Russell Hoban
Russell Conwell Hoban (February 4, 1925 – December 13, 2011) was a British-American writer. His works span many genres, including fantasy, science fiction, mainstream fiction, magical realism, poetry, and children's books. He lived in London from 1969 until his death.
Russell Hoban
Russell Conwell Hoban
February 4, 1925
Lansdale, Pennsylvania, US
Writer, illustrator
American
Whitbread Prize
1974
Campbell Memorial Award
1982
• Lillian Hoban (1944–1975, divorced); 4 children (Phoebe, Abrom, Esmé, Julia)
• Gundula Ahl (1975–2011); 3 children (Jake, Ben, Wieland)[2][3]
Family[edit]
Hoban had four children with his first wife, Lillian Aberman Hoban. Their daughter Phoebe Hoban is a journalist and biographer who specializes in art.[8] The couple divorced in 1975, and in the same year he married Gundula Ahl, who worked in the fashionable London bookshop Truslove and Hanson.[9] With Ahl he had three children,[2] one of whom is the composer Wieland Hoban,[9] to whom Riddley Walker is dedicated. Wieland Hoban set one of his father's texts to music in his piece Night Roads (1998–99).
Hoban's sister, Tana Hoban (1917–2006), was a photographer and children's author;[10] he also had another sister, Freeda Hoban Ellis (1919–2002).
Later life[edit]
The last of Hoban's novels published during his lifetime was Angelica Lost and Found (October 2010), in which the hippogriff from Girolamo da Carpi's Ruggiero Saving Angelica breaks free from the 16th-century painting to search for Angelica in 21st-century San Francisco.
Hoban died on 13 December 2011.[1] He had once ruefully observed that death would be a good career move: "People will say, 'Yes, Hoban, he seems an interesting writer, let's look at him again'."[9]
Two new Hoban books were published posthumously by Walker Books in 2012: Soonchild, illustrated by Alexis Deacon,[11] and Rosie's Magic Horse, illustrated by Quentin Blake.[12] Deacon also provided artwork for a new version of Jim's Lion, published in 2014, which changed the format from a traditional picture book to a combination of text chapters and comics.[13][14]
After his death, Hoban's papers were archived by writer Paul Cooper,[15] and in 2016 the archive was acquired by the Beinecke Library at Yale University.[16][17]
Fan and community activity[edit]
In May 1998, Dave Awl, a writer/performer with the experimental Chicago theatre troupe the Neo-Futurists, launched the first comprehensive Russell Hoban reference website,[18][19][20] The Head of Orpheus, to which Russell Hoban regularly contributed news and information up until his death. In the fall of 1999, Awl founded a Hoban-themed online community called The Kraken (named after one of the characters in Hoban's 1987 novel The Medusa Frequency), which grew into an international network of Russell Hoban fans.
In 2002 an annual fan activity dubbed the Slickman A4 Quotation Event (SA4QE) (named after its founder, Diana Slickman, also a member of the Neo-Futurists) began, in which Hoban enthusiasts celebrate his birthday by writing down favourite quotes from his books (invariably on sheets of yellow A4 paper, a recurring Hoban motif) and leaving them in public places.[9]
By 2004, the event had occurred three times;[21] as of February 2011 it has since taken place each year, seeing over 350 quotes distributed around 46 towns and cities throughout 14 countries.[22]
In 2005 fans from across the world celebrated Hoban's work in London at the first international convention for the author, The Russell Hoban Some-Poasyum (a pun on symposium from Riddley Walker).[23] A booklet was published by the organisers to commemorate the event featuring tributes to Hoban from a variety of contributors including actor and politician Glenda Jackson, novelist David Mitchell, composer Harrison Birtwistle and screenwriter Andrew Davies.
In 2012 a new "official" Russell Hoban website, www.russellhoban.org, was built and launched by volunteers from the community, with the approval of the author's family.[24]
Stage adaptations[edit]
In 1984, Hoban collaborated with the Impact Theatre Co-operative on a performance entitled The Carrier Frequency. Hoban supplied the text for the piece, which was staged and performed by Impact. In 1999, The Carrier Frequency was restaged by the theater company Stan's Cafe.[25][26]
In February 1986, a theatrical version of Hoban's novel Riddley Walker (adapted by Hoban himself) premiered at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. Its US premiere was at the Chocolate Bayou Theatre, in April 1987, directed by Greg Roach.[26]
In November 2007, Hoban's adaptation of Riddley Walker was produced (for the third time) by the Red Kettle Theatre Company, in Waterford, Ireland, and was reviewed favorably in the Irish Times.[27][28]
In March 1989 a stage adaptation of Kleinzeit was presented by the Tower Theatre Company, directed by Peta Barker, who had adapted the novel. One performance was seen by Russell Hoban who wrote a critique of the play, written on yellow paper, which is a major theme of the novel.
In 2011, the Trouble Puppet Theater Company produced an adaptation of Riddley Walker, with permission from and the aid of Russell Hoban. Artistic Director Connor Hopkins created the puppet theater play, with performances September 29 through October 16, 2011, at Salvage Vanguard Theater in Austin, Texas, U.S.[29] The production employed tabletop puppetry inspired by the Bunraku tradition and enjoyed popular and critical success.[30]
In 2012, the Royal Shakespeare Company announced that it would be premiering a new staging of Hoban's novel The Mouse and His Child as part of its winter 2012–13 season.[31]
Themes[edit]
Hoban is often described as a fantasy writer, and only two of his novels, Turtle Diary and The Bat Tattoo, are entirely devoid of supernatural elements. However, the fantasy elements are usually presented as only moderately surprising developments in an otherwise realistic contemporary story, which is magic realism. Exceptions include Kleinzeit, a comic fantasy whose characters include Death, Hospital, and Underground;[9] Riddley Walker, a science-fiction novel whose futuristic setting is primitive and post-apocalyptic; Pilgermann, a historical novel about the Crusades; and Fremder, a more conventional science-fiction novel.
There is frequent repetition of images and themes in different contexts. For instance, many of Hoban's works refer to lions, Orpheus, Eurydice, Persephone, Vermeer, severed heads, heart disease, flickering, Odilon Redon, and King Kong.[2]
Awards[edit]
How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen (1974), a picture book written by Hoban, illustrated by Quentin Blake, and published by Jonathan Cape, shared the annual Whitbread Award for Children's Books.[9]
Riddley Walker, a novel published by Cape in 1980, won the 1982 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, juried recognition of the year's best SF novel published in English, and the "Best International Novel" prize at the 1983 Australian SF Convention (Ditmar Award).[32] Pilgermann was one finalist a year later when no best international novel was named.[32]