Armistead Maupin

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Maupin (left) and his husband Christopher Turner in May 2013

Armistead Maupin (born May 13, 1944 in Washington, DC ) is an American writer .

Life

Armistead Maupin studied English at the University of North Carolina and worked as a reporter and for a news agency . He currently lives in London .

Maupin became known for his city ​​stories ("Tales of the City"), which first appeared from 1974 as sequels in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Pacific Sun and were published from 1978 as a (previously nine-volume) series of novels.

Other works by Maupin in addition to the city stories are "The Night Listener" and "Maybe the Moon".

Works

Armistead Maupin (1994)

City stories cycle

  • Tales of the City . 1978 (German: Stadtgeschichten 1993)
  • More Tales of the City . 1980 (German: Mehr Stadtgeschichten 1993)
  • Further Tales of the City . 1982 (German: Even more city stories 1993)
  • Babycakes . 1984 (German: Tollivers Reisen 1993)
  • Significant Others . 1987 (German: Am Busen der Natur 1993)
  • Sure of You . 1989 (German: End with Lustig 1994)
  • Michael Tolliver Lives . 2007 (German: Michael Tolliver lives. The latest city stories 2008)
  • Mary Ann in Autumn . 2010 (German: Mary Ann in autumn 2012)
  • The Days of Anna Madrigal . 2014 (German: The Days of Anna Madrigal 2017)

The focus of the nine-volume novel series is a house on Barbary Lane in San Francisco . The landlady Anna Madrigal takes care of the tenants like her own children. In addition to the gay Michael Tolliver who live esoterically inspired Mona Ramsey , from Cleveland ( Ohio native) Mary Ann Singleton and the waiter Brian Hawkins in her home. Each of the residents is on the search for great happiness.

While Michael wants to find the man of his life, Mary-Ann pursues her ambitious professional goals. Brian and Mona are also looking to make their life dreams come true. The fates of the many characters are closely linked, and the episodes of the city stories often take surprising turns. Maupin does not even stop at taboo topics in his novels - for example, the cult acts of a cannibal sect appear.

The plot spans more than two decades. The individual stories are a kind of reflection of American society from the 1970s to the 1980s , as there are also contemporary historical topics such as Anita Bryant's campaigns against gender equality , the outbreak of AIDS or the mass suicide in Jonestown ( Guyana ) were integrated into the plot. The first three novels were filmed in a mini-series with Laura Linney as Mary-Ann and Olympia Dukakis in the role of Mrs. Madrigal for television .

Based on the books, Stadtgeschichten (1993) and their continuations, and most recently Stadtgeschichten (2019) , resulted in several mini-series.

More novels

  • Maybe the moon . 1992 (German: Die Kleine )
  • The Night Listener . 2000 (German: Der Nachtliche Lauscher 2002)

“The Night Listener” is about the writer Gabriel Noone, who reads his stories on the radio at night. One day he received a letter from a seriously ill fan - it was a little boy who, with the help of the nightly radio broadcasts, was able to escape his suffering a little. When a friendship develops between the two over the phone, the writer doubts the boy’s authenticity more and more and finally goes in search of the mysterious voice. In 2006 the novel was filmed under the same title; The director is Patrick Stettner , with Robin Williams in the lead role . The German film title is The Night Listener .

"Maybe the Moon" is about the short actress Cadence Roth, who played the role of the forest gnome Mr. Woods in a Hollywood film. With gallows humor and self-irony, Maupin lets his heroine report in her diary the difficulties and absurdities a dwarf in Hollywood has to struggle with. The heroine of the novel really existed. Her name was Tamara De Treaux and she played the alien ET in Steven Spielberg 's film of the same name.

Autobiography

documentation

  • The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin (USA 2017) - 90-minute documentary by Jennifer M. Kroot about the life and work of Armistead Maupin

Web links

Commons : Armistead Maupin  - Collection of Images
personal data
SURNAME Maupin, Armistead
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Washington, DC