Donald Windham
Donald Windham (2 July 1920 – 31 May 2010) was an American novelist and memoirist. He is perhaps best known for his close friendships with Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Windham moved with his then-boyfriend Fred Melton, an artist, to New York City in 1939. In 1942 Windham collaborated with Williams on the play, You Touched Me!,[1] which is based on a D. H. Lawrence short story with the same title. Windham received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1960.[2]
Windham became estranged from Williams after Williams published his book Memoirs (1975).[3] Windham later published a volume of their correspondence, which Williams claimed was done without his permission. Windham remained a friend of Capote until Capote's death. Windham also met and befriended such diverse figures as Lincoln Kirstein, Pavel Tchelitchew and Paul Cadmus.
In 1943, Windham met Sandy Campbell, an undergraduate student at Princeton University. In 1943 they began a relationship that would last until Campbell's death in 1988. Campbell frequently helped Windham publish books through the Stamperia Valdonega in Verona, Italy. Partially because Windham was influenced by his own life, homosexuality is one of many themes treated in his work.
Windham's novels include The Dog Star (1950),[4] which was praised by André Gide and Thomas Mann, The Hero Continues (1960), which is likely based on Williams, Two People (1965) which is about a love affair between a New York stockbroker whose wife has left him and a 17-year-old Italian boy in Rome, and Tanaquil (1972), which is based on the life of George Platt Lynes. Lost Friendships, a memoir of his friendship with Capote and Williams, was published in 1987. It is regarded by some as his best book.
In June 2011 it was announced that Yale University would administer the Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes.
References
- Kellner, Bruce. Donald Windham: A Bio-Bibliography. Greenwood Press, 1991. ISBN 0-313-26857-6
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- ↑ Williams, Tennessee. Memoirs. New Directions Publishing (1975) ISBN 9780811216692
- ↑ Windham, Donald. The dog star. Doubleday (1950)
External links
- Donald Windham: A Full Length Portrait of the Writer
- GLBTQ Encyclopedia Entry on Donald Windham
- Obituary in The New York Times
- Donald Windham and Sandy Campbell Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
- Donald Windham materials in Robert A. Wilson collection from Special Collections, University of Delaware Library
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- Articles with short description
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- 1920 births
- 2010 deaths
- 20th-century American novelists
- American male novelists
- 20th-century American memoirists
- LGBT writers from the United States
- Lambda Literary Award winners
- Gay writers
- LGBT novelists
- LGBT people from Georgia (U.S. state)
- Writers from Atlanta
- 20th-century American male writers
- Novelists from Georgia (U.S. state)
- American male non-fiction writers
