James Leo Herlihy
James Leo Herlihy was an American writer and actor born in Detroit in 1927, known for his poignant explorations of contemporary urban life and complex characters. He grew up in a diverse cultural background of German and Irish descent and began his artistic journey early in life. After serving in the U.S. Navy, he attended Black Mountain College, where he honed his craft in a creative environment. Herlihy's acting experiences at the Pasadena Playhouse School of the Theatre influenced his writing, leading him to create plays and screenplays, including "Streetlight Sonata" and his contribution to the film "Four Friends."
His first novel, "All Fall Down," tells the story of an adolescent boy grappling with the harsh realities of society, drawing comparisons to classic works such as "The Catcher in the Rye." Herlihy's writing captures the gritty essence of urban life, portraying characters like Joe Buck and Rico Rizzo in "Midnight Cowboy" with a level of empathy that highlights their struggles. His thematic focus on the search for self-knowledge against a backdrop of adversity renders his work significant within American fiction. Herlihy's life ended in Los Angeles in 1993 at the age of sixty-six from a sleeping pill overdose, but his literary legacy continues to resonate.
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James Leo Herlihy
American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright
- Born: February 27, 1927
- Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan
- Died: October 21, 1993
- Place of death: Los Angeles, California
Biography
James Leo Herlihy (HUR-luh-hee) was born in Detroit in 1927, the son of William Francis and Grace (Oberer) Herlihy. Of German-Irish descent, Herlihy was raised in Detroit and in Chillicothe, Ohio. He started writing at an early age. After graduating from high school in 1944 and serving in the U.S. Navy until 1946, Herlihy entered the highly innovative Black Mountain College. After graduating, he decided to try acting as a career and went to the Pasadena Playhouse School of the Theatre. His acting experience there and in other West Coast theaters between 1948 and 1952 encouraged him to write several plays, beginning with Streetlight Sonata, which was produced in Pasadena in 1950. Herlihy also appeared in a number of plays as an actor; in 1963 he played Jerry in a Paris production of Edward Albee’s Zoo Story. He also appeared in several films, among them Four Friends (1981), directed by Arthur Penn. The effects of his theater training and experiences are evident in his plays and novels, some of which proved to be successful cinematic vehicles, peopled with characters who speak with a rare authenticity.
Herlihy’s first novel, All Fall Down, is a convincing portrayal of an adolescent boy, Clinton Williams, who is confronted with the cruelty and evil of contemporary society but gains a measure of wisdom from his experience. Herlihy skillfully presents a number of entries in Clinton’s notebooks that reveal his gradually changing attitudes. The novel invites comparison with Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) and The Catcher in the Rye (1951), but it finally must be taken on its own terms, for Herlihy’s ability to render the seamier side of contemporary urban life—gritty trailer parks and cheap motels, the world of drifters and perverts—gives his fiction a special contemporary importance.
This facet of Herlihy’s fiction is largely responsible for the success of Midnight Cowboy, which manages to arouse sympathy for a shallow innocent named Joe Buck and a petty thief named Rico Rizzo; the degree to which they are victimized by urban life is made clear without Herlihy’s delivering a sociological sermon.
Herlihy died in Los Angeles at the age of sixty-six, apparently as a result of an overdose of sleeping pills. Although his themes are time-worn—the individual’s search for self-knowledge in a hostile environment—the detail with which he renders his settings and the sympathy with which he develops his characters made him a fresh and important figure in American fiction and give his works lasting interest.
Bibliography
Bergonzi, Bernard. “Not Long Enough.” The New York Review of Books, November 9, 1967.
Folkart, Burt A. “J. L. Herlihy: Midnight Cowboy Author.” Los Angeles Times, October 23, 1993.
Indiana, Gary. “Naughty but Nice: Midnight Cowboy by James L. Herlihy/ All Fall Down by James L. Herlihy.” Village Voice, March 12, 1991.
Kaufmann, Stanley. “Queer Lives.” The New York Review of Books, November 11, 1965.
Raymer, Dorothy. “James Leo Herlihy.” Citizen, January 11, 1959.
Stuhlmann, Gunther. “From ‘Jim’ to ‘Jamie’: Remembering James Leo Herlihy.” ANAIS 12 (1995): 120.