JOHN BARTHPrepared by

BIOGRAPHY

born May 27, 1930;studied at Juilliard;attended Johns Hopkins University;married Harriet Ann Strickland (1950);had three children: Christine, John and David;was a professor at The Pennsylvania State University;

BIOGRAPHYtaught at SUNY/Buffalo;divorced from Harriet Ann Strickland (1970);married Shelly Rosenberg (1971);taught atBoston University;taught at Johns Hopkins University;retired in 1995.

THEMES AND WRITING STYLEAmerican society;Ironic approach;Educational aspect; Power of love and art;Dream of Value

FLOATING OPERANothing is intrinsically valuable; the value of everything is attributed to it, assigned to it from outside the thing itself, by people.

THE END OF THE ROAD"I simply ran out of motives, as a car runs out of gas," he says. "There was no reason to do anything. My eyes ... were sightless, gazing on eternity, fixed on ultimacy, and when that is the case there is no reason to do anything--even to change the focus of one's eyes."

THE SOT-WEED FACTORIs man a savage at heart, skinned o'er with fragile Manners? Or is savagery but a faint taint in the natural man's gentility, which erupts now and again like pimples on an angel's arse?

GILES GOAT-BOY

LOST IN THE FUNHOUSE

SELECTED WORKSFiction:The Floating Opera(1956)The End of the Road(1958)The Sot-Weed Factor(1960)Giles Goat-Boy, or, The Revised New Syllabus(1966)Lost in the Funhouse: Fiction for Print, Tape, Live Voice(stories) (1968)Chimera(three linked novellas) (1972)LETTERS(1979)Sabbatical: A Romance(1982)The Tidewater Tales(1987)The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor(1991)

SELECTED WORKSFiction:Once upon a Time: A Floating Opera(1994)On with the Story(stories) (1996)Coming Soon!!!: A Narrative(2001)The Book of Ten Nights and a Night: Eleven Stories(2004)Where Three Roads Meet(three linked novellas) (2005)The Development(2008)Nonfiction:The Friday Book(1984)Further Fridays(1995)

JOHN BARTHPrepared by