Thomas Eugene "Tom" Robbins (born July 22, 1936) is an American author. His novels are abstract, often wild stories with strong social undercurrents, a satirical bent, and obscure details. He is probably best known for his novel Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1976), which was made into a movie in 1993 directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Uma Thurman and Keanu Reeves.
Background
Robbins was born in Blowing Rock, North Carolina to George Thomas Robbins and Katherine Ann Robinson. He has three younger sisters and both of his grandfathers were Southern Baptist preachers. Robbins lived with his family in Blowing Rock before they settled in Warsaw, Virginia in 1947. Robbins studied journalism at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia in 1952, however left after he was ousted from his fraternity for discipline problems. In 1954 he enlisted in the Air Force after receiving his draft notice and spent two years as a meteorologist in Korea until being discharged in 1956. After he was discharged, Robbins returned to civilian life in Richmond, Virginia, and spent time with local painters. In 1957, Robbins entered art school at Richmond Professional Institute, which later became Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), and was the editor of the campus newspaper as well as a copy editor for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
He spent the following year hitchhiking, finally settling in New York as a poet.
In 1961, he moved to San Francisco, and then to Portland. In 1962, he moved to Seattle to seek a Masters degree at the School of Far Eastern Studies of the University of Washington. Over the next 5 years in Seattle, he worked for Seattle Post-Intelligencer, first as a sports reporter, and later as an arts reviewer. In 1966, he published a column on the arts in Seattle magazine. Also during this time, he hosted a weekly radio show at Seattle non-commercial KRAB-FM. It was in 1967 that he went to a concert by the rock band, The Doors, which Robbins considers a life-changing experience, and a catalyst for his decision to move to La Conner, Washington, and write his first book.
In 1969, Robbins moved to La Conner, where he married for the third time, to Terri. It was at the little house on 2nd Street that he has written all of his books till the present. While moving in the late-1980's to a farm property outside Burlington, Washington for one year, and moving in the mid-1990's to a house on the end of Pull-And-Be-Damned Road on the Swinomish Reservation where he lived for 5 years, he now resides at a remodeled and expanded home incorporating the original house in La Conner.
Personal life
He was a friend of Terence McKenna, whose influence is evident in several of his books. A main character (Larry Diamond) in Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas advocates a theory similar to those of McKenna, involving Psilocybin. In addition, there are striking parallels between one of the main characters of Jitterbug Perfume (Wiggs Dannyboy) and McKenna. He is also an admirer of Indian mystic Osho.[1] He is also on the advisory board of the Marijuana Policy Project. For several years, Robbins participated in the Spam Sculpturing Competition as a judge.
He was a friend of Timothy Leary, and was at Leary's bedside for his death.
He is friends with Robert Altman and Gus Van Sant, and has been an extra in several movies.
He won the Golden Umbrella award at the Bumbershoot Seattle arts festival in 1997.
Robbins has three sons named Rip (1954), Kirk (1957), and Fleetwood Star (1970). He is married to his fifth wife, Alexa D'Avalon and has lived in or near La Conner, Washington since 1970.
Partial bibliography
Robbins has written eight novels, and one collection, since 1971. He has also written numerous short stories and essays.[2]
References
Further reading
- Hoyser, Catherine (1997). Tom Robbins: A Critical Companion. Westport: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313294186.
- Siegel, Mark (1980). Tom Robbins. Boise: Boise State University. ISBN 0884300668. available online
- Gabel, Shainee (1997). Anthem: An American Road Story. New York: Avon books. ISBN 0380974193.
- Whitmer, Peter (2000). Aquarius Revisited: Seven Who Created the Sixties Counterculture That Changed America. New York: Citadel. ISBN 0806512229.
External links
- Interviews and articles
