Editing Thom Jones

{{Short description|American short story writer}}
{{Distinguish|Tom Jones (disambiguation){{!}}Tom Jones}}
'''Thomas Douglas Jones''' (January 26, 1945 – October 14, 2016) was an American writer, primarily of [[short story|short stories]].

==Biography==
Jones was raised in [[Aurora, Illinois]], where he went to public schools. He went to college at the [[University of Hawaii]], where he played catcher on the baseball team.

He later attended the [[University of Washington]], from which he graduated in 1970. He studied at the [[Iowa Writers' Workshop]] at the [[University of Iowa]], from which he received an M.F.A. in 1973.<ref name="enotes">{{cite web | title=enotes.com: Thom Jones 1945-|url=http://www.enotes.com/short-story-criticism/jones-thom| accessdate=2007-11-04}}</ref>

Jones trained in [[Force Reconnaissance]] in the [[United States Marine Corps|Marine Corps]] but was discharged before his unit was sent to Vietnam. He used this and other personal experiences, including the [[suicide]] of his father, a boxer, after being confined to a mental institution, as sources for his fiction.

After graduation from college, he worked as a copywriter for a Chicago advertising agency and later as a janitor, while reading and writing for hours each day.

He was "discovered" well into his forties by the fiction editors of ''[[The New Yorker]]'', who published "[[The Pugilist at Rest (story)|The Pugilist at Rest]]" (1991), which won an [[O. Henry Awards|O. Henry Award]]. It was included in ''Best American Short Stories of 1992.'' Other stories of his were published in ''The New Yorker'', as well as in ''Harper's,'' ''Esquire,'' ''Mirabella,'' ''Story,'' and ''Buzz.''

In 1993 he published his first collection of stories, for which this was the title story.

Jones resided in [[Olympia, Washington]], where he died on October 14, 2016, at the age of 71.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://q13fox.com/2016/10/18/thom-jones-author-of-the-pugilist-at-rest-dies-in-olympia-at-71/|title=Thom Jones, author of 'The Pugilist at Rest,' dies in Olympia at 71|date=18 October 2016}}</ref> He had [[temporal lobe epilepsy]] and [[diabetes]]. He was eulogized in ''The New Yorker'' magazine, by [[Joyce Carol Oates]].<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/postscript-thom-jones|title = Postscript: Thom Jones|magazine = [[The New Yorker]]|date = 20 October 2016}}</ref>

==Early work==
In 1973, Jones published an animal-fantasy [[allegory]] in the dystopian [[George Orwell]] mode titled "Brother Dodo's Revenge" in ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction]]''.

==Short-Story collections==
His first book, published in 1993, was the short-story collection ''[[The Pugilist at Rest (book)|The Pugilist at Rest]]''. The stories deal with common themes of mortality and pain, with characters who often find a kind of solace in the rather pessimistic philosophy of [[Schopenhauer]]. [[Boxing]], absent or mentally ill fathers, physical trauma, and the [[Vietnam War]] are also recurring motifs. The collection was a [[National Book Award]] finalist.

Jones published two other collections of short stories, ''[[Cold Snap (book)|Cold Snap]]'' (1995) and ''[[Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine]]'' (1999). See [[List of Thom Jones Stories]].

''Night Train: New and Selected Stories'' was published in October 2018 by [[Little, Brown]].<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/thom-jones/night-train/9780316449342/|title=Night Train|bibcode=2017S&T...133f..45S|language=en-US|last1=Schaaf|first1=Fred|journal=Sky and Telescope|year=2017|volume=133|issue=6|page=45}}</ref>

==Since 1999==
His story "Night Train," which originally appeared in the magazine ''[[Tin House]],'' was included in ''[[The Best American Nonrequired Reading]] 2004''. A humorous essay, "Easter Island Noodles Almondine," about a time when Jones worked as a youth for the [[General Mills]] plant in [[Aurora, Illinois]], was published in a 2009  issue of [[Granta]] focused on Chicago.<ref>[http://www.granta.com/Magazine/108 Thom Jones, "Easter Island Noodles Almondine"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111213145739/http://www.granta.com/Magazine/108 |date=2011-12-13 }}, ''Granta'', 2009</ref> "Bomb Shelter Noel," a story about a diabetic girl, was published in the January 2011 issue of ''[[Playboy]].''

==Script writing ==
Reports have appeared stating Jones wrote screenplays for feature films, including a Vietnam screenplay for [[Cheyenne Enterprises]]. He was reported to have adapted [[Larry Brown (author)|Larry Brown]]'s novel, ''[[The Rabbit Factory (2003)]]'', as a screenplay for [[Ithaka Films]].<ref>[http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/miscellaneous-retail-miscellaneous/4404246-1.html "Thom Jones screenplays"], All Business{{Dead link|{{subst:DATE}}|date=October 2024}}</ref>

==Reception ==
*His short story, "The Pugilist at Rest" (1991), won an [[O. Henry Award]] and was included in ''Best American Short Stories of 1992.''
*His first collection, ''The Pugilist at Rest'' (1993), was nominated for a National Book Award.
*In a ''[[Salon.com]]'' interview, writer [[John Updike]] praised Jones as one of two writers of a younger generation he admired. Updike included Jones's story, "I Want To Live!", in the anthology, ''The Best American Short Stories of the Century'' (2000).

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Thom}}
[[Category:1945 births]]
[[Category:2016 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Aurora, Illinois]]
[[Category:American short story writers]]
[[Category:O. Henry Award winners]]
[[Category:People with epilepsy]]
[[Category:University of Washington alumni]]
[[Category:University of Iowa alumni]]
[[Category:Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni]]
[[Category:Writers from Illinois]]