 1976-1981; and The Land of Milk and Honey, his last collection. No Man’s Land is a fictionalized account of his prison experiences.