After graduation, he moved in with his best friend Peter Webster, and Peter's mother Edna Webster became a surrogate mother to Brautigan.
Brautigan graduated with honors from Eugene High School on June 9, 1953. On December 19, 1952, Brautigan's first published poem, "The Light", appeared in the school newspaper. He also played on his school's basketball team, and stood 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) tall by the time of his graduation. He wrote for his high school newspaper, the Eugene High School News. On September 12, 1950, Brautigan enrolled at Eugene High School, having graduated from Woodrow Wilson Junior High School. His novel So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away is loosely based on childhood experiences, including an incident in which Brautigan accidentally shot the brother of a close friend in the ear, injuring him only slightly. Many of Brautigan's childhood experiences are included in the poems and stories that he wrote from as early as the age of 12. The family lived on welfare and moved about the Pacific Northwest for nine years before settling in Eugene, Oregon in August 1944. Brautigan's family found it difficult to obtain food, and on some occasions they did not eat for days. Folston was recalled as being a violent alcoholic, whom Richard had seen abusing his mother.īrautigan was raised in poverty he told his daughter stories of his mother sifting rat feces out of their supply of flour before making flour-and-water pancakes. The couple produced a son named William David Jr., born on December 19, 1950, in Eugene. Mary Lou separated from Porterfield in 1946, and married William David Folston Sr. Mary Lou told Brautigan that Porterfield was his biological father, and Brautigan began using Richard Gary Porterfield as his name.
The couple had a daughter named Sandra Jean, born April 1, 1945, at Salem General Hospital in Salem, Oregon. On January 20, 1943, Mary Lou married a fry cook named Robert Geoffrey Porterfield. Brautigan claimed that he had a very traumatic experience when, at age six, his mother left him and his two-year-old sister unattended in a motel room in Great Falls, Montana, for two days. The couple produced a daughter named Barbara Ann, born on May 1, 1939, in Tacoma. In 1938, Brautigan and his mother began living with a man named Arthur Martin Titland. Brautigan said that he met his biological father only twice, although after Richard's death, Bernard was said to be unaware that Richard was his child, saying "He's got the same last name, but why would they wait 45 to 50 years to tell me I've got a son?" In May 1934, eight months before Richard's birth, Bernard and Mary Lou separated. (J– May 27, 1994), a factory worker and laborer, and Lulu Mary "Mary Lou" Keho (Ap– September 24, 2005), a waitress. He died by suicide in 1984.īrautigan was born in Tacoma, Washington, the only child of Bernard Frederick "Ben" Brautigan Jr. Brautigan would go on to publish numerous prose and poetry collections until 1982. He made his debut as a novelist with A Confederate General from Big Sur (1964), about a seemingly delusional man who believes himself to be the descendant of a Confederate general from Big Sur. He is best known for his novels Trout Fishing in America (1967), In Watermelon Sugar (1968), and The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966 (1971).īrautigan began his career as a poet, with his first collection being published in 1957. Brautigan's work has been published both in the United States and internationally throughout Europe, Japan, and China. A prolific writer, he wrote throughout his life and published ten novels, two collections of short stories, and four books of poetry. September 16, 1984) was an American novelist, poet, and short story writer.
Willard and His Bowling Trophies: A Perverse Mystery (1975)
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