Andre Dubus

Abstract

Contemporary writer Andre Dubus (b. 1936–d. 1999) published two novels, six collections of short stories / novellas, and two collections of essays during his lifetime. He was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where perhaps the fondness he felt for his two older sisters coupled with the close relationship he maintained with his mother, Katherine (Burke) Dubus, contributed to his ability to write so well from a female perspective. He graduated from the Christian Brothers High School in Lafayette, Louisiana, then earned his BA in English and journalism from McNeese State College, where he wrote a weekly column for the campus newspaper, in which he gave his opinions on a wide variety of current events. In 1958, after he graduated, he married Patricia (Pat) Lowe and, hoping to please his detached father, accepted a commission as a lieutenant in the US Marines. When Andre Sr. died in 1963, his son resigned to pursue his master of fine arts (MFA) degree at the University of Iowa, where he became friends with Richard Yates, Kurt Vonnegut, and others who would influence him both professionally and personally. In 1966, he moved with his wife and four children to teach at Bradford College in Haverhill, Massachusetts, where he remained on the faculty until his retirement in 1984. Though Dubus would be the first at Iowa to receive a contract for a novel while still in graduate school, it would be his short stories that would secure his critical reputation. Dubus’s successful career was complicated by three divorces, the last of which brought an end to his eight-year marriage to writer Peggy Rambach, with whom he had two daughters. The couple separated a year and a half after tragedy occurred along I-93 just after midnight on 23 July 1986, in Wilmington, Massachusetts. Dubus had stopped to aid two stranded motorists and was struck by a car. The accident left him crippled and in constant pain. As he adjusted to the frustrating disability that robbed him of his physical energy and temporarily stole his ability to write fiction, he found peace in the rituals of family and faith and rediscovered his voice in essay writing. On 24 February 1999, Andre Dubus died of heart failure at his home in Haverhill. Though he lived and worked for the majority of his life around the mill towns of Massachusetts, his upbringing in the bayous of Louisiana and his deep Catholic faith had the greatest influence on his writing. With the exception of the limited edition of Land Where My Fathers Died (1985) and the novels The Lieutenant (1967) and Voices from the Moon (1984), which are available as e-books, all of Dubus’s collections remain in print. His story “Killings” (1979) is popular in anthologies. He has had two screenplays adapted from his work, In the Bedroom (2001) and We Don’t Live Here Anymore (2004).