Andre Dubus

Andre Jules Dubus II (August 11, 1936 – February

24, 1999) was an American writer of short stories, Andre Dubus
novels, and essays.[1]

Biography

Early life and education

Andre Jules Dubus II was born in Lake Charles,
Louisiana, the youngest child of Katherine (Burke) and
André Jules Dubus, a Cajun-Irish Catholic family. His
two elder siblings are Kathryn and Beth. James Lee
Burke is his first cousin.[2] His surname is pronounced Born Andre Jules Dubus II
"Duh-BYOOSE", with the accent falling on the second August 11, 1936
Lake Charles, Louisiana, United
syllable, as in "profuse". Dubus grew up in the Bayou
States
country in Lafayette, Louisiana, and was educated by
the Christian Brothers, a Catholic religious order that Died February 24, 1999 (aged 62)
Haverhill, Massachusetts,
emphasized literature and writing. Dubus graduated
United States
from nearby McNeese State College in 1958 as a
journalism and English major. Dubus then spent six Occupation Short story writer · novelist ·
teacher
years in the Marine Corps, eventually rising to the rank
of captain. At this time he married his first wife and Period 1967–1998
started a family. After leaving the Marine Corps, Genre Literary fiction
Dubus moved with his wife and four children to Iowa
City, where he later graduated from the University of Iowa's Iowa Writers' Workshop with an MFA in
creative writing, studying under Richard Yates. The family then moved to Haverhill, Massachusetts,
where Dubus would spend the bulk of his academic career teaching literature and creative writing at
Bradford College.[3] He admired Ernest Hemingway, Anton Chekhov, and John Cheever.[4]

Personal difficulties
Dubus's life was marked by several tragedies. His daughter was raped as a young woman, causing Dubus
many years of paranoia over his loved ones' safety.[5] Dubus carried personal firearms to protect himself
and those around him, until the night in the late 1980s, when he almost shot a man who was in a drunken
argument with his son, Andre, outside a bar in Haverhill, Massachusetts.[6]

Dubus was seriously injured in a car accident on the night of July 23, 1986. He was driving from Boston
to his home in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and he stopped to assist two disabled motorists—brother and
sister Luis and Luz Santiago. As Dubus assisted the injured Luz to the side of the highway, an oncoming
car swerved and hit them. Luis was killed instantly; Luz survived because Dubus had pushed her out of
the way. Dubus was critically injured and both his legs were crushed. After a series of unsuccessful
operations, his right leg was amputated above the knee, and he eventually lost the use of his left leg.
Dubus spent three years undergoing a series of painful operations and extensive physical therapy.

To help Dubus with mounting medical bills, his friends and fellow writers Ann Beattie, E.L. Doctorow,
John Irving, Gail Godwin, Stephen King, John Updike, Kurt Vonnegut, and Richard Yates held a special
literary benefit in Boston and raised $86,000.

Despite his efforts to walk with a prosthesis, chronic infections led to him using a wheelchair for the
remainder of his life, and he battled clinical depression as a result of his condition. Over the course of
these struggles Dubus's third wife left him, taking with her their two young daughters.

Final years
Dubus eventually continued to write after his accident and produced two books of essays—including
Broken Vessels, which became a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize—and a collection of short stories. Dubus
also conducted a weekly writers' workshop in his home.

Dubus spent his later years in Haverhill, until his death from a heart attack in 1999, age 62. He is buried
in Greenwood Cemetery, near his home in Haverhill, Massachusetts.

Legacy
Andre Dubus was married three times and fathered six children. His son Andre Dubus III is also an
author; his most noted book is the novel House of Sand and Fog (1999), which was both a finalist for the
National Book Award and the basis for an Academy Award-nominated film of the same title. In 2011,
Andre Dubus III published a memoir of his life, Townie, which tells of growing up in Haverhill and deals
extensively with his relationship with his father and the impoverished conditions faced by his mother and
siblings after Dubus left the family for a student.

Dubus was the subject of an essay by Kacey Kowars entitled "A Celebration of Words," and was also
paid tribute to in Andre Dubus: Memoirs, a book edited by Kowars and featuring authors such as James
Lee Burke, Andre Dubus II, and Andre Dubus III.

Xavier Review Press has published several scholarly titles on Dubus, including a special issue of Xavier
Review (http://www.xavierreview.com/about-xavier-review-press/) on both Dubus and his son. In 2001,
the press released Andre Dubus: Tributes edited by Donald Anderson, and in 2003 Leap of the Heart:
Andre Dubus Talking (https://www.amazon.com/Leap-Heart-Andre-Dubus-Talking/dp/1883275121)
edited by Ross Gresham.

Professor Olivia Carr Edenfield edited Conversations with Andre Dubus (University Press of Mississippi,
2013) and is the author of the critical monograph Understanding Andre Dubus (University of South
Carolina Press, 2017.

Writing career
Although he did write one novel, The Lieutenant (1967), Dubus considered himself primarily a writer of
short stories and novellas. Throughout his career, he published most of his work in small, distinguished
literary journals such as Ploughshares[7] and Sewanee Review, though he also placed stories in magazines
such as The New Yorker and Playboy. Dubus remained loyal to a small publishing firm run by David R.
Godine that published his first works. When larger book publishers approached him with more lucrative
deals, Dubus stayed with Godine, switching only to Alfred A. Knopf towards the end of his career to
assist with medical bills.

Dubus's collections and novellas include: Separate Flights (1975), Adultery and Other Choices (1977),
Finding a Girl in America (1980), The Times Are Never So Bad (1983), Voices from the Moon (1984), The
Last Worthless Evening (1986), Selected Stories (1988), Broken Vessels (1991), Dancing After Hours
(1996), and Meditations from a Movable Chair (1998). Several writing awards are named after Dubus.
His papers are archived at McNeese State University and Xavier University in Louisiana and at the Harry
Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas in Austin.

Italian writer and editor Nicola Manuppelli has translated six collections of short stories and novellas by
Dubus for Italian publisher Mattioli 1885 (https://mattioli1885.com/autori/andre-dubus/): "Separate
Flights" ("Voli separati"), "The Times Are Never So Bad" ("I tempi non sono mai così cattivi"), "Voices
From The Moon" ("Voci dalla luna"), "We Don't Live Here Anymore" ("Non abitiamo più qui"), "Finding
a girl in America" ("Il padre d'inverno") "Dancing After Hours" ("Ballando a notte fonda"). For the
publication of these works, Manuppelli has included introductions or afterwords by several American
authors, including Dennis Lehane, Peter Orner, and Tobias Wolff, among others.

In 2017, work began at David R. Godine, Publishers (http://www.godine.com/) to gather together all of
the fiction Dubus released with his longtime and loyal publisher between the mid-1970s and late 1980s.
The three-volume collected short stories and novellas was conceived of by series editor Joshua Bodwell
and is made up of six of Dubus's previous books, two books per volume, plus previously uncollected
stories in volume three. The project was a thorough re-launch of the master's work: for the first time since
Dubus's stories were originally published by Godine, all of the interior pages were re-set and re-designed;
all new cover photographs were commissioned from Greta Rybus (http://www.gretarybus.com/); the
paperback originals were given handsome French flaps; and new, original introductions by Ann Beattie,
Richard Russo, and Tobias Wolff were commissioned. All three volumes were published in 2018.

Cinematic adaptations
After Dubus's death, his story "Killings" was adapted into Todd Field's In the Bedroom (2001) starring
Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson, and Marisa Tomei. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards –
Best Picture, Actor in a Leading Role (Wilkinson), Actress in a Leading Role (Spacek), Actress in a
Supporting Role (Tomei), and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Published (Robert
Festinger & Field).
The 2004 movie We Don't Live Here Anymore is based upon two of Dubus's novellas, "We Don't Live
Here Anymore" and "Adultery".[8]

Awards and honors

Fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations
L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award (for debut collection Separate Flights) (1975)
Jean Stein Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1988)
PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story (1991)
Pulitzer Prize, Finalist (for nonfiction, Broken Vessels) (1992)
Rea Award for the Short Story (1996)
National Book Critics Circle Award, Finalist (for fiction, Dancing After Hours) (1996)

Selected bibliography
The Lieutenant (Novel, 1967, Dial Press)
Separate Flights (Stories, 1975, David R. Godine, Publisher)
Adultery & Other Choices (Stories, 1977, David R. Godine, Publisher) (Reprint, David R.
Godine Publisher, 1999) ISBN 978-0-87923-284-9
Finding a Girl in America (Stories, 1980, David R. Godine, Publisher)
The Times Are Never So Bad (Stories, 1983, David R. Godine, Publisher)
Voices from the Moon (Novella, 1984, David R. Godine, Publisher)
The Last Worthless Evening (Stories, 1986, David R. Godine, Publisher)
Selected Stories (Stories, 1988, David R. Godine, Publisher) (Reprint, Vintage, 1996)
ISBN 978-0-679-76730-5
Broken Vessels (Essays, 1991, David R. Godine, Publisher) (Reprint, Vintage, 1992)
Dancing After Hours (Stories, 1996, Knopf, ISBN 978-0-679-43107-7)
Meditations from a Movable Chair (Essays, 1998, Knopf)
In the Bedroom (Stories, 2001, Vintage) (Selected and with a foreword by Todd Field)
ISBN 978-1-4000-3077-4
We Don't Live Here Anymore: Collected Short Stories & Novellas, Volume 1 (https://web.arc
hive.org/web/20180528133336/http://www.godine.com/book/fat-girl/) (Stories, 2018, David
R. Godine, Publisher) (Introduction by Ann Beattie)
The Winter Father: Collected Short Stories & Novellas, Volume 2 (http://www.godine.com/bo
ok/winter-father/) (Stories, 2018, David R. Godine, Publisher) (Introduction by Richard
Russo)
The Cross Country Runner: Collected Short Stories & Novellas, Volume 3 (http://www.godin
e.com/book/cross-country-runner/) (Stories, 2018, David R. Godine, Publisher) (Introduction
by Tobias Wolff)

Reviews
Updike, John (4 February 1985). "Books: Ungreat Lives". The New Yorker. Vol. 60, no. 51.
pp. 94–101. Review of Voices from the Moon.
Bodwell, Joshua (July–August 2008). "The Art of Reading Andre Dubus: We Don't Have to
Live Great Lives" (https://www.pw.org/content/art_reading_andre_dubus_we_don%E2%8
 0%99t_have_live_great_lives). Poets & Writers.

References
1. Dubus, Andre III. "Andre Dubus III: "What I'm working on now, I can't think about anyone
liking" " (http://www.beatrice.com/interviews/dubus/). Beatrice (Interview). Interviewed by
Ron Hogan. Retrieved March 21, 2009.
2. Masciotra, David (May 24, 2022). "JAMES LEE BURKE ON PERSONAL TRAGEDY,
NATIONAL TRAUMA, AND THE SEARCH FOR SALVATION" (https://crimereads.com/james
-lee-burke-interview-every-cloak/). Crime Reads.
3. "Andre Dubus | American author" (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andre-Dubus).
Encyclopedia Britannica. 20 February 2024.
4. Gussow, Mel (February 26, 1999). "Andre Dubus, 62, Celebrated for Short Stories" (https://
www.nytimes.com/1999/02/26/arts/andre-dubus-62-celebrated-for-short-stories.html). The
New York Times.
5. Suzanne's rape had done something to our father. Almost immediately after it, he drove to
the Haverhill police station and applied for a license to carry. Now he owned a silver snub-
nose .38 he kept unloaded in one of the desk drawers. When he went out to dinner with his
wife or friends, he carried it in a shadow holster on his belt, and he covered it with his shirt
or vest. He seemed to talk about self-defense more than I'd ever heard him talk about it
before. Source: Dubus, Andre III. Townie: A Memoir. New York: W. W. Norton & Company,
2011, page 146.
6. Dubus, Andre III, Townie: A Memoir. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011, pages 237-
248.
7. "Read By Author | Ploughshares" (https://www.pshares.org/authors/author-detail.cfm?author
ID=419). www.pshares.org.
8. "Andre Dubus" (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0239653/). IMDb.

External links
Ravin, Richard (1999-03-18). "Remembering Andre Dubus" (http://www.salon.com/1999/03/
18/remembering_andre_dubus/html). Salon.
"Symposium on Andre Dubus and Andre Dubus III" (https://web.archive.org/web/201209102
23550/http://www.anselm.edu/Academics/Majors-and-Departments/English/Symposium-on-
Andre-Dubus-and-Andre-Dubus-III.htm). Saint Anselm College. Archived from the original (h
ttp://www.anselm.edu/Academics/Majors-and-Departments/English/Symposium-on-Andre-D
ubus-and-Andre-Dubus-III.htm) on 2012-09-10. Retrieved 2011-03-23.

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