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| William McPherson | |
|---|---|
| Name | William McPherson |
| Birth date | 1933-11-05 |
| Birth place | United States |
| Death date | 2017-10-31 |
| Occupation | Writer, Journalist, Critic |
| Notable works | Testing the Current, To the Victor, Eminent Domains |
| Awards | Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism |
William McPherson was an American writer and journalist known for his work as a book and arts critic and for his novels and essays. He gained national prominence through cultural criticism in major newspapers and later published fiction and memoir that examined American life, social institutions, and personal decline. His career bridged newspaper criticism, literary fiction, and candid nonfiction, influencing readers and writers in circles connected to journalism and literature.
McPherson was born in 1933 and raised in the United States during a period shaped by the Great Depression and World War II, contexts that informed generations including figures such as John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and contemporaries in American letters. He attended institutions associated with postwar American higher education and literary study, environments linked to alumni networks of universities like Columbia University, Harvard University, Yale University, and Princeton University, where many mid-20th-century writers trained. During his formative years he encountered influences comparable to those of writers and critics such as Vladimir Nabokov, T. S. Eliot, Edmund Wilson, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., and reviewers in outlets like The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Review of Books.
McPherson built a career as a journalist and critic at major newspapers and cultural outlets, working in environments alongside institutions such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and magazine offices resembling Time (magazine), Newsweek, and Harper's Magazine. His criticism covered literature, theater, and the arts, areas also scrutinized by critics like Harold Bloom, Christopher Hitchens, Susan Sontag, Martha Nussbaum, and reviewers in newspapers such as The Boston Globe and The Chicago Tribune. As a staff critic he reviewed books and performances by authors and playwrights including Philip Roth, Toni Morrison, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, and commentators such as Norman Mailer and Truman Capote. His journalism placed him in editorial and newsroom contexts akin to those of Ben Bradlee, Ralph McGill, A. J. Liebling, and editors at publications like The Saturday Evening Post and The New Republic.
McPherson's fiction and nonfiction explored themes familiar to readers of American novels and memoirs; he published novels, short essays, and book-length accounts that intersect with works by writers such as John Updike, Philip Roth, Joyce Carol Oates, Richard Yates, and Saul Bellow. His novel Testing the Current and subsequent books engaged character studies and social observation comparable to narratives found in The Catcher in the Rye-era discourse and later realist novels. His essays and memoir pieces conversed with literary traditions practiced by James Baldwin, D. H. Lawrence, William Faulkner, and essayists in periodicals like The Nation and Commentary. He also addressed civic institutions and urban life themes treated by novelists such as Don DeLillo, Norman Rush, Philip K. Dick, and chroniclers of American cities like Jane Jacobs and Lewis Mumford.
During his career McPherson received professional honors that placed him among recipients and nominees associated with major American literary and journalism prizes, linking him in cultural memory to laureates of the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and critics recognized by organizations like the National Book Critics Circle. His critical work earned peer recognition comparable to that given to critics and columnists who later received Pulitzer Prizes, connecting him by reputation to names such as Garry Wills, Richard Eder, Albert Murray, and commentators honored by institutions like the Library of Congress and the MacArthur Fellowship selection committees.
In later life McPherson continued to publish and reflect on the practices of criticism, fiction, and civic observation, maintaining connections with literary communities centered in cities like New York City, Washington, D.C., Boston, and Los Angeles. His career trajectory—moving from newspaper desks to book-length memoir and fiction—mirrors transitions by cultural figures and journalists who engaged institutions including Columbia Journalism School, Iowa Writers' Workshop, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and writing programs at universities such as Brown University and Stanford University. His death in 2017 prompted obituaries and remembrances in outlets similar to The New York Times, The Washington Post, and literary journals that celebrate careers of critics and novelists. McPherson's published works continue to be read alongside those of American novelists and critics, influencing discussions in seminars on twentieth- and twenty-first-century literature and appearing in collections and curricula alongside authors like Saul Bellow, Toni Morrison, Philip Roth, John Updike, and essayists such as Joan Didion.
Category:American novelists Category:American journalists Category:1933 births Category:2017 deaths