Chuck Kinder Explained

Chuck Kinder
Birth Name:	Charles Alfonso Kinder II
Birth Date:	8 October 1946
Birth Place:	Montgomery, West Virginia, U.S.
Death Place:	Key Largo, Florida, U.S.
Occupation:	Novelist
Education:	West Virginia University (BA, MA) Stanford University
Spouse:	Diane Cecily Blackmer
Parents:	Charles Alfonso Kinder Eileen Reba Parsons

Charles Alfonso Kinder II (October 8, 1946 – May 3, 2019) was an American novelist.

Biography

Kinder was born October 8 in Montgomery, West Virginia to Charles Alfonso and Eileen Reba (Parsons) Kinder. He was educated at West Virginia University (BA, MA) and Stanford University (Stegner Fellowship). After teaching at Stanford and Waynesburg College, Kinder was a professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, where he taught from 1980 until his retirement in 2014.^[1]

At Stanford, Kinder became close friends with fellow students Raymond Carver and Scott Turow, and Stegner alumnus Larry McMurtry. His relationship with Carver inspired his 2001 novel Honeymooners: A Cautionary Tale, which for nearly twenty years had vexed Kinder and had grown, uncontrollably, into a sprawling manuscript of over 3,000 pages. Kinder's struggle with this manuscript was local legend at the University of Pittsburgh. Michael Chabon, once an undergraduate student of Kinder's, used it as inspiration for the character Grady Tripp in the 1995 novel Wonder Boys.^[2]

Kinder was married to Diane Cecily Blackmer. He died May 4, 2019, in Key Largo, Florida.

Novels

Snakehunter (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973)
The Silver Ghost (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1979)
Honeymooners: A Cautionary Tale (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001)

Creative Nonfiction

Last Mountain Dancer: Hard-Earned Lessons in Love, Loss, and Honky-Tonk Outlaw Life, (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2004)

Poetry

Giant Night: The Secret Science of Angels and Aliens : The Poem as Memoir, Funerary Text, with Kitchen Sink (Pittsburgh: self-published, 2013)
Imagination Hotel (Pittsburgh: Six Gallery Press, 2014)^[3] ^[4]
All That Yellow (Pittsburgh: Low Ghost Press, 2014)^[5] ^[6]
Hot Jewels (Pittsburgh: Six Gallery Press, 2017)^[7]

Sources

Contemporary Authors Online. The Gale Group, 2003. PEN (Permanent Entry Number): 0000150152.

External links

https://www.english.pitt.edu/remembering-chuck-kinder-1942-2019 Kinder remembrance page on Pitt English Department Web site

Notes and References

News: Obituary: Chuck Kinder / Gregarious writer, Pitt professor was basis of character in 'Wonder Boys'. Ed. Blazina. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. May 4, 2019. May 4, 2019.
News: Kipen . David . PROFILE / Chuck Kinder / Pulitzer material / Writer who inspired Chabon's prize-winning novel about writers finally publishes his own book about writers . . June 28, 2001 . July 14, 2017.
Web site: Collins . Kristofer . Chuck Kinder's Double Feature - All That Yellow & Imagination Motel Book Launch! . Facebook . 23 December 2022 . https://archive.today/20221223072954/https://www.facebook.com/events/367826426706549/ . 23 December 2022.
Web site: Behe . Rege . Poetry collection reflects Squirrel Hill writer's roots . Trib Live . Pittsburgh Tribune-Review . 23 December 2022.
Web site: Collins . Kristofer . Chuck Kinder's Double Feature - All That Yellow & Imagination Motel Book Launch! . Facebook . 23 December 2022 . https://archive.today/20221223072954/https://www.facebook.com/events/367826426706549/ . 23 December 2022.
Web site: Collins . Kristofer . Low Ghost Press: ALL THAT YELLOW (Low Ghost Giant Size #1) by Chuck Kinder! . Low Ghost Press . 23 December 2022 . 3 October 2014.
Web site: 5/31 Hot Jewels by Chuck Kinder launch @ City of Asylum . Six Gallery Press . 3 May 2018 . 23 December 2022.