Donald Barthelme was studying journalism and working at the Houston Post when he was drafted into the Korean War. He arrived in Korea for his tour-of-duty the day the cease fire was signed. When he returned to school he began studying philosophy instead and then eventually gave up on university entirely, never getting a degree. He eventually went on to direct the Contemporary Art Museum here in Houston (beginning the same year he published his first short story) and eventually co-founded the University of Houston Creative Writing Program, a program in which way too many of my closest friends have studied and still study.
I adore a writer who can scare me in the way he can. He also makes me feel as if my hands might explode with sensation. I want to eat the pages whole sometimes, when I'm in the right mood and when the story's the right story. I used to fantasize about editing a book of short stories. Off the top of my head I can name two which would necessarily have to be included, and I've only read half of his Sixty Stories. (I'm savoring it.) But don't ask me to write a book report or two sentence summary of anything he's ever written. It's impossible. I like that.
