Spencer Holst
Spencer Holst was an American writer born on July 7, 1926, in Detroit, Michigan, who grew up in Ohio. At the age of sixteen, he left home to pursue a writing career in New York City, although he eventually returned to Toledo, where he worked as a reporter and sports columnist. After serving in the army during World War II, Holst returned to New York in 1957 and married visual artist Beate Wheeler. The couple became influential figures in the artistic community, residing at Westbeth, an artists' residence in New York.
Holst gained recognition as an underground storyteller, frequently sharing his work in cafes throughout Greenwich Village. His stories, often characterized by a unique blend of fantasy and existential themes, have been published in numerous literary magazines and collected in works such as *The Zebra Storyteller* and *The Language of Cats*, with the latter achieving mass-market distribution. His writing, described by his wife as a mix of Hans Christian Andersen and Franz Kafka, garnered significant acclaim, winning the Hilda and Richard Rosenthal Foundation Award in 1977. Spencer Holst passed away on November 23, 2001, leaving a legacy of innovative narrative and language in contemporary literature.
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Subject Terms
Spencer Holst
Fiction Writer
- Born: July 7, 1926
- Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan
- Died: November 23, 2001
- Place of death: New York, New York
Biography
Born July 7, 1926 in Detroit, Michigan, Spencer Holst grew up in Ohio. He left Toledo, Ohio, as a sixteen-year-old boy in order to run away to New York to become a writer. He soon returned to Toledo but never finished high school, and served in the army at the end of World War II. In Toledo, Holst worked as a reporter and sports columnist for The Toledo Blade.
In 1957, Holst returned to New York, still determined to be a writer. There he met and married Beate Wheeler, a visual artist. In 1970, the couple became charter tenants of Westbeth, an artists’ residence on the lower West Side of New York City. Holst soon became known as an underground storyteller who frequently read his stories in the cafes of Greenwich Village and other neighborhoods of New York City. His work has appeared in dozens of literary magazines, and in the collections The Zebra Storyteller and The Language of Cats. Another collection of stories, Spencer Holst Stories, won the Hilda and Richard Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1977. Holst’s stories, which his wife once characterized as a cross between Hans Christian Anderson and Franz Kafka, have also been translated into several other languages, including Spanish, Japanese and French.
Holst died November 23, 2001, of a stroke. He was seventy-five and still lived in New York City with his wife. Although he published mainly in the literary and small press markets, The Language of Cats was a mass-market paperback. His work has also been anthologized in college textbooks, and is best remembered for its experimental treatment of narrative and language.