Vance Bourjaily
Vance Bourjaily (1922-2010) was an American novelist and educator known for his introspective works that often explore the impact of World War II on his generation. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in various states, he was influenced by a literary family—his father was a newspaper man, and his mother was a journalist and romance novelist. Bourjaily's early exposure to literature, especially the works of renowned authors, fostered his passion for writing. After serving as an ambulance driver and later in the U.S. Army during the war, he returned to complete his education and publish his first novel, "The End of My Life," in 1947.
Throughout his career, he produced a number of critically acclaimed novels, including "Brill Among the Ruins," which was nominated for a National Book Award. Despite receiving high praise from contemporaries, including Ernest Hemingway, Bourjaily's broader fame remained limited, though he is respected by serious readers for his well-crafted storytelling. He taught at prominent institutions, including the University of Iowa's Writers Workshop, influencing notable writers such as T. Coraghessan Boyle and John Irving. Bourjaily spent his later years in California, where he passed away in 2010. His legacy includes a diverse body of work, encompassing both fiction and nonfiction.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Vance Bourjaily
American novelist, essayist, and creative writing teacher.
- Born: September 17, 1922
- Birthplace: Cleveland, Ohio
- Died: August 31, 2010
- Place of death: Greenbrae, California
Biography
Vance Nye Bourjaily was born in 1922 in Cleveland, Ohio, but was raised in Connecticut, New York, and Virginia. Bourjaily had an elder brother, Monte, and a younger brother, Paul, and their parents were literary: Bourjaily’s Lebanese-born father, Monte Bourjaily, became a powerful newspaper man. The boys’ mother, Barbara Bourjaily (née Webb), an Ohioan, was a journalist and author of romance novels. She cultivated Bourjaily’s love of literature by reading to him from a young age, especially works by Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens, and Emily Dickinson. Serious popular literature, like Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novels, furthered the adolescent’s interest in literature.
Expelled from a Pennsylvania prep school for smoking, Bourjaily completed his high school education in Winchester, Virginia, and graduated in 1939. His dreams of attending Harvard were thwarted by family finances; he spent the next year writing a series of philosophical, autobiographical essays. His college studies at Bowdoin, in Maine, were interrupted from 1942 until 1944, when he volunteered to serve as an ambulance driver in the Middle East and Italy for the American Field Service. He spent the next two years in the US Army. His overseas time was crucial to Bourjaily’s writing, especially the early novels, which explore the meaning of World War II for his generation.
After the war, Bourjaily returned to the United States, married Bettina Yensen in 1946, and completed his studies at Bowdoin in 1947. His first novel, The End of My Life, was published in 1947. The Bourjailys spent 1949 and 1950 in San Francisco and then lived in Mexico City for over two years, while Bourjaily wrote and gathered material he would use in later books. A daughter, Anna, was born in 1952 and died in 1963. A son, Philip, who writes about outdoor life (and has collaborated with his father), and a daughter, Robin, an English professor, were born in 1958 and 1965. Both children were born in Iowa City, where Bourjaily was teaching in the University of Iowa’s prestigious Writers Workshop. Bourjaily continued to write generally well-received novels, including Brill Among the Ruins, nominated for a National Book Award in 1970. He remained at Iowa from 1957 until 1970. A shorter tenure followed at the University of Arizona, and he remained at Louisiana State University from 1985 until his retirement as Boyd Professor in 1998. Later, he moved to San Rafael, California, where he resided with his second wife, Yasmin Bourjaily, with whom he had a son, Omar, born in 1983. Following a fall that caused him to slip into a coma, Bourjaily died in Greenbrae, California, on August 31, 2010, at the age of eighty-seven.
Renowned writers like T. Coraghessan Boyle and John Irving, who were students of Bourjaily’s, remembered him as an excellent teacher and inspiration, but Bourjaily’s own fame proved elusive. His books have garnered high praise; Ernest Hemingway was quoted as calling him the best writer of his generation. James R. Frakes echoes the sentiments of many who wished Bourjaily’s work might win him promotion “out of the ranks of the also- rans.” However, even if Vance Bourjaily was among the most popular American writers of his time, he earned the respect of many serious readers who value thoughtful, well-crafted literature.
Author Works
Long Fiction:
The End of My Life, 1947
The Hound of Earth, 1955
The Violated, 1958
Confessions of a Spent Youth, 1960
The Unnatural Enemy, 1963
The Man Who Knew Kennedy, 1967
Brill among the Ruins, 1970
Country Matters, 1973
Now Playing at Canterbury, 1976
A Game Men Play, 1980
The Amish Farmer, 1980
The Great Fake Book, 1986
Old Soldier: A Novel, 1990
Nonfiction:
Fishing by Mail: The Outdoor Life of a Father and Son, 1993 (with his son, Philip Bourjaily)
Children's/Young Adult Fiction:
The Girl in the Abstract Bed, 1954
Bibliography
Bourjaily, Vance. "From Jazz to Joyce: A Conversation with Vance Bourjaily." Interview by William A. Francis. Literary Review, vol. 31, no. 4, 1988, pp. 403–14. An interview in which Bourjaily discusses completing his novel The Great Fake Book and his incorporation of the jazz motif into the novel.
Cummins, Walter. "Knowing Vance Bourjaily." Contemporary World Literature, 16 Mar. 2011, contemporaryworldliterature.com/?p=2247. Accessed 26 June 2017. A former student of Bourjaily's reflects on the author's career and legacy.
Dienstfrey, Harris. "The Novels of Vance Bourjaily." Commentary, 1 Apr. 1961, www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-novels-of-vance-bourjaily/. Accessed 26 June 2017. Dienstfrey offers an analysis of the four novels Bourjaily had published to date: The End of My Life, The Hound of Earth, The Violated, and Confessions of a Spent Youth to help bring better understanding to his work.
McLellan, Dennis. "Vance Bourjaily Dies at 87; Novelist, Professor Whose WWII Experiences Influenced Early Work." Los Angeles Times, 12 Sept. 2010, articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/12/local/la-me-vance-bourjaily-20100912. Accessed 26 June 2017. Obituary covering Bourjaily's life and career.
Weber, Bruce. "Vance Bourjaily, Novelist Exploring Postwar America, Dies at 87." The New York Times, 3 Sept. 2010, www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/arts/03bourjaily.html?mcubz=1. Accessed 26 June 2017. Obituary covering Bourjaily's life and work.