Editing Frederick Buechner

{{Short description|American religious writer (1926–2022)}}
{{Use American English|date=August 2022}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2013}}
{{Infobox writer
| honorific_prefix = [[The Reverend]]
| name = Frederick Buechner
| image = BG-0269.jpg
| caption = Buechner in 2008
| birth_name = Carl Frederick Buechner
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1926|7|11}}
| birth_place = [[New York City]], U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2022|08|15|1926|7|11}}
| death_place = [[Rupert, Vermont]], U.S.
| occupation = Author, Presbyterian minister
| education = {{Plainlist|
* [[Princeton University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])
* [[Union Theological Seminary (New York City)|Union Theological Seminary]] ([[Bachelor of Divinity|BDiv]])}}
| genre = [[Novel]], [[short story]], [[essay]], [[sermon]], [[autobiography]], [[historical fiction]]
| notableworks = {{Plainlist|
* ''[[A Long Day's Dying]]''
* ''Secrets in the Dark''
* ''[[Godric (novel)|Godric]]''
* ''[[The Book of Bebb]]''
* ''[[The Sacred Journey]]''
* ''[[The Magnificent Defeat]]''}}
| spouse = Judith Buechner (m. 1956)
| awards = {{Plainlist|
* [[O. Henry Award]]
* Rosenthal Award
* Christianity and Literature Belles Lettres Prize}}
}}
[[File:Portrait of Frederick Buechner LCCN2004662645.jpg|thumb|Frederick Buechner as photographed in 1950 by [[Carl Van Vechten]]]]

'''Carl Frederick Buechner''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|iː|k|n|ər}} {{respell|BEEK|nər}}; July 11, 1926 – August 15, 2022) was an American [[author]], [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]] [[Minister (Christianity)|minister]], [[preacher]], and [[theologian]]. The author of thirty-nine published books,<ref>{{Cite news |last=McFadden |first=Robert |date=August 15, 2022 |title=Frederick Buechner, Novelist With a Religious Slant, Dies at 96 |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/books/frederick-buechner-dead.html |access-date=August 16, 2022 |archive-date=August 15, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220815235928/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/books/frederick-buechner-dead.html |url-status=live }}</ref> his career spanned more than six decades and encompassed many different genres. He wrote novels, including ''[[Godric (novel)|Godric]]'' (1981 [[Pulitzer Prize]] finalist)'', [[A Long Day's Dying]]'' and ''[[The Book of Bebb]]'', his memoirs, including ''[[The Sacred Journey]],'' and theological works, such as ''[[Secrets in the Dark: a life in sermons|Secrets in the Dark]]'', ''[[The Magnificent Defeat]]'', and ''[[Telling the Truth: the Gospel as tragedy, comedy, and fairy tale|Telling the Truth]]''.

Buechner was named "without question one of the truly great writers of the 20th century" by viaLibri, a "major talent" by ''[[The New York Times]]'', and "one of our most original storytellers" by ''[[USA Today]]''. [[Annie Dillard]] (Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ''[[Pilgrim at Tinker Creek]]'') called him "one of our finest writers."<ref>[https://anniedillard.blogspot.com/2004/07/blurbs.html Annie Dillard Log: Blurbs] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181218010727/https://anniedillard.blogspot.com/2004/07/blurbs.html |date=December 18, 2018 }}. Retrieved December 17, 2018.</ref> Buechner's works have been compared to [[C. S. Lewis|C.S. Lewis]] and [[G. K. Chesterton|G.K. Chesterton]] and have been translated into twenty-seven languages.

Buechner was a finalist for the [[National Book Award]],<ref>[http://www.nationalbook.org/nba_winners_finalist_50_07.pdf The National Book Awards Winners & Finalists, Since 1950. PDF. Retrieved November 5, 2009.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620052756/http://www.nationalbook.org/nba_winners_finalist_50_07.pdf |date=June 20, 2010 }}</ref> presented by the [[National Book Foundation]], and has been awarded eight honorary degrees from such institutions as [[Yale University]]<ref>[https://secretary.yale.edu/programs-services/honorary-degrees/since-1702?page=5 Yale Honorary Degrees Since 1702]. Retrieved December 17, 2018. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100601191030/http://www.yale.edu/oir/open/pdf_public/W015_Degs_Hon.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060212210405/http://www.yale.edu/oir/open/pdf_public/W015_Degs_Hon.pdf |archive-date=2006-02-12 |url-status=live |date=June 1, 2010 }}.</ref> and the [[Virginia Theological Seminary]].<ref>[https://www.faithgateway.com/author/frederick-buechner/ Faith Gateway: About Frederick Buechner] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403205119/https://www.faithgateway.com/author/frederick-buechner/ |date=April 3, 2019 }}. Retrieved December 17, 2018.</ref> In addition, Buechner was the recipient of the [[O. Henry Award]],<ref>[http://www.randomhouse.com/anchor/ohenry/winners/past.html#jump_b Random House: The O'Henry Prize Stories] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190814113722/http://www.randomhouse.com/anchor/ohenry/winners/past.html#jump_b |date=August 14, 2019 }} Retrieved on December 17, 2018.</ref> the Rosenthal Award, the Christianity and Literature Belles Lettres Prize, and was recognized by the [[American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters]].<ref>[http://www.artsandletters.org/awards2_search.php American Academy of Arts and Lectures] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624004057/http://www.artsandletters.org/awards2_search.php |date=June 24, 2016 }}. Retrieved on August 3, 2011.</ref>

==Life and career==

=== Early life ===
Carl Frederick Buechner, the eldest son of Katherine Golay (Kuhn) and Carl Frederick Buechner Sr., was born on July 11, 1926, in [[New York City]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110725104549/http://www.buechnerinstitute.org/index.php?id=661 Buechner Institute Biography]. Retrieved on August 3, 2011.</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1g9bAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Katherine+Golay+Kuhn%22 | title=The Nassau Herald | year=1950 }}</ref> During Buechner's early childhood the family moved frequently, as Buechner's father searched for work. In ''[[The Sacred Journey]]'', Buechner recalls that "Virtually every year of my life until I was fourteen, I lived in a different place, had different people to take care of me, went to a different school. The only house that remained constant was the one where my maternal grandparents lived in a suburb of [[Pittsburgh]] called [[East Liberty (Pittsburgh)|East Liberty]] ... Apart from that one house on Woodland Road, home was not a place to me when I was a child. It was people."<ref>Buechner, Frederick (1982). ''The Sacred Journey: A Memoir of Early Days''. HarperOne. p. 20. {{ISBN|9780060611835}}</ref> This changed in 1936, when Buechner's father committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning, a result of his conviction that he had been a failure.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.christianity.com/wiki/people/what-need-to-know-frederick-buechner.html | title=What You Need to Know about Frederick Buechner }}</ref>

=== Bermuda ===
Immediately following his father's death, the family moved to [[Bermuda]], where they remained until [[World War II]] forced the evacuation of Americans from the island. In Bermuda, Buechner experienced "the blessed relief of coming out of the dark and unmentionable sadness of my father's life and death into fragrance and greenness and light".<ref>Buechner, Frederick (1991). ''Telling Secrets: A Memoir.'' HarperOne. {{ISBN|9780060609368}}</ref> For a young Buechner, Bermuda became home.

Bermuda left a lasting impression on Buechner. The distinctly British flavor of pre-World War II Bermuda provided in him a lifelong appreciation of English custom and culture, which would later inspire such works as ''[[Godric (novel)|Godric]]'' and ''Brendan''. Buechner also frequently mentions Bermuda in his memoirs, including ''Telling Secrets'' and ''The Sacred Journey''.

===Education and military service===
[[File:Edith Memorial Chapel, Lawrenceville School (Lawrenceville, NJ).JPG|thumb|Edith Memorial Chapel at [[Lawrenceville School]], where Buechner attended high school]]
Buechner then attended the [[Lawrenceville School]] in [[Lawrenceville, New Jersey]], graduating in 1943. While at Lawrenceville, he met the future [[Pulitzer Prize]] winning poet [[James Merrill]]; their friendship and rivalry inspired the literary ambitions of both.<ref>[https://archon.wheaton.edu/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=6&q=&rootcontentid=67693#id67693 The Wheaton Archives] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200420140319/https://archives.wheaton.edu/#id67693 |date=April 20, 2020 }}. Retrieved on December 17, 2018.</ref> As [[Mel Gussow]] wrote in Merrill's 1995 obituary: "their friendly competition was an impetus for each becoming a writer."<ref>Gussow, Mel (February 7, 1995). [https://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/07/obituaries/james-merrill-is-dead-at-68-elegant-poet-of-love-and-loss.html "James Merrill Is Dead at 68; Elegant Poet of Love and Loss."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180629102836/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/07/obituaries/james-merrill-is-dead-at-68-elegant-poet-of-love-and-loss.html |date=June 29, 2018 }} ''The New York Times''. Retrieved December 17, 2018</ref> Buechner then enrolled at [[Princeton University]]. His college career was interrupted by—in Buechner's words—"two years of very undistinguished service" (1944–46) in the [[United States Army|Army]] during [[World War II]], "all of it at several different places in the [[United States]]," including a post as "chief of the statistical section in [[Fort Pickett|Camp Pickett]], [[Virginia]]."<ref>Buechner, Frederick (2017). ''The Remarkable Ordinary: How to Stop, Look and Listen to Life''. Zondervan. p.79. {{ISBN|9780310351900}}</ref> After the war, he returned to Princeton and graduated with an A.B. in English in 1948 after completing a 77-page senior thesis titled "Notes of the Function of [[Metaphor]] in English Poetry."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Buechner|first=Frederick|date=1948|title=Notes of the Function of Metaphor in English Poetry|url=http://dataspace.princeton.edu/jspui/handle/88435/dsp01h415pb99s|journal=|access-date=June 24, 2020|archive-date=June 28, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200628200435/https://dataspace.princeton.edu/jspui/handle/88435/dsp01h415pb99s|url-status=live}}</ref> However, as an alumnus, he remained identified as a member of his original Class of 1947. Regarding his time at [[Princeton Theological Seminary|Princeton]], Buechner commented in an interview:

{{blockquote|I really knew two Princetons. The first one was during the war, when everybody was being drafted or enlisting. It was just one drunken farewell party after another. Nobody did any work. I didn't learn anything at all. I was in the Army for two years. When I came back, I was so delighted to be free again that I buckled down and learned a few things.<ref>Reidy, Maurice Timothy (November 14, 2012). [https://paw.princeton.edu/article/%E2%80%98pay-attention-your-life Pay Attention to Your Life] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200420140312/https://paw.princeton.edu/article/%E2%80%98pay-attention-your-life |date=April 20, 2020 }}. Retrieved December 17, 2018</ref>}}

===Literary success and ordination===
[[File:Princeton_University_Chapel_2003.jpg|alt=|thumb|Chapel at [[Princeton University]], Buechner's alma mater]]
During his senior year at [[Princeton University]], Buechner received the [[Glascock Prize|Irene Glascock Prize]] for poetry, and he also began working on his first novel and one of his greatest critical successes: ''A Long Day's Dying'', published in 1950.<ref>Buechner, Frederick (1982). ''The Sacred Journey: A Memoir of Early Days''. HarperOne. p. 107. {{ISBN|9780060611835}}</ref> The contrast between the success of his first novel and the commercial failure of his second, ''The Seasons' Difference'' (1952), a novel with characters based on Buechner and his adolescent friend James Merrill which developed a more explicit Christian theme,<ref>Merrill, James. ''A Different Person'', A Memoir, Knopf, 1993, p. 62.</ref> was palpably felt by the young novelist, and it was on this note that Buechner left his teaching position at Lawrenceville to move to New York City and focus on his writing career.  In 1952, Buechner began lecturing at [[New York University]] and once again received critical acclaim for his short story "The Tiger", published in [[The New Yorker]], which was awarded third prize in the 1955 [[O. Henry Awards]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1955/01/09/92615387.html?pageNumber=130 | title=A Varied Collection; PRIZE STORIES 1955: The O. Henry Awards. Selected and edited by Paul Engle and Hansford Martin. 313 pp. New York: Doubleday & Co. $3.95. | work=The New York Times }}</ref> Also during this time, he began attending the [[Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church]], where [[George Arthur Buttrick|George Buttrick]] was pastor. It was during one of Buttrick's sermons that Buechner heard the words that inspired his ordination: Buttrick described the inward coronation of [[Christ]] as taking place in the hearts of those who believe in him "among confession, and tears, and great laughter."<ref>Buechner, Frederick (2017). ''The Remarkable Ordinary: How to Stop, Look and Listen to Life''. Zondervan. p.84. {{ISBN|9780310351900}}</ref> The impact of this phrase on Buechner was so great that he eventually entered the [[Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York|Union Theological Seminary]] of [[Columbia University]] in 1954, on a Rockefeller Brothers Theological Fellowship.<ref>Hodges, Sam (July 19, 2008). [https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-dallas-morning-news/20080719/282510064338018 With Current Generation of Pastors Close to Retirement, Leaders Seek Young Clergy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181218010909/https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-dallas-morning-news/20080719/282510064338018 |date=December 18, 2018 }}. ''The Dallas Morning News''. Retrieved December 17, 2018.</ref>

While at Union, Buechner studied under such renowned theologians as [[Reinhold Niebuhr]], [[Paul Tillich]], and [[James Muilenburg]], who helped Buechner in his search for understanding:

{{blockquote|I wanted to learn about Christ&nbsp;– about the [[Old Testament]], which had been his [[Bible]], and the [[New Testament]], which was the [[Bible]] about him; about the history of the church, which had been founded on the faith that through him [[God]] had not only revealed his innermost nature and his purpose for the world, but had released into the world a fierce power to draw people into that nature and adapt them to that purpose&nbsp;... No intellectual pursuit had ever aroused in me such intense curiosity, and much more than my intellect was involved, much more than my curiosity aroused. In the unfamiliar setting of a [[Presbyterian church]], of all places, I had been moved to astonished tears which came from so deep inside me that to this day I have never fathomed them, I wanted to learn more about the source of those tears and the object of that astonishment.<ref>Buechner, Frederick (1983). ''Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation''. HarperSanFrancisco. p. 10. {{ISBN|9780061974533}}</ref>}}

Buechner's decision to enter the [[seminary]] had come as a great surprise to those who knew him. Even George Buttrick, whose words had so inspired Buechner, observed that, "It would be a shame to lose a good novelist for a mediocre preacher."<ref>Buechner, Frederick (2017). ''The Remarkable Ordinary: How to Stop, Look and Listen to Life''. Zondervan. p. 85. {{ISBN|9780310351900}}</ref> Nevertheless, Buechner's ministry and writing have ever since served to enhance each other's message.

Following his first year at Union, Buechner decided to take the 1955–56 school year off to continue his writing. In the spring of 1955, shortly before he left Union for the year, Buechner met his wife Judith at a dance given by some family friends. They were married a year later by [[James Muilenburg]] in [[Montclair, New Jersey|Montclair, N.J.]], and spent the next four months traveling in [[Europe]]. During this year, Buechner also completed his third novel, ''The Return of Ansel Gibbs''.

After his [[sabbatical]], Buechner returned to Union to complete the two further years necessary to receive a [[Bachelor of Divinity]].  He was ordained on June 1, 1958, at the same [[Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church]] where he had heard George Buttrick preach four years earlier. Buechner was ordained as an [[Evangelist (Anglican Church)|evangelist]], or minister without pastoral charge. Shortly before graduation, as he considered his future role as minister of a parish, he received a letter from Robert Russell Wicks, formerly the Dean of the Chapel at [[Princeton University|Princeton]], who had since begun serving as school minister at [[Phillips Exeter Academy]]. Wicks offered him the job of instituting a new, full-time religion department at [[Phillips Exeter Academy|Exeter]]; Buechner decided to take the opportunity to return to teaching and to develop a program that taught religion in depth.

===Exeter===
In September 1958, the Buechners moved to [[Phillips Exeter Academy|Exeter]]. There, Buechner faced the challenge of creating a new religion department and academically rigorous curriculum that would challenge the often cynical views of his new students. "My job, as I saw it, was to defend the [[Christianity|Christian]] faith against its 'cultured despisers,' to use [[Schleiermacher]]'s phrase. To put it more positively, it was to present the faith as appealingly, honestly, relevantly, and skillfully as I could."<ref>Frederick, Buechner (1983). ''Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation''. Zondervan. p. 47. {{ISBN|9780061974533}}</ref> During his tenure at Exeter, Buechner taught courses in both the [[Religion]] and English departments and served as school [[chaplain]] and minister. Also during this time, the family grew to include three daughters. For the school year 1963–64, the Buechners took a sabbatical on their farm in [[Rupert, Vermont]], during which time Buechner returned to his writing; his fourth book, ''The Final Beast'', was published in 1965. As the first book he had written since his ordination, ''The Final Beast'' represented a new style for Buechner, one in which he combined his dual callings as minister and as author.

Buechner recalls of his accomplishments at [[Phillips Exeter Academy|Exeter]]: "All told, we were there for nine years with one year's leave of absence tucked in the middle, and by the time we left, the religion department had grown from only one full-time teacher, namely myself, and about twenty students, to four teachers and something in the neighborhood, as I remember, of three hundred students or more."<ref>Frederick, Buechner (1983). ''Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation''. Zondervan. p. 43. {{ISBN|9780061974533}}</ref> Among these students was the future author [[John Irving]], who included a quotation from Buechner as an epigraph of his book ''[[A Prayer for Owen Meany]]''. One of Buechner's biographers, Marjorie Casebier McCoy, describes the effect of his time at Exeter as follows: "Buechner in his sermons had been attempting to reach out to the "cultured despisers of religion." The students and faculty at [[Phillips Exeter]] had been, for the most part, just that when he had arrived at the school, and it had been they who compelled him to hone his preaching and literary skills to their utmost in order to get a hearing for [[Christian faith]]."<ref>McCoy, Marjorie Casebier (1988). ''Frederick Buechner: Novelist and Theologian of the Lost and Found.'' New York: Harper & Row. {{ISBN|9780060653293}}</ref>

=== Vermont and last years ===
In the summer of 1967, after nine years at Exeter and having established the Religion Department, Buechner moved with his family to their farmhouse in [[Vermont]] to live year round. Buechner describes their house in ''[[Now and Then (memoir)|Now and Then]]'':

{{blockquote|Our house is on the eastern slope of Rupert Mountain, just off a country road, still unpaved then, and five miles from the nearest town&nbsp;... Even at the most unpromising times of year&nbsp;– in mudtime, on bleak, snowless winter days&nbsp;– it is in so many unexpected ways beautiful that even after all this time I have never quite gotten used to it. I have seen other places equally beautiful in my time, but never, anywhere, have I seen one more so.<ref>Buechner, Frederick (1983). ''Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation''. HarperSanFrancisco. p. 77. {{ISBN|9780061974533}}</ref>}}

There Buechner dedicated himself full time to writing. However, in 1968, Buechner received a letter from [[Charles Price (chaplain)|Charles Price]], the chaplain at [[Harvard]], inviting him to give the [[Noble Lectures]] series in the winter of 1969. His predecessors in this role included [[Richard Niebuhr]] and George Buttrick, and Buechner was both flattered and daunted by the idea of joining so august a group. When he voiced his concerns, Price replied that he should write "something in the area of 'religion and letters.{{' "}}<ref>Smith, L.A. (2018). [https://lasmithwriter.com/2018/05/01/year-of-reading-buechner-the-alphabet-of-grace/ Year of Reading Buechner: The Alphabet of Grace] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181218010456/https://lasmithwriter.com/2018/05/01/year-of-reading-buechner-the-alphabet-of-grace/ |date=December 18, 2018 }}. ''The Blog of L.A. Smith''. Retrieved December 17, 2018.</ref> Thence came the idea to write about the everyday events of life, Buechner writes in ''Now and Then'': "as the alphabet through which God, of his grace, spells out his words, his meaning, to us. So ''[[The Alphabet of Grace]]'' was the title I hit upon, and what I set out to do was to try to describe a single representative day of my life in a way to suggest what there was of God to hear in it."<ref>Buechner, Frederick (1983). ''Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation''. HarperSanFrancisco p. 86. {{ISBN|9780061974533}}</ref>

Buechner continued to publish occasionally; his last book, ''A Crazy, Holy Grace: The Healing Power of Pain and Memory'', a collection of essays, was released in 2017.

Buechner died on August 15, 2022, at his home in [[Rupert, Vermont]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=McFadden |first1=Robert D. |title=Frederick Buechner, Novelist With a Religious Slant, Dies at 96 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/books/frederick-buechner-dead.html |website=[[The New York Times]] |date=August 15, 2022 |access-date=August 15, 2022 |archive-date=August 15, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220815231133/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/books/frederick-buechner-dead.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Writing ==

=== Early writing ===
The publication of ''A Long Day's Dying'' catapulted Buechner into early and, in his own words, "undeserved" fame. Of his debut novel, Buechner wrote:

{{blockquote|I took the title from a passage in [[Paradise Lost]] where Adam says to Eve that their expulsion from Paradise "will prove no sudden but a slow pac'd evil,/ A Long Day's Dying to augment our pain," and with the exception of the old lady Maroo, what all the characters seem to be dying of is loneliness, emptiness, sterility, and such preoccupation with themselves and their own problems that they are unable to communicate with each other about anything that really matters to them very much. I am sure that I chose such a melancholy theme partly because it seemed effective and fashionable, but I have no doubt that, like dreams generally, it also reflected the way I felt about at least some dimension of my own life and the lives of those around me.<ref>Buechner, Frederick (1982). ''The Sacred Journey: A Memoir of Early Days''. HarperOne. p. 98. {{ISBN|9780060611835}}</ref>}}

Conductor and composer [[Leonard Bernstein]] commented on the novel:

{{blockquote|I have rarely been so moved by a perception. Mr. Buechner shows a remarkable insight into one of the least easily expressible tragedies of modern man; the basic incapacity of persons really to communicate with one another. That he has made this frustration manifest, in such a personal and magnetic way, and at the age of twenty-three, constitutes a literary triumph.<ref>[https://www.buckinghambooks.com/book/a-long-days-dying/ Buckingham Books Overview. ''A Long Day's Dying''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725214450/https://www.buckinghambooks.com/book/a-long-days-dying/ |date=July 25, 2018 }}. Retrieved December 17, 2018.</ref>}}

''A Long Day's Dying'' continues to be one of Buechner's most successful works, both critically and commercially (it was reissued in 2003). However, his second novel, ''The Season's Difference'', published in 1952, in Buechner's words, "fared as badly as the first one had fared well."

The publication of Buechner's third novel, ''The Return of Ansel Gibbs'' (written while on sabbatical from Union Theological Seminary) coincided with Buechner's ordination and move to Exeter, where he began to publish non-fiction.

=== Nonfiction and memoirs ===
Buechner's works of non-fiction, which cover several sub-genres including sermons, daily reflections, and [[memoirs]], altogether outnumber his works of fiction. His first such work, ''[[The Magnificent Defeat]]'', is a collection of sermons, signifying his growth into his career as a minister at Exeter. Throughout his career, he published several more volumes of sermons, most recently ''[[Secrets in the Dark: a life in sermons]]'', which includes a "more or less [chronological] culling" of his sermons, "together with the most recent and hitherto unpublished ones."<ref>Buechner, Frederick (2007). "Introduction". ''Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons''. HarperCollins. {{ISBN|9780061146619}}</ref>

To date, Buechner's corpus of memoir includes four volumes: ''[[The Sacred Journey]]'' (1982), ''[[Now and Then (memoir)|Now and Then]]'' (1983), ''[[Telling Secrets (memoir)|Telling Secrets]]'' (1991), and ''[[The Eyes of the Heart: a memoir of the lost and found|The Eyes of the Heart]]'' (1999). Of all his books, ''The Sacred Journey'' and ''Telling Secrets'' consistently rank among his bestselling. Of his interest in memoir, Buechner wrote in the introduction to ''The Sacred Journey'':

{{blockquote|About ten years ago I gave a set of lectures at [[Harvard]] in which I made the observation that all [[theology]], like all fiction, is at its heart autobiography, and that what a theologian is doing essentially is examining as honestly as he can the rough-and-tumble of his own experience with all its ups and downs, its mysteries and loose ends, and expressing in logical, abstract terms the truths about human life and about [[God]] that he believes he has found implicit there. More as a novelist than as a theologian, more concretely than abstractly, I determined to try to describe my own life as evocatively and candidly as I could in the hope that such glimmers of theological truth as I believed I had glimpsed in it would shine through my description more or less on their own. It seemed to me then, and seems to me still, that if [[God]] speaks to us at all in this world, if [[God]] speaks anywhere, it is into our personal lives that he speaks.<ref>Buechner, Frederick (1982). "Introduction". ''The Sacred Journey: A Memoir of Early Days''. HarperOne. {{ISBN|9780060611835}}</ref>}}

Buechner's most recent publications include ''Buechner 101: Essays and Sermons by Frederick Buechner'' (2014), ''The Remarkable Ordinary: How to Stop, Look, and Listen to Life'' (2017), and ''A Crazy, Holy Grace: The Healing Power of Pain and Memory'' (2017).

=== Later novels: ''The Book of Bebb'', ''Godric'', ''Brendan'' ===
Concurrent with Buechner's delivery of the Noble Lectures, he developed the most significant character of his later career, [[Leo Bebb]].

''[[The Book of Bebb]]'' tetralogy proved to be one of Buechner's most well-known works. Published in the years from 1972 to 1977, it brought Buechner to a much wider audience, and gained him very positive reviews (''[[Lion Country]]'', the first book in the series, was a finalist for the [[National Book Award]] in 1971). Of writing the series, Buechner says: "I had never known a man like Leo Bebb and was in most ways quite unlike him myself, but despite that, there was very little I had to do by way of consciously, purposefully inventing him. He came, unexpected and unbidden, from a part of myself no less mysterious and inaccessible than the part where dreams come from; and little by little there came with him a whole world of people and places that was as heretofore unknown to me as Bebb was himself."<ref>Buechner, Frederick (1982). ''Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation''. HarperSanFrancisco. p. 97. {{ISBN|9780061974533}}</ref> In this series, Buechner experimented for the first time with first-person narrative, and discovered that this, too, opened new doors. His next work, [[Godric (novel)|''Godric'']], published in 1980, was nominated for the [[Pulitzer Prize]]. The novel, a historical fiction, is written in the first person from the perspective of [[Godric of Finchale|Saint Godric of Finchale]], a 12th-century English hermit.

''Brendan'' (1987), a work of historical fiction like ''Godric'', draws from the life of the 6th-century [[Irish monk]] [[Brendan the Navigator|Saint Brendan the Navigator]].  Experimenting further with the narrative technique Buechner employed to such dramatic effect in ''Godric'', ''Brendan'' interweaves history and legend in an evocative portrayal of the sixth-century [[Irish saint]] as seen through the eyes of Finn, his childhood friend and loyal follower. Buechner's colorful recreation of the [[Celts|Celtic]] world of fifteen hundred years ago earned him the [[Christianity]] and Literature Belles Lettres Prize in 1987.

==Tributes and legacy==

<div style=display:inline-table>
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+ Awards
|-
! scope="col" | Year
! scope="col" | Award
!class="unsortable"|{{Abbr|Ref.|Reference}}
|-
! scope="row" | 1947
| [[List of Glascock Prize winners and participants|Irene Glascock Prize for Poetry]]
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Glascock Participants by Year |url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/archives/history/glascock_year |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140312181641/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/archives/history/glascock_year |archive-date=2014-03-12 |access-date=2015-10-16 |website=Mount Holyoke College}}</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 1955
| [[O. Henry Award]] for "The Tiger" (3rd prize)
|<ref>{{cite web |title=The O. Henry Prize Past Winners |url=https://www.randomhouse.com/anchor/ohenry/winners/past.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170905135754/https://www.randomhouse.com/anchor/ohenry/winners/past.html |archive-date=2017-09-05 |access-date=30 September 2017 |website=Randomhouse.com}}</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 1959
| Rosenthal Award for ''The Return of Ansel Gibbs''
|<ref>{{Cite news |date=1959-04-15 |title=ANSEL GIBBS' HONORED; Buechner Novel Selected for 1959 Rosenthal Award |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1959/04/15/archives/ansel-gibbs-honored-buechner-novel-selected-for-1959-rosenthal.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=2022-08-17 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 1972
| [[National Book Award for Fiction]] for ''Lion Country'' (finalist)
|<ref name=nba1972>{{cite web |url=https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1972/?cat=fiction |title=National Book Awards – 1972 |publisher=National Book Foundation |access-date=March 18, 2018}}</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 1981
| [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]] for ''[[Godric (novel)|Godric]]'' (finalist)
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction |url=https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-category/219 |access-date=2022-07-18 |website=The Pulitzer Prizes — Columbia University}}</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 1982
| American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Awards |url=https://artsandletters.org/awards/#:~:text=In%201941%20the%20Academy%20established,the%20recording%20of%20a%20work. |access-date=2022-08-17 |website=American Academy of Arts and Letters |at=Arts and Letters Awards}}</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 1993
| Christianity and Literature Book of the Year Award for ''Son of Laughter''
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Book of the Year Award|url=https://www.christianityandliterature.com/Book-of-the-Year-Award |access-date=2022-08-18 |website=Christianity and Literature}}</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 1994
| Critics' Choice Books Award for Fiction for ''Son of Laughter''
|
|-
! scope="row" |
| Nomination for [[Chautauqua South: Martin County|Chautauqua South]] Florida Fiction Award for ''The Storm''
|
|-
! scope="row" | 2007
| Lifetime Achievement Award from the Conference on Christianity and Literature
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lifetime Achievement Award|url=https://www.christianityandliterature.com/Lifetime-Achievement-Award|access-date=2022-08-18 |website=Christianity and Literature}}</ref> 
|}</div>
<div style=display:inline-table>
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+ Honorary doctorates
|-
! scope="col" | Year
! scope="col" | Honor
!class="unsortable"|{{Abbr|Ref.|Reference}}
|-
! scope="row" | 1982
| Virginia Theological Seminary
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1984
| Lafayette College
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1987
| Lehigh University
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1989
| Cornell College
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1990
| Yale University
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1996
| The University of the South
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1998
| Susquehanna University
|
|-
! scope="row" | 2000
| Wake Forest University
|
|-
! scope="row" | 2008
| King College
|
|}</div>

In 2001, Californian rock band [[Daniel Amos]] released a double album titled ''[[Mr. Buechner's Dream]]''. The album contains over thirty songs and pays tribute to Frederick Buechner, "who has been a major inspiration on the band's lyrics for years."

In the words of The Reverend Samuel Lloyd, former dean of [[Washington National Cathedral]], Buechner's words "have nurtured the lives of untold seekers and followers" through "his capacity to see into the heart of every day":<ref name="frederick">Lloyd, Samuel(April 5, 2006). ''The Art of the Sermon: a Tribute to Frederick Buechner.''</ref>

{{blockquote|Buechner's theological efforts are never systematic treatises but instead short, highly literary productions in most of which he draws explicit links with fiction-writing generally and his own fiction in particular...Buechner's 1969 Noble Lectures at [[Harvard]], published in 1970 as ''The Alphabet of Grace,'' comprise a slender volume which is one of his most important and revealing works. Here the intimate relationship Buechner sees among fiction, theology, and autobiography is first made clear and fully embodied; and the book itself is a thoroughly lyrical piece.<ref>Woelfel, James (October 3, 1983). "Frederick Buechner: The Novelist as Theologian." ''Theology Today''. Vol. 40.</ref>}}

Buechner's combination of literary style with approachable subject matter has affected contemporary [[Christian literature]]: "In my view," writes his biographer Marjorie McCoy, "Buechner is doing a distinctively new thing on the literary scene, writing novels that are theologically exciting without becoming propaganda, and doing theology with artistic style and imagination."<ref>McCoy, Marjorie Casebier (1988). ''Frederick Buechner: Novelist and Theologian of the Lost and Found.'' HarperCollins. p. 14. {{ISBN|9780060653293}}</ref> Buechner's earliest works, written before his entrance into [[Union Theological Seminary (New York City)|Union Theological Seminary]], were hailed as profoundly literary works, notable for their dense, descriptive style. Of his first novel, ''A Long Day's Dying'', [[David Daiches]] wrote: "There is a quality of civilized perception here, a sensitive and plastic handling of English prose and an ability to penetrate to the evanescent core of a human situation, all proclaiming major talent."<ref>Daiches, David (January 8, 1950) ''New York Times Book Review''.</ref> From this promising beginning, however, it has been the application of Buechner's literary talent to theological issues that has continued to fascinate his audience:

{{blockquote|Frederick Buechner has been one of our most interesting and least predictable writers. Others might have repeated their success or failures, but he has not. From the sophisticated urban world of that first book, through ''The Return of Ansel Gibbs'' with its world of politics and public affairs, to the private, half-haunted pastoral world of ''The Entrance to Porlock'', he has created a series of novels of startlingly different moods and manners, people and places. The one constant has been the masterful use of great stylistic powers to organize and control his highly original and complex vision of life.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Accolades |url=http://buechnersociety.org/accolades/ |access-date=2022-08-17 |website=Buechner Society of Bermuda |language=en-US}}</ref>|author=[[Christopher Isherwood]]|title=USA Today}}

Of his more recent style, the pastor and author [[Brian D. McLaren]] says:

{{blockquote|I have no desire to analyze what makes Buechner's writing and preaching so extraordinary. Neither do I want to account for [[Bob Dylan]]'s raspy mystique, the peculiar beauty of a rainbow trout in a riffle, or a thunderstorm's magnetic terror. I simply want to enjoy them. They all knock me out of analysis and smack me clear into pleasure and awe.<ref>McLaren, Brian D. (2007). "Foreword." ''Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons''. HarperCollins. {{ISBN|9780061146619}}</ref>}}

Throughout Buechner's work his hallmark as a theologian and autobiographer is his regard for the appearance of the divine in daily life. By examining the day-to-day workings of his own life, Buechner seeks to find God's hand at work, thus leading his audience by example to similar introspection. The Reverend Samuel Lloyd describes his "capacity to see into the heart of every day," an ability that reflects the significance of daily events onto the reader's life as well.<ref>Lloyd, Samuel (April 5, 2006). ''The Art of the Sermon: A Tribute to Frederick Buechner''.</ref> In the words of the preacher [[Barbara Brown Taylor]]: "From [Buechner] I've learned that the only limit to the revelation going on all around me is my willingness to turn aside and look."<ref>Taylor, Barbara Brown (2006). "A Tribute to Frederick Buechner." ''Buechner 101: Essays and Sermons by Frederick Buechner''. Frederick Buechner Center. p.19. {{ISBN|9780990871903}}</ref>

===Buechner Writer's Workshop at Princeton===

[[Princeton Theological Seminary]] hosts an annual Buechner [[Writers workshop (activity)|Writing Workshop]]. The workshop is designed to "encourage, educate, and inspire writers to communicate their [[Christian faith]] with clarity and power in the tradition of Frederick Buechner". Past speakers have included authors such as [[Barbara Brown Taylor]], [[Rachel Held Evans]], Philip Gulley, [[M. Craig Barnes]], [[Philip Yancey]], and [[Kathleen Norris]]..

===Buechner Institute at King University===

Inaugurated in 2008 at [[King University]], the former King College, the Buechner Institute was dedicated to the work and example of Buechner, exploring the intersections and collisions of faith and culture that define our times.

Dale Brown, the founding director of the Buechner Institute, was the author of numerous articles and the recent critical biography, ''The Book of Buechner: A Journey Through His Writings''.

The Buechner Institute sponsored weekly convocations in [[Memorial Chapel (King University)|Memorial Chapel]] on the campus of King University that featured speakers from a variety of backgrounds who examined the ways in which faith informs art and public life and cultivate conversation about what faith has to do with books, politics, social discourse, music, visual arts, and more.

Additionally, the Buechner Institute sponsored the Annual Buechner Lecture. The following is the list of lecturers invited to speak thus far:
* 2008: Frederick Buechner (inaugural lecture)
* 2009: [[Barbara Brown Taylor]]
* 2010: [[Ron Hansen (novelist)|Ron Hansen]]
* 2011: [[Katherine Paterson]]
* 2012: [[Marilynne Robinson]]
* 2013: [[Kathleen Norris (poet)]]
* 2013: [[Doug Worgul]]

A summer symposium on the work of Frederick Buechner, Buechnerfest, was featured in 2010 and 2012.  Attendees from around the country spent a week of reading and entertainment on the Virginia/Tennessee border.

The work of the institute was guided by a local governing board and a national advisory board. National board members included [[Doris Betts]], [[Walter Brueggemann]], [[Scott Cairns]], [[Michael Card]], Elizabeth Dewberry, [[Tim Gautreaux]], Philip Gulley, [[Ron Hansen (novelist)|Ron Hansen]], [[Roy Herron]], [[Silas House]], Richard Hughes, [[Thomas G. Long]], Tom Lynch, [[Brian McLaren]], [[Carrie Newcomer]], [[Kathleen Norris (poet)|Kathleen Norris]], [[Katherine Paterson]], [[Eugene H. Peterson]], Charles Pollard, [[Barbara Brown Taylor]], Will Willimon, John Wilson, [[Philip Yancey]], [[Doug Worgul]], and others.

In 2015, after the death of Dr. Dale Brown, founding director, and at the request of the Buechner Literary Assets, LLC, the Buechner Institute became the King Institute for Faith and Culture. The King Institute for Faith and Culture is a continuation of conversations between faith, art, and culture started by the Buechner Institute.

==In the media==

Buechner's work has been praised highly by many reviewers of books, with the distinct exception of his second novel, ''The Season's Difference'', which was universally panned by critics and remains his biggest commercial flop. His later novels, including the ''[[Book of Bebb]]'' series and ''[[Godric (novel)|Godric]]'', received praise; in his 1980 review of ''Godric'', [[Benjamin DeMott]] summed up a host of positive reviews, saying "All on his own, Mr. Buechner has managed to reinvent projects of self-purification and of faith as piquant matter for contemporary fiction, producing in a single decade a quintet of books each of which is individual in concerns and knowledge, and notable for literary finish."<ref>DeMott, Benjamin (December 25, 1983). "Godric." [https://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/25/books/paperbacks-new-and-noteworthy.html''New York Times Book Review''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181218012600/https://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/25/books/paperbacks-new-and-noteworthy.html |date=December 18, 2018 }}. Retrieved December 17, 2018.</ref> In 1982, author [[Reynolds Price]] greeted Buechner's ''The Sacred Journey'' as "a rich new vein for Buechner&nbsp;– a kind of detective autobiography" and "[t]he result is a short but fascinating and, in its own terms, beautifully successful experiment."<ref>Price, Reynolds (April 11, 1982).[https://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/11/books/the-road-to-devotion.html?&pagewanted=all "The Road to Devotion"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310221253/http://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/11/books/the-road-to-devotion.html?&pagewanted=all |date=March 10, 2016 }}. ''The New York Times''. Retrieved December 17, 2018.</ref>

Buechner has occasionally been accused of being too "preachy;" a 1984 review by [[Anna Shapiro]] in the [[New York Times]] notes "But for all the colloquialism, there is something, well, preachy and a little unctuous about making yourself an exemplar of faith. Insights that would do for a paragraph are dragged out with a doggedness that will presumably bring the idea home to even the most resistant and inattentive."<ref>Shapiro, Anna (March 11, 1984). [https://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/11/books/in-short-024697.html?&pagewanted=4 "In Short"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413202107/http://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/11/books/in-short-024697.html?&pagewanted=4 |date=April 13, 2016 }}. ''The New York Times''. Retrieved December 17, 2018.</ref> The sentiments expressed by [[Cecelia Holland]]'s 1987 ''[[Washington Post]]'' review of Buechner's novel, ''Brendan'', are far more common. She writes,"In our own time, when religion is debased, an electronic game show, an insult to the thirsty soul, Buechner's novel proves again the power of faith, to lift us up, to hold us straight, to send us on again."<ref>Holland, Cecilia (1987). ''Washington Post Book World''.</ref>

In 2008 Rich Barlowe wrote of Buechner in ''[[Boston Globe|The Boston Globe]]'', "Who knows? The words are Frederick Buechner's mantra. Over the course of an hourlong chat with the writer and Presbyterian minister in his kitchen, they recur any number of times in response to questions about his faith and theology. [[Dogmatic]] religious believers would dismiss the two words as the warning shot of doubt. But for Buechner, it is precisely our doubts and struggles that mark us as human. And that insight girds his theological twist on [[Socrates]]: The unexamined human life is a lost chance to behold the divine."<ref>Barlowe, Rich (July 5, 2008). [http://archive.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2008/07/05/minister_sees_divine_in_everyday_struggles/?page=full "Minister Sees Divine in Everyday Struggles"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911071158/http://archive.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2008/07/05/minister_sees_divine_in_everyday_struggles/?page=full |date=September 11, 2016 }}. ''The Boston Globe''. Retrieved December 17, 2018.</ref> In 2002, [[Richard Kauffman]] interviewed Buechner for ''[[The Christian Century]]'' upon the publication of ''[[Speak What We Feel|Speak What We Feel (Not What We Ought to Say)]]''. Buechner answered the question "Do you envision a particular audience when you write?" by saying "I always hope to reach people who don't want to touch religion with a ten-foot pole. The cultured despisers of religion, [[Friedrich Schleiermacher|Schleiermacher]] called them. Maybe some of my books reach them. But most of my readers, as far as I can tell, aren't that type. Many of them are ministers. They say, 'You've given us something back we lost and opened up doors we didn't think could be opened for people.'"<ref>Kauffman, Richard (September 11, 2002). [https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2002-09/ordained-write "Ordained to Write: An Interview with Frederick Buechner"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181218010550/https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2002-09/ordained-write |date=December 18, 2018 }}. Retrieved December 17, 2018.</ref>

==Bibliography==
{{main|Frederick Buechner bibliography}}

===Selected bibliography===
* ''[[A Long Day's Dying]]'', 1950 ({{ISBN|978-0972429542}})
* ''[[The Magnificent Defeat]]'', 1966 ({{ISBN|9780060611743}})
* ''[[Telling the Truth: the Gospel as tragedy, comedy, and fairy tale]]'', 1977 ({{ISBN|9780060611569}})
* ''[[The Book of Bebb]]'', 1979 ({{ISBN|9780062517692}})
* ''[[Godric (novel)|Godric]]'', 1980 ({{ISBN|9780060611620}})
* ''[[The Sacred Journey]]'', 1982 ({{ISBN|9780060611835}})
* ''[[Brendan (novel)|Brendan]]'', 1987 ({{ISBN|9780060611781}})
* ''[[Telling Secrets (memoir)|Telling Secrets, a Memoir]]'', 1991 ({{ISBN|9780060611811}})
* ''Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner'', 1992 ({{ISBN|9780060698645}})
* ''Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons'', 2006 ({{ISBN|978-0-06-084248-2}})

== See also ==

*[[C. S. Lewis]]
*[[Henri Nouwen]]
*[[John Milton]]
*[[Emerging church]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
*[http://www.frederickbuechner.com Frederick Buechner Center]
*[http://buechner.newlifefilms.com/watch.html ''Buechner''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050311023420/http://buechner.newlifefilms.com/watch.html |date=March 11, 2005 }}, part of a film made about Buechner in 2003
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080511150028/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3849/is_199805/ai_n8791815 A faith to live and die with | Sojourners | Find Articles at BNET], A faith to live and die with by Dale Brown
* [http://archon.wheaton.edu/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=6 Frederick Buechner Papers, 1926–2006 | Wheaton College Archives & Special Collections], The Wheaton College Archives & Special Collections
*[http://www.buechnerinstitute.org The Buechner Institute at King College]
* [https://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week936/profile.html Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly . PROFILE . Frederick Buechner . May 5, 2006 | PBS] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130310143138/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week936/profile.html |date=March 10, 2013 }}, Profile: Frederick Buechner
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090625090846/http://www.readthespirit.com/explore/2007/10/009-a-conversat.html Interview with Frederick Buechner on Dale Brown's "The Book of Buechner"] by ReadTheSpirit.com
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080607072143/http://www.readthespirit.com/explore/2007/10/009-the-gifts-o.html Interview with Frederick Buechner on the gifts of aging and "Yellow Leaves"] by ReadTheSpirit.com
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150904094742/http://www.whiting.org/awards/keynotes/frederick-buechner "The Opening of Veins", 1990 Whiting Writers' Award Keynote Speech]
* {{IMDb name|1907644}}
* {{discogs artist|Frederick Buechner}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Frederick Buechner}}

{{Authority control}}

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