John Irving Popular Books

John Irving Biography & Facts

John Winslow Irving (born John Wallace Blunt Jr.; March 2, 1942) is an American-Canadian novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of The World According to Garp in 1978. Many of Irving's novels, including The Hotel New Hampshire (1981), The Cider House Rules (1985), A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989), and A Widow for One Year (1998), have been bestsellers. He won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 72nd Academy Awards (1999) for his script of The Cider House Rules.Five of his novels have been adapted into films (Garp, Hotel New Hampshire, Owen Meany, Cider House, and Widow for One Year). Several of Irving's books and short stories have been set in and around New England, in fictional towns resembling Exeter, New Hampshire. Early life Irving was born John Wallace Blunt Jr. in Exeter, New Hampshire, the son of Helen Frances (née Winslow) and John Wallace Blunt Sr., a writer and executive recruiter; the couple separated during pregnancy. Irving was raised by his mother and stepfather, Colin Franklin Newell Irving, who was a Phillips Exeter Academy faculty member. His uncle Hammy Bissell was also part of the faculty. John Irving was in the Phillips Exeter wrestling program as a student athlete and as an assistant coach, and wrestling features prominently in his books, stories, and life. While a student at Exeter, Irving was taught by author and Christian theologian Frederick Buechner, whom he quoted in an epigraph in A Prayer for Owen Meany. Irving has dyslexia.Irving never met his biological father, who was a pilot in the Army Air Forces during World War II. In July 1943, John Blunt Sr. was shot down over Burma but survived. The incident was incorporated into The Cider House Rules. Irving did not find out about his father's heroism until 1981, when he was almost 40 years old. Career Irving's career began at the age of 26 with the publication of his first novel, Setting Free the Bears (1968). The novel was reasonably well reviewed but failed to gain a large readership. In the late 1960s, he studied with Kurt Vonnegut at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. His second and third novels, The Water-Method Man (1972) and The 158-Pound Marriage (1974), were similarly received. In 1975, Irving accepted a position as assistant professor of English at Mount Holyoke College.Frustrated at the lack of promotion his novels were receiving from his first publisher, Random House, Irving offered his fourth novel, The World According to Garp (1978), to Dutton, which promised him stronger commitment to marketing. The novel became an international bestseller and cultural phenomenon. It was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction in 1979 (which ultimately went to Tim O'Brien for Going After Cacciato) and its first paperback edition won the Award the next year. Garp was later made into a film directed by George Roy Hill, starring Robin Williams in the title role and Glenn Close as his mother; it garnered several Academy Award nominations, including nominations for Close and John Lithgow. Irving makes a brief cameo appearance in the film as the referee in one of Garp's high school wrestling matches. The World According to Garp was among three books recommended to the Pulitzer Advisory Board for consideration for the 1979 Award in Fiction in the Pulitzer Jury Committee report, although the award was given to The Stories of John Cheever (1978).Garp transformed Irving from an obscure literary writer to a household name, and his subsequent books were bestsellers. The next was The Hotel New Hampshire (1981), which sold well despite mixed reviews from critics. Like Garp, the novel was quickly made into a film, this time directed by Tony Richardson and starring Jodie Foster, Rob Lowe, and Beau Bridges. "Interior Space", a short story originally published in Fiction magazine in 1980, was selected for the 1981 O. Henry Prize Stories collection.In 1985, Irving published The Cider House Rules. An epic set in a Maine orphanage, the novel's central topic is abortion. Many drew parallels between the novel and Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist (1838). Irving's next novel was A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989), another New England family epic about religion set in a New England boarding school and in Toronto, Ontario. The novel was influenced by The Tin Drum (1959) by Günter Grass, and the plot contains further allusions to The Scarlet Letter (1850) by Nathaniel Hawthorne and the works of Dickens. In Owen Meany, Irving for the first time examined the consequences of the Vietnam War—particularly mandatory conscription, which Irving avoided because he was a married father when of age for the draft. Owen Meany became Irving's best selling book since Garp. Irving returned to Random House for his next book, A Son of the Circus (1995). Arguably his most complicated and difficult book, and a departure from the themes and settings of his previous novels, it received ambivalent reviews by American critics but became a national and international bestseller on the strength of Irving's reputation for fashioning literate, engrossing page-turners. Irving returned in 1998 with A Widow for One Year, which was named a New York Times Notable Book.In 1999, after nearly 10 years in development, Irving's screenplay for The Cider House Rules was made into a film directed by Lasse Hallström, starring Michael Caine, Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron, and Delroy Lindo. Irving also made a cameo appearance as a disapproving stationmaster. The film was nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and earned Irving an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.Irving wrote My Movie Business, a memoir about his involvement in creating the film version of The Cider House Rules. After its publication in 1999, he appeared on the CBC Television program Hot Type to promote the book. During the interview, he was asked about author Tom Wolfe "once again" proclaiming the death of the modern novel. Irving responded, "I don't read Tom Wolfe, so I didn't hear what he said." The episode then cut to a photo of Wolfe, and Irving elaborating that Wolfe "can't write" and his writing made Irving gag. When asked about his statements subsequently, Irving has said he believed the Hot Type interview was over and he was speaking off the record, and that footage from the interview had been manipulated. Wolfe appeared on Hot Type later in 1999, calling Irving, Norman Mailer, and John Updike his "three stooges" who were panicked by his newest novel, A Man in Full (1998). Irving's 10th book, The Fourth Hand (2001), also became a bestseller. In 2004, A Sound Like Someone Trying Not to Make a Sound, a children's picture book originally included in A Widow for One Year, was published with illustrations by Tatjana Hauptmann. Irving's 11th novel, Until I Find You, was released on July 12, 2005. On June 28, 2005, The New York Times published an arti.... Discover the John Irving popular books. Find the top 100 most popular John Irving books.

Best Seller John Irving Books of 2024

  • Captain Cook synopsis, comments

    Captain Cook

    Vanessa Collingridge

    A uniquely woven story encompassing three separate centuries and three different lives. Captain Cook, best known for his heroic voyages through the Pacific Ocean, is brought to lif...

  • The Guest List synopsis, comments

    The Guest List

    Ethan Mordden

    From the 1920s to the early 1960s, Manhattan was America's beacon of sophistication. From the theatres of Broadway to the lobby of the Algonquin Hotel to tables at the Stork Club, ...

  • The World According to Garp synopsis, comments

    The World According to Garp

    John Irving

    Now available as an ebook for the first time ever in America, the bestselling comingofage classic novel by John Irvingthe 40th anniversary edition with a new introduction by the au...

  • John Buford Irving, III v. State of Mississippi synopsis, comments

    John Buford Irving, III v. State of Mississippi

    Supreme Court of Mississippi

    John Buford Irving, III was indicted for capital murder in the Circuit Court of Pontotoc County. He was given a bifurcated trial following the guidelines set forth in Jackson v. St...

  • The Hotel New Hampshire synopsis, comments

    The Hotel New Hampshire

    John Irving

    Now available in eBook for the first time in Americathe New York Times bestselling saga of a most unusual family from the awardwinning author of The World According to Garp.“The fi...

  • The 158-Pound Marriage synopsis, comments

    The 158-Pound Marriage

    John Irving

    “Irving looks cunningly beyond the eyecatching gyrations of the mating dance to the morningafter implications.”The Washington Post The darker vision and sexual ambiguities of this ...

  • The Romance of Mary W. Shelley, John Howard Payne and Washington Irving synopsis, comments

    The Romance of Mary W. Shelley, John Howard Payne and Washington Irving

    Washington Irving

    After the death of her husband in 1822, Mary Shelley became acquainted with authors John Howard Payne and Washington Irving. Payne proposed to Shelley in 1826, but she refused. Thi...

  • American Lit 101 synopsis, comments

    American Lit 101

    Brianne Keith

    From poetry to fiction to essays, American Lit 101 leaves no page unturned! Edgar Allan Poe. Willa Cather. Henry David Thoreau. Mark Twain. The list of important American writers g...

  • Making History synopsis, comments

    Making History

    Richard Cohen

    A “supremely entertaining” (The New Yorker) exploration of who gets to record the world’s historyfrom Julius Caesar to William Shakespeare to Ken Burnsand how their biases influenc...

  • The Last Tycoon synopsis, comments

    The Last Tycoon

    F. Scott Fitzgerald

    With a new introduction by bestselling and iconic novelist Haruki MurakamiThis edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s final unfinished novel is now restored to the original 1941 text, wi...

  • Choice Cuts synopsis, comments

    Choice Cuts

    Mark Kurlansky

    “Every once in awhile a writer of particular skills takes a fresh, seemingly improbable idea and turns out a book of pure delight.” That’s how David McCullough described Mark Kurla...

  • Creepy Crawling synopsis, comments

    Creepy Crawling

    Jeffrey Melnick

    "Creepy crawling" was the Manson Family's practice of secretly entering someone's home and, without harming anyone, leaving only a trace of evidence that they had been there, some ...

  • The Fourth Hand synopsis, comments

    The Fourth Hand

    John Irving

    The Fourth Hand asks an interesting question: “How can anyone identify a dream of the future?” The answer: “Destiny is not imaginable, except in dreams or to those in love.”While r...

  • The Romance of Mary W. Shelley, John Howard Payne and Washington Irving synopsis, comments

    The Romance of Mary W. Shelley, John Howard Payne and Washington Irving

    Franklin Benjamin Sanborn

    This 1907 volume offers a collection of letters referencing the love triangle of Shelley, Payne, and Irving.

  • The B Side synopsis, comments

    The B Side

    Ben Yagoda

    From an acclaimed cultural critic, a narrative and social history of the Great American Songwriting era. Everybody knows and loves the American Songbook. But it’s a bit less w...

  • A Cosmology of Monsters synopsis, comments

    A Cosmology of Monsters

    Shaun Hamill

    "If John Irving ever wrote a horror novel, it would be something like this. I loved it.” Stephen KingNoah Turner sees monsters.His father saw themand built a shrine to them wi...

  • Setting Free the Bears synopsis, comments

    Setting Free the Bears

    John Irving

    “Truly remarkable . . . encompasses the longings and agonies of youth . . . a complex and moving novel.”Time“Astonishing . . . a writer of uncommon imaginative power. Whatever [Joh...

  • A Son of the Circus synopsis, comments

    A Son of the Circus

    John Irving

    A Hindi film star, an American missionary, a pair of twins separated at birth, a diminutive chauffeur, and a serial killer collide in a riotous novel by the author of The World Acc...

  • The Last Tycoon synopsis, comments

    The Last Tycoon

    F. Scott Fitzgerald

    With a new introduction by bestselling and iconic novelist Haruki MurakamiThis edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s final unfinished novel is now restored to the original 1941 text, wi...

  • The Imaginary Girlfriend synopsis, comments

    The Imaginary Girlfriend

    John Irving

    “The nearest thing to an autobiography Irving has written . . . worth saving and savoring."Seattle Times Dedicated to the memory of two wrestling coaches and two writer friends, Th...

  • The Conservative Mind synopsis, comments

    The Conservative Mind

    Russell Kirk

    "It is inconceivable even to imagine, let alone hope for, a dominant conservative movement in America without Kirk's labor."  WILLIAM F BUCKLEY "A profound critique of co...

  • The Sweetest Days synopsis, comments

    The Sweetest Days

    John Hough

    A riveting and poignant portrait of marriagelauded by New York Times bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand as “gorgeous and heartbreaking”that explores the long union of a middleaged...

  • Liveforever synopsis, comments

    Liveforever

    Andres Caicedo

    Andrés Caicedo's novel Liveforever is a wild celebration of youth, hedonism and the transforming power of music.María del Carmen Huerta lives a respectable middleclass life in Colo...

  • The Colony of Unrequited Dreams synopsis, comments

    The Colony of Unrequited Dreams

    Wayne Johnston

    A mystery and a love story spanning five decades, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams is an epic portrait of passion and ambition, set against the beautiful, brutal landscape of Newfo...

  • Daybreak synopsis, comments

    Daybreak

    Matt Gallagher

    A disillusioned American veteran volunteers for the war in Ukraine to reconnect with a woman from his past in this timely and powerful novel from a “vital” (The Washington Post) vo...

  • The World As We Know It synopsis, comments

    The World As We Know It

    Joseph Monninger

    Critically acclaimed author Joseph Monninger has penned a subtle and heartrending love story of friendship, nature, and the surprising twists that can alter our destinies forever. ...

  • Goodnight Sweetheart synopsis, comments

    Goodnight Sweetheart

    Charlotte Bingham

    Exciting and dramatic but tender and heartfelt; this is a novel that you will return to again and again. From the million copy and Sunday Times bestselling author Charlotte Bingham...

  • The Enchanted synopsis, comments

    The Enchanted

    Charlotte Bingham

    Exciting and dramatic but tender and heartfelt; this is a novel that you will return to again and again. From the million copy and Sunday Times bestselling author Charlotte Bingham...

  • The Last Chairlift synopsis, comments

    The Last Chairlift

    John Irving

    John Irving’s fifteenth novel is “powerfully cinematic” (The Washington Post) and “eminently readable” (The Boston Globe). The Last Chairlift is part ghost story, part love story, ...

  • The Love Knot synopsis, comments

    The Love Knot

    Charlotte Bingham

    Three friends make their mark on the world in this captivating and moving saga. From the million copy and Sunday Times bestselling author Charlotte Bingham, for fans of Louise Doug...

  • John Irving and Cultural Mourning synopsis, comments

    John Irving and Cultural Mourning

    Bouchra Belgaid

    John Irving and Cultural Mourning offers a chronological survey of his eleven novels, examining his prose via thematically focused chapters on postmodernism, the sixties, fatherhoo...

  • Three Men and a Maybe synopsis, comments

    Three Men and a Maybe

    Debbie Carbin

    Beth Sheridan likes her life the way it is. OK, so her job's a little dull and her social life leaves a lot to be desired. But none of that really matters because Beth is in love w...

  • Hooking Up synopsis, comments

    Hooking Up

    Tom Wolfe

    Only yesterday boys and girls spoke of embracing and kissing (necking) as getting to first base. Second base was deep kissing, plus groping and fondling this and that. Third base...

  • The Half Brother synopsis, comments

    The Half Brother

    Lars Saabye Christensen & Kenneth Steven

    At the end of World War II, twentyyearold Vera is brutally raped by an unknown assailant. From that rape is born a boy named Fred, a misfit who later becomes a talented boxer. Vera...

  • Avenue of Mysteries synopsis, comments

    Avenue of Mysteries

    John Irving

    John Irving returns to the themes that established him as one of our most admired and beloved authors in this absorbing novel of fate and memory.In Avenue of Mysteries, Juan Diegoa...

  • Classic Tales of Horror synopsis, comments

    Classic Tales of Horror

    Editors of Canterbury Classics & Ernest Hilbert

    Spinetingling tales that will keep you on the edge of your seat!This chilling collection of scary stories will keep you awake for hours! Psychological horrors, disturbing dramas, a...

  • Nights of Plague synopsis, comments

    Nights of Plague

    Orhan Pamuk & Ekin Oklap

    From the the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature: Part detective story, part historical epica bold and brilliant novel that imagines a plague ravaging a fictional island in the...

  • A Widow for One Year synopsis, comments

    A Widow for One Year

    John Irving

    “A Widow For One Year will appeal to readers  who like oldfashioned storytelling mixed with modern sensitivities. . . . Irving is among the few novelists who can wri...

  • The Water-Method Man synopsis, comments

    The Water-Method Man

    John Irving

    “John Irving, it is abundantly clear, is a true artist.”Los Angeles TimesFred "Bogus" Trumper has troubles. A divorced, broke graduate student of Old Norse in 1970s New York, ...

  • Last Night in Twisted River synopsis, comments

    Last Night in Twisted River

    John Irving

    In 1954, in the cookhouse of a logging and sawmill settlement in northern New Hampshire, an anxious twelveyearold boy mistakes the local constable’s girlfriend for a bear. Both the...

  • State Minnesota v. John Irving Pettee synopsis, comments

    State Minnesota v. John Irving Pettee

    Court of Appeals of North Carolina

    When a trial court dismisses an indictment for a curable defect, pursuant to Minn. R. Crim. P. 17.06, subd. 4(3), the state may continue the prosecution by filing a complaint withi...

  • How the Scots Made America synopsis, comments

    How the Scots Made America

    Michael Fry

    Ever since they first set foot in the new world alongside the Viking explorers, the Scots have left their mark. In this entertaining and informative book, historian Michael Fry sho...