Frederick Busch

Author

• Born: August 1, 1941
• Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York
• Died: February 23, 2006
• Place of death: New York, New York

Biography

The eldest of two sons, Frederick Matthew Busch was born in the Midwood section of Brooklyn, New York. His father, Benjamin, was an author and lawyer, and his mother, Phyllis Schnell, was an author, teacher, and naturalist. Busch became interested in writing at an early age; at one point as a child, he enjoyed a brief correspondence with the great physicist Albert Einstein. After attending local schools in Brooklyn, Busch received a BA degree in 1962 from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It is here that he met fellow student Judith Ann Burroughs, who became his wife a year after they graduated; they had two sons, Benjamin and Nicholas. The couple lived for a time in a cramped apartment in Greenwich Village, New York City, but eventually moved to upstate New York, settling in the town of Sherberne, where Busch was able to create a large writing room in a barn on his property. His relocation to this area led to his becoming known for his descriptions of the upstate New York landscape, its nature and culture.

Attending Columbia University as a Woodrow Wilson National Fellow, Busch also worked from 1963 through 1965 as an editor and writer for North American Precis Syndicate and School Management Magazine. In 1966, he began teaching at Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, as an assistant professor, and at the same time earning an MA degree from Columbia University. At Colgate, Busch worked his way up the academic ladder, achieving the post of Fairchild Professor of Literature in 1987. At Colgate, he also directed the Living Writers program, which he founded and which brings to the campus some of the country’s best writers. He was acting director of the prestigious Program in Creative Writing at University of Iowa from 1978 to 1979.

In 1970, Busch sent the manuscript of a novel to a friend then living in Wales who, without Busch’s knowledge, submitted the book to his own publisher. The publisher promptly surprised Busch by offering to publish the novel, which embarked Busch on his career as a prolific and accomplished author of fiction. Busch also earned a reputation as master of the short-story form, with stories published in many important literary journals and anthologies. The major topic of his fiction is modern American family life, but his work also has engaged with larger historical contexts. In two instances, in fact, Busch has written actual historical novels. The Night Inspector is set during the Civil War and includes in its cast of characters the nineteenth century American writer Herman Melville; the other, The Mutual Friend, features the great English novelist of the nineteenth century Charles Dickens.

Busch’s writing fearlessly explores the dark side, especially the issue of vulnerable and endangered children, a topic to which he returned in many of his novels and short stories. Of particular note in this regard is Busch’s novel Girls, considered his masterpiece, which grew out of his memorable short story “Ralph the Duck.” This novel was chosen in 1997 by the New York Times as one of the year’s Notable Books.

Admired as a “writer’s writer,” Busch received numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Fiction Award, and a PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction.

Busch died of a heart attack in 2006, at the age of sixty-four. A collection of his short fiction, The Stories of Frederick Busch, was released posthumously in 2013.

Bibliography

Busch, Frederick. "Frederick Busch on North: A Novel." Interview by Robert Birnbaum. Identity Theory.

"Featured Author: Frederick Busch." New York Times Books. New York Times, n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.

Martin, Douglas. "Frederick Busch, Author of Poetic Fiction, Dies at 64." New York Times. New York Times, 25 Feb. 2006. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.