Donald Harington (writer)

Not to be confused with Donald Harrington.

Donald Harington
Born	(1935-12-22)December 22, 1935 Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
Died	November 7, 2009(2009-11-07) (aged 73) Springdale, Arkansas, USA
Language	English
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Arkansas Boston University

Donald Douglas Harington (December 22, 1935 – November 7, 2009) was an American author. All but the first of his novels either take place in or have an important connection to "Stay More," a fictional Ozark Mountains town based somewhat on Drakes Creek, Arkansas, where Harington spent summers as a child.

Harington was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. He lost nearly all of his hearing at age 12 due to meningitis. This did not prevent him from picking up and remembering the vocabulary and modes of expression among the Ozark denizens, nor in conducting his teaching career as an adult.

Though he intended to be a novelist from a very early age, his course of study and his teaching career were in art and art history. He taught art history in New York, New England, and South Dakota before returning to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, his alma mater, where he taught for 22 years before his retirement on May 1, 2008. There is a documentary on Donald Harrington call, Stay Moore: The World of Donald Harrington that was filmed by Dr. Brian Walter. Entertainment Weekly called him "America's greatest unknown writer." The novelist and critic Fred Chappell said of him "Donald Harington isn't an unknown writer. He's an undiscovered continent." Novelist James Sallis, writing in the Boston Globe: "Harington's books are of a piece -- the quirkiest, most original body of work in contemporary U.S. letters."

Harington died of pneumonia, after a long illness, in Springdale on November 7, 2009.

His novels are available from The Toby Press in a uniform edition, with cover illustrations by Wendell Minor.

Novels

• Enduring (2009)
• Farther Along (2008)
• The Pitcher Shower (2005)
• With (2004)
• Thirteen Albatrosses (or, Falling off the Mountain) (2002)
• When Angels Rest (1998)
• Butterfly Weed (1996)
• Ekaterina (1993)
• The Choiring of the Trees (1991)
• The Cockroaches of Stay More (1989)
• The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks (1975)
• Some Other Place. The Right Place. (2003), adapted into the film Return in 1985
• The Cherry Pit (1965)
• Lightning Bug (1987)

Nonfiction

• On a Clear Day: The Paintings of George Dombek, 1975-1994 (1995)
• Let Us Build Us a City: Eleven Lost Towns (1986)

Awards

• Oxford American Lifetime Award for Contributions to Southern Literature, 2006
• Robert Penn Warren Award for Fiction, 2003
• Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame, 1996
• Porter Prize for Literary Excellence, 1987

External links

• Author-endorsed Website (not currently maintained)
• Biography and interview by Edwin T. (Chip) Arnold
• Biographical article at the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture
• "America's Undiscovered Continent" — article on his life and work
• "Wry Stories and Word Music" — article on themes, techniques, and cultural background
• "Donald Harington, Ozark Surrealist, Dies at 73" -- NY Times obituary
• "Donald Harington obituary" -- From the Guardian