Editing Walter Tevis

{{Short description|American writer (1928–1984)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2023}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
 | name        = Walter Tevis
 | image       = 1960JWTevis.jpg
 | caption     = Walter and Jamie Tevis in 1960
 | birth_name  = Walter Stone Tevis Jr.
 | birth_date  = February 28, 1928
 | birth_place = [[San Francisco]], California, U.S.
 | death_date  = {{death date and age|1984|08|09|1928|02|28}}
 | death_place = [[New York City]], New York, U.S.
 | occupation  = [[Novelist]], [[short story]] writer
 | period      = 1955–1984
 | genre       = [[Fiction]], [[science fiction]]
 | subject     =
 | relatives   = Walter Stone Tevis,<br />Anna Elizabeth Bacon,<br />Betty Jean Tevis<ref>{{cite web |title=Betty Jean Tevis, Born 08/14/1925 in California |url=https://www.californiabirthindex.org/birth/betty_jean_tevis_born_1925_993290 |website=CaliforniaBirthIndex.org |access-date=November 14, 2020 |quote=Betty Jean Tevis was born on August 14, 1925 in San Francisco County, California. Her father's last name is Tevis, and her mother's maiden name is Bacon.}}</ref><ref name="BettyJeanTevisBalkeEckdahl-Obit">{{cite web |title=Betty Jean Tevis Balke Eckdahl. Obituary (2010) |url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/kentucky/obituary.aspx?n=betty-jean-tevis-eckdahl&pid=139974566 |website=legacy.com |publisher=Lexington Herald-Leader |access-date=November 15, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201115000236/https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3ARd467IyUqWEJ%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.legacy.com%2Fobituaries%2Fkentucky%2Fobituary.aspx%3Fn%3Dbetty-jean-tevis-eckdahl%26pid%3D139974566 |archive-date=November 15, 2020 |date=February 24, 2010 |quote=Her brother, novelist Walter Tevis, died in 1984. Her father, Walter Stone Tevis, was a native of Madison County, KY and descendent of a pioneer family there}}</ref>
 | spouse      = Jamie Griggs Tevis,<br />Eleanora Tevis
 | children    = William Tevis, Julie Tevis<ref name=NYT>{{cite web|work=[[The New York Times]]|title=WALTER TEVIS, 56, A SCREENWRITER|first=Herbert|last=Mitgang|date=August 11, 1984|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/11/obituaries/walter-tevis-56-a-screenwriter.html}}</ref>
 | signature   =
 | website     = {{URL|https://waltertevis.org/}}
}}

'''Walter Stone Tevis Jr.''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|ɛ|v|ɪ|s}}; February 28, 1928<ref>{{cite web |title=Walter Stone Tevis, Born 02/28/1928 in California |url=https://www.californiabirthindex.org/birth/walter_stone_tevis_born_1928_1244389 |website=CaliforniaBirthIndex.org |access-date=November 14, 2020 |quote=Walter Stone Tevis was born on February 28, 1928, in San Francisco County, California. His father's last name is Tevis, and his mother's maiden name is Bacon.}}</ref> – August 9, 1984<ref>{{cite web|title=Overview of Walter Tevis Collection|url=https://www.library.ohio.edu/archives/mss/mss058.pdf|publisher=Ohio University: Robert E. and Jean R. Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections|access-date=May 27, 2018|archive-date=May 27, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180527204344/https://www.library.ohio.edu/archives/mss/mss058.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>) was an American novelist and screenwriter. Three of his six novels were adapted into major films: ''[[The Hustler (novel)|The Hustler]]'', ''[[The Color of Money (novel)|The Color of Money]]'' and ''[[The Man Who Fell to Earth (novel)|The Man Who Fell to Earth]]''. A fourth, ''[[The Queen's Gambit (novel)|The Queen’s Gambit]]'', was adapted into a [[miniseries]] with the [[The Queen's Gambit (miniseries)|same title]] and shown on [[Netflix]] in 2020. His books have been translated into at least 18 languages.

==Early life==
Tevis was born in [[San Francisco]], [[California]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wartik |first=Nancy |date=December 23, 2020 |orig-date=December 23, 2020 |title=Walter Tevis Was a Novelist. You Might Know His Books (Much) Better as Movies. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/23/books/walter-tevis-novelist-queens-gambit-netflix.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240805164035/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/23/books/walter-tevis-novelist-queens-gambit-netflix.html |archive-date=August 5, 2024 |access-date=August 11, 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> in 1928 to Anna Elizabeth "Betty" ([[née]] Bacon) and Walter Stone Tevis, an [[appraiser]],<ref>[http://www.donslist.net/PGHLookups/cgi-bin/HandOff-3_0.cgi?SanFranCA1927+SanFranCA1927+2095+100W 1927 San Francisco CA (a directory, p. 2095)] ''www.donslist.net'', accessed December 5, 2020</ref> growing up in the [[Sunset District, San Francisco|Sunset District]],<ref>[http://www.donslist.net/PGHLookups/cgi-bin/HandOff-3_0.cgi?SanFranCA1932+SanFranCA1932+1195+100W 1927 San Francisco CA (a directory, p. 1195)] ''www.donslist.net'', accessed December 5, 2020</ref> across the street from [[Golden Gate Park]]. His sister, Betty, was born in 1925.<ref name="BettyJeanTevisBalkeEckdahl-Obit"/>

He developed a [[Rheumatic fever|rheumatic heart condition]],<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1983/04/06/books/author-who-checkmated-academe.html |title=Author Who Checkmated Academe |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=April 6, 1983 |access-date=December 5, 2020 |last1=Mitgang |first1=Herbert }}</ref> so his parents placed him in the [[Stanford University Medical Center#History|Stanford Children's Convalescent home]]<ref>[https://healthier.stanfordchildrens.org/en/forbes-features-packard-childrens/ Forbes features Packard Children’s: From community care to a top-ranked children’s hospital] ''healthier.stanfordchildrens.org'', accessed December 5, 2020</ref><ref>[https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0c60342r/ Guide to the Children's Hospital at Stanford Records] ''oac.cdlib.org'', accessed December 5, 2020</ref><ref>[https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/22638 Stanford University Medical Center Facilities Renewal and Replacement Project Draft Environmental Impact Report -  Comment on the Draft Environmental Impact Report Cultural Resources Chapter] ''www.cityofpaloalto.org'', accessed December 5, 2020</ref> (where he was given heavy doses of [[phenobarbital]]), for a year, during which time they returned to Kentucky, where the Tevis family had been given an early land grant in Madison County. Walter traveled across country alone by train at age 11 to rejoin his family in Kentucky. He made friends with Toby Kavanaugh, a fellow high school student, and learned to shoot pool in the Kavanaugh mansion in [[Lawrenceburg, Kentucky|Lawrenceburg]].<ref name="brickmag">[https://brickmag.com/an-interview-with-walter-tevis/ An Interview with Walter Tevis] ''brickmag.com'', accessed December 5, 2020</ref> In the library there, he read science fiction for the first time.<ref>[https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/a34483986/the-queens-gambit-true-story-beth-harmon/ 'The Queen’s Gambit': The True Story, Explained] ''www.marieclaire.com'', accessed December 5, 2020</ref> They remained lifelong friends. Kavanaugh later became the owner of a pool room<ref>[https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1110&context=kentucky-review Walter Tevis: Recollections of "The Hustler"] Jamie Griggs Tevis ''uknowledge.uky.edu'', accessed December 5, 2020</ref> in [[Lexington, Kentucky|Lexington]], which would have an impact on Tevis's writing.<ref name="kentucky-writers-hall-of-fame"/>{{Dead link|date=March 2024}}

Tevis joined the Navy on his seventeenth birthday. He became a [[carpenter's mate]], serving on the ''[[USS Hamul]]'' in Okinawa.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Biography |url=https://www.waltertevis.org/biography |access-date=August 27, 2023 |website=Walter Tevis |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>Walter S Tevis Junior in the U.S., World War II Navy Muster Rolls, 1938-1949, accessed via Ancestry.com</ref>

After his discharge, he graduated from [[Model Laboratory School]] in Kentucky in 1945. He entered the [[University of Kentucky]], where he received B.A. (1949) and M.A. (1954) degrees in English literature and studied with [[A. B. Guthrie Jr.]], the author of [[The Big Sky (novel)|''The Big Sky'']]. While a student there, Tevis worked in a [[pool hall]] and published a story about [[Pocket billiards|pool]] written for Guthrie's class. He later attended the [[Iowa Writers' Workshop]], where he received an [[Master of Fine Arts|MFA]] in creative writing in 1960.

After graduation, Tevis wrote for the Kentucky Highway Department. He taught classes in fields from the sciences and English to physical education in small-town Kentucky high schools in [[Science Hill, Kentucky|Science Hill]], [[Hawesville, Kentucky|Hawesville]], [[Irvine, Kentucky|Irvine]], and [[Carlisle, Kentucky|Carlisle]]. He also taught at [[Northern Kentucky University]], the [[University of Kentucky]], and [[Southern Connecticut State University]].

Tevis taught English literature and creative writing at [[Ohio University]] in [[Athens, Ohio]], from 1965 to 1978, where he was named University Professor. Tevis was a member of the [[Authors Guild]].

==Career==

===Short stories===
Tevis wrote more than two dozen short stories for a variety of magazines. "The Big Hustle," his pool hall story for ''[[Collier's Weekly|Collier's]]'' (August 5, 1955), was illustrated by [[Denver Gillen]]. It was followed by short stories in ''[[The American Magazine]]'', ''[[Blue Book (magazine)|Bluebook]]'', ''[[Cosmopolitan (magazine)|Cosmopolitan]]'', ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'', ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]'', ''[[Playboy]]'', ''[[Redbook]]'' and ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]''.

===Novels===
His first novel, [[The Hustler (novel)|''The Hustler'']], was published by [[Harper & Row]] in 1959. Tevis followed it with [[The Man Who Fell to Earth (novel)|''The Man Who Fell to Earth'']], published in 1963. Tevis drew from elements of his childhood in ''The Man Who Fell to Earth'', as noted by [[James Sallis]], writing in ''[[The Boston Globe]]'':

{{Blockquote | On the surface, ''Man'' is the tale of an alien who comes to earth to save his own civilization and, through adversity, distraction, and loss of faith ("I want to... But not enough"), fails. Just beneath the surface, it might be read as a parable of 1950s conventionalism and of the [[Cold War]]. One of the many other things it is, in Tevis's own words, is "a very disguised autobiography," the tale of his removal as a child from San Francisco, "the city of light," to rural Kentucky, and of the childhood illness that long confined him to bed, leaving him, once recovered, weak, fragile, and apart. It was also – as he realized only after writing it – about his becoming an alcoholic. Beyond that, it is, of course, a Christian parable, and a portrait of the artist. It is, finally, one of the most heartbreaking books I know, a threnody on great ambition and terrible failure, and an evocation of man's absolute, unabridgeable aloneness.<ref>{{cite news | last =Sallis | first = James |date= May 16, 2004 |url= http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2004/05/16/a_life_and_an_oeuvre_plagued_by_shadows/ |title= A life, and an oeuvre, plagued by shadows |newspaper= [[The Boston Globe]]}}</ref>}}

During his time teaching at Ohio University, Tevis became aware that the level of literacy among students was falling at an alarming rate. That observation gave him the idea for [[Mockingbird (Tevis novel)|''Mockingbird'']] (1980), set in a grim and decaying [[New York City]] in the 25th century. The population is declining, no one can read, and robots rule over the drugged, illiterate humans. With the birth rate dropping, the end of the species seems a possibility. Tevis was a nominee for the [[Nebula Award]] for Best Novel in 1980 for ''Mockingbird''. During one of his last televised interviews, he revealed that PBS once planned a production of ''Mockingbird'' as a follow-up to their 1979 film of [[Ursula K. Le Guin]]'s [[The Lathe of Heaven (film)|''The Lathe of Heaven'']].

Tevis also wrote ''[[The Steps of the Sun]]'' (1983), [[The Queen's Gambit (novel)|''The Queen's Gambit'']] (1983), and ''[[The Color of Money (novel)|The Color of Money]]'' (1984), a sequel to ''The Hustler''. His short stories were collected in ''Far from Home'' in 1981.

====Adaptations====
Three of Tevis's six novels were adapted for major motion pictures, and one for a TV mini-series. ''[[The Hustler]]'', directed by [[Robert Rossen]], and ''[[The Color of Money]]'', directed by [[Martin Scorsese]], followed the escapades of fictional pool [[Hustling|hustler]] "Fast Eddie" Felson. [[The Man Who Fell to Earth (film)|''The Man Who Fell to Earth'']], directed by [[Nicolas Roeg]], was released in 1976; it was subsequently [[The Man Who Fell to Earth (1987 film)|re-made in 1987]] as a [[TV film]], and in 2022 as a [[The Man Who Fell to Earth (TV series)|TV series]]. [[The Queen's Gambit (miniseries)|''The Queen’s Gambit'']] is a 2020 [[Netflix]] [[mini-series]] starring [[Anya Taylor-Joy]].

==Personal life==
Tevis married Jamie Griggs in 1957, and they remained together for over twenty years before getting divorced. They had two children, a son, William Thomas,<ref>[http://bookhaven.stanford.edu/2019/01/another-look-takes-on-walter-teviss-queens-gambit-and-the-authors-son-remembers-playing-chess-with-dad/ Another Look takes on Walter Tevis's "Queen's Gambit." And the author's son remembers playing chess with dad] ''bookhaven.stanford.edu'', accessed December 5, 2020</ref> and daughter, Julia Ann.<ref name="Berkley">{{Citation | title = Remembering Walter Tevis: Finding the Stories that Must Be Told | first = June Langford | last = Berkley | date =Fall 2001 | newspaper = Ohioana Quarterly | series = The Ohio legacy | url = http://www.ohioana.org/features/legacy/wtevis.aspx | publisher = Ohioana library | quote = … he told the book editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal in 1980 after he had sought treatment for his alcoholism, divorced, resigned from the Ohio University faculty, and moved to Manhattan where he was writing again. }}{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Tevis was a frequent smoker, gambler and alcoholic, and his works often included these vices as central themes.<ref name=":1" /> Tevis took some of the money he earned from the movie rights to ''The Hustler'' and moved his family to Mexico, where he later claimed that he "stayed drunk for eight months."<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=Hill|first=David|date=November 9, 2020|title=The Man Who Brought 'The Queen's Gambit' to Life|url=https://www.theringer.com/tv/2020/11/9/21555790/the-queens-gambit-netflix-book-walter-tevis|access-date=January 28, 2021|website=The Ringer|language=en}}</ref> When Tevis was drinking, he couldn't write.<ref name=":1" /> According to his son Will, "[Walter Tevis] is the [anti-]hero of all his own books."<ref name=":0">{{cite news|last=Wartik|first=Nancy|date=December 23, 2020|title=Walter Tevis Was a Novelist. You Might Know His Books (Much) Better as Movies.|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/23/books/walter-tevis-novelist-queens-gambit-netflix.html|access-date=December 24, 2020|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>{{clarify|date=May 2022}} Having a heart condition, Tevis was given [[phenobarbital]] at a young age. This is considered part of the inspiration for the character Beth Harmon in ''[[The Queen's Gambit (novel)|The Queen's Gambit]]'', and according to Tevis, part of the reason for his later alcoholism. Tevis was able to overcome his alcohol habit in the 1970s with help from [[Alcoholics Anonymous]].<ref name=":0" />

Tevis spent his last years in [[New York City]] as a full-time writer,<ref name="Berkley" /> where he died of [[lung cancer]] in 1984. He was buried in [[Richmond, Kentucky]].<ref name="NYT" /><ref name="kentucky-writers-hall-of-fame">[https://carnegiecenterlex.org/kentucky-writers-hall-of-fame/kentucky-writers-hall-of-fame-inductees-2018/walter-tevis/ Walter Tevis] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201115054250/https://carnegiecenterlex.org/kentucky-writers-hall-of-fame/kentucky-writers-hall-of-fame-inductees-2018/walter-tevis/ |date=November 15, 2020 }} ''carnegiecenterlex.org'', accessed December 5, 2020</ref>

In 2003, Jamie Griggs Tevis published her autobiography, ''My Life with the Hustler''. She died on August 4, 2006.<ref>{{cite news | last =Tigchelaar | first = Jeff |date=August 14, 2006 |url= http://www.athensnews.com/ohio/article-3289-after-some-people-are-gone-you-really-start-to-appreciate-them.html |title=After some people are gone, you really start to appreciate them |newspaper=The Athens News}}</ref>

In 1983, Tevis married Eleanora Walker,<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=eleanora-walker-tevis&pid=183577652| title = Eleanora Tevis Obituary (2017) - New York, NY - New York Times| website = [[Legacy.com]]}}</ref> later the trustee of the Walter Tevis Copyright Trust. She died December 9, 2016, at [[Bellevue Hospital]] in New York City, in an apparent suicide.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nypost.com/2016/11/21/woman-who-jumped-off-church-is-widow-of-famed-author|title = Woman who plunged off church is widow of famed author|date = November 21, 2016}}</ref> Walter Tevis's literary output is represented by the Susan Schulman Literary Agency.<ref>{{cite news | last =Mayes | first = Ian |date=March 17, 2001 |url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/mar/17/books.guardianreview6  |title=Cue jumping |newspaper= [[The Guardian]]}}</ref>
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== Bibliography ==
{{Incomplete list|date=August 2017}}

===Novels===
* {{cite book |title=[[The Hustler (novel)|The Hustler]] |publisher=Harper & Row |date=1959}}
* {{cite book |title=[[The Man Who Fell to Earth (novel)|The Man Who Fell to Earth]] |publisher=Gold Medal Books |date=1963}} Reprint: Del Rey Impact, 1999.
* {{cite book |title=[[Mockingbird (Tevis novel)|Mockingbird]] |date=1980 }} Reprint: Del Rey Impact, 1999.
* {{cite book |title=[[The Steps of the Sun]] |date=1983 }}
* {{cite book |title=[[The Queen's Gambit (novel)|The Queen's Gambit]] |date=1983 }}
* {{cite book |title=[[The Color of Money (novel)|The Color of Money]] |date=1984 }}

===Short fiction===
; Collections
* ''Far from Home'', Doubleday, 1981
* ''The King Is Dead: Stories'', Vintage, 2023

; List of stories
* "The Best in the Country", ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'', November 1954.
* "The Big Hustle", ''[[Collier's]]'', August 5, 1955.
* "Misleading Lady", ''[[The American Magazine]]'', October 1955.
* "Mother of the Artist", ''Everywoman's'', 1955.{{citation needed|date=May 2019}}
* "The Man from Chicago", ''[[Blue Book (magazine)|Bluebook]]'', January 1956.
* "The Stubbornest Man", ''[[Saturday Evening Post]]'', January 19, 1957.
* "The Hustler", (original title: "The Actors") ''[[Playboy (magazine)|Playboy]]''
* "Operation Gold Brick" (original title: "The Goldbrick"), ''[[If (magazine)|If]]'', June 1957.
* "[https://archive.org/stream/galaxymagazine-1957-04/Galaxy_1957_04#page/n59/mode/2up The Ifth of Oofth]", ''[[Galaxy (magazine)|Galaxy]]'', April 1957
* "The Big Bounce", ''Galaxy'', February 1958.<ref>[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23153 The Big Bounce by Walter S. Tevis] ''www.gutenberg.org'', accessed December 5, 2020</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/stream/galaxymagazine-1958-02/Galaxy_1958_02#page/n37/mode/2up The Big Bounce by Walter S. Tevis (archived copy)] ''galaxymagazine-1958-02'', accessed December 5, 2020</ref>
* "Sucker's Game", ''[[Redbook]]'', August 1958.
* "First Love", ''Redbook'', August 1958.
* "Far From Home", ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction]]'', December 1958.
* "Alien Love" (original title: "The Man from Budapest") ''[[Cosmopolitan (magazine)|Cosmopolitan]]'', April 1959. Adapted as a teleplay for NBC's ''[[The Loretta Young Show]]'', season 7, episode 12, aired December 13, 1959.                
* "A Short Ride in the Dark", ''[[Toronto Star]] Weekly Magazine'', April 4, 1959.
* "Gentle Is the Gunman" ''Saturday Evening Post'', August 13, 1960.
* "The Other End of the Line", ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'', November 1961.
* "The Machine That Hustled Pool", ''Nugget'', February 1961.
* "The Scholar's Disciple", ''[[College English]]'', October 1969.
* "The King Is Dead", ''Playboy'', September 1973.
* "Rent Control", ''[[Omni (magazine)|Omni]]'', October 1979.
* "The Apotheosis of Myra", ''Playboy'', July 1980.
* "Echo" ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'', October 1980.
* "Out of Luck", ''Omni'', November 1980.
* "Sitting in Limbo", ''Far from Home'', 1981.
* "Daddy", ''Far from Home'', 1981.
* "A Visit from Mother", ''Far from Home'', 1981.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal |author=Sallis, James |author-link=James Sallis |date=July 2000 |title=''The Man Who Fell to Earth'' and ''Mockingbird'' [reviews] |department="Books" department |journal=[[The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction]] |volume=99 |issue=1 |pages=32–37 |url=https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2000/js0007.htm <!--access-date=2017-08-05-->}}
* Ifkovic, Ed. "The Hustler", in ''Talking of Michelangelo: 20 Memories''. Createspace 2014, pp.&nbsp;1–9.

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{Official website|https://waltertevis.org/}}
* {{IMDb name|0856677}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=25714}}
* {{Librivox author |id=8387}}
* {{Isfdb name}}
* {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402124652/http://www.english.eku.edu/SERVICES/KYLIT/tevis.htm |date=April 2, 2012 |title=KYLIT: Lisa English on Walter Tevis }}

{{Walter Tevis}}
{{USC Scripter Awards — Television}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tevis, Walter}}
[[Category:1928 births]]
[[Category:1984 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:American psychological fiction writers]]
[[Category:American science fiction writers]]
[[Category:Deaths from lung cancer in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Novelists from Kentucky]]
[[Category:Novelists from Ohio]]
[[Category:Ohio University alumni]]
[[Category:Ohio University faculty]]
[[Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:United States Navy sailors]]
[[Category:Writers from San Francisco]]