https://noumenapedia.net/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Steven_MillhauserSteven Millhauser - Revision history2026-10-28T09:41:43ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.44.0https://noumenapedia.net/index.php?title=Steven_Millhauser&diff=1139&oldid=prevDeleatur yhe: Created page without categories2026-09-03T03:53:38Z<p>Created page without categories</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{short description|American novelist and short story writer (born 1943)}}<br />
{{Infobox writer<br />
| name = Steven Millhauser<br />
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1943|8|3}}<br />
| birth_place = [[New York City]], U.S.<br />
| death_date = <br />
| death_place = <br />
| occupation = [[Novelist]], [[short story|short story writer]]<br />
| education = [[Columbia University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br>[[Brown University]]<br />
| awards = [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]] (1997)<br>[[The Story Prize]] (2012)<br />
| notable_works = ''[[Martin Dressler]]''<br />
}}<br />
'''Steven Millhauser''' (born August 3, 1943) is an American [[novelist]] and [[short story]] writer. He won the 1997 [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]] for his novel ''[[Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer|Martin Dressler]]''.<br />
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==Life and career==<br />
{{quote box|width=30em|bgcolor=cornsilk|fontsize=100%|salign=center|quote="I continue to be drawn to short forms, for many reasons. I like concentrated effects, of the kind invited by short forms; I like intensity, sharp focus, heightened attention; I like the way something small can expand into something large. None of this should suggest hostility to the novel. What I dislike is the assumption that stories or novellas are by nature slight or unimportant, because of their shortness. I resist the idea that a writer is supposed to begin with stories and then work his way up to the real thing—a novel. It’s like saying that paintings become more and more important as they grow in size…”—Steven Millhauser, 2009/2010 interview with critic Andrzej Gabinski}}<br />
Millhauser was born in [[New York City]], grew up in [[Connecticut]], and earned a B.A. from [[Columbia University]] in 1965. He then pursued a [[doctorate]] in English at [[Brown University]]. He never completed his [[dissertation]] but wrote parts of ''[[Edwin Mullhouse]]'' and ''[[From the Realm of Morpheus]]'' (1986) in two separate stays at Brown. Between times at the university, he wrote ''Portrait of a Romantic'' at his parents' house in Connecticut in 1971–1976.<ref>Ingersoll, 2014 p. 3</ref> His story "The Invention of Robert Herendeen" (in ''The Barnum Museum'') features a failed student who has moved back in with his parents; the story is loosely based on this period of Millhauser's life.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/millhsr.html|title=Steven Millhauser|publisher=New York State Writers Institute, SUNY|access-date=2007-09-01 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070418002513/http://albany.edu/writers-inst/millhsr.html |archive-date = 2007-04-18}}</ref><br />
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Until the Pulitzer Prize, Millhauser was best known for his 1972 debut novel, ''Edwin Mullhouse''. This novel, about a precocious writer whose career ends abruptly with his death at age eleven, features the fictional Jeffrey Cartwright playing [[James Boswell|Boswell]] to Edwin's [[Samuel Johnson|Johnson]]. ''Edwin Mullhouse'' brought critical acclaim, and Millhauser followed with a second novel, ''Portrait of a Romantic'', in 1977, and his first collection of short stories, ''[[In The Penny Arcade]]'', in 1986.<ref>Ingersoll, 2014 p. 241: Selected Bibliography</ref><br />
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Millhauser's first published story, “[[The New Automaton Theater]],” (1981) was not collected until 1999 in ''[[The Knife Thrower and Other Stories]]''.<ref>Ingersoll, 2014 p. 4: Millhauser’s “first published story…”And: p. 89: The story was “omitted from [[In the Penny Arcade (collection)|In the Penny Arcade]] (1986) because [the story] ‘August Eschenburg’ [also] focused on automaton-making.”</ref><br />
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Perhaps the most well-known of his short stories is "[[Eisenheim the Illusionist (short story)|Eisenheim the Illusionist]]" (published in ''[[The Barnum Museum]]''), based on a pseudo-mythical tale of a magician who stunned audiences in Vienna in the latter part of the 19th century. It was made into the film ''[[The Illusionist (2006 film)|The Illusionist]]'' (2006).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://emol.org/film/archives/illusionist/productionnotes.html|title=The Illusionist: Movie Production Notes|publisher=Entertainment Magazine|year=2006|access-date=2007-09-01}}</ref> The story is ranked by ''[[The Best American Short Stories]]'' for 1990 and was short-listed for the Best American Short Stories of the [20th] century by editors [[Katrina Kenison]] and [[John Updike]].<ref>Updike and Kenison, 1999 p. Xvi: Introduction. And p. 821: Index of Best American Short Stories, 1915-1999</ref><ref>Ingersoll, 2014 p. 64: “...one of Millhauser’s finest stories.” And p. 134n 3: “Millhauser’s interest n magicians [reaches] its fullest expression in ‘Eisenheim the Illusionist,’ a short story with the feel of a novella.”</ref><br />
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Millhauser's stories often treat [[fantasy]] themes in a manner reminiscent of [[Edgar Allan Poe|Poe]] or [[Jorge Luis Borges|Borges]], with a distinctively American voice. As critic [[Russell Potter]] has noted, "In (Millhauser's stories), mechanical cowboys at penny arcades come to life; curious amusement parks, museums, or catacombs beckon with secret passageways and walking automata; dreamers dream and children fly out their windows at night on magic carpets."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ric.edu/faculty/rpotter/millhauser.htm|title=Steven Millhauser|author=Russell Potter|year=2006|access-date=2009-02-13}}</ref><br />
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Millhauser's collections of stories continued with ''[[The Barnum Museum]]'' (1990), ''[[Little Kingdoms: Three Novellas]]'' (1993), and ''[[The Knife Thrower and Other Stories]]'' (1998). The unexpected success of ''Martin Dressler'' in 1997 brought him increased attention. ''[[Dangerous Laughter: 13 Stories]]'' (2008) made the ''New York Times Book Review'' list of 10 Best Books of 2008.<ref>{{cite web| title = The 10 Best Books of 2008 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/books/review/10Best-t.htm| work = [[New York Times]]| date = 3 December 2008}}</ref><br />
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==Personal life==<br />
Millhauser lives in [[Saratoga Springs, New York]]. He taught at [[Skidmore College]] for almost 30 years before retiring in 2017.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.skidmore.edu/dof-vpaa/meetings/faculty/2016-17/agenda/FM-4-28-17-Retirement-citation-2016-2017.pdf|title=Skidmore Faculty Meeting Notes|date=April 28, 2017|website=Skidmore College|access-date=2019-06-23}}</ref> He was previously married to Cathy Allis, an occupational therapist and crossword constructor.<ref name= "obscurity">{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Dinitia |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/09/books/shy-author-likes-to-live-and-work-in-obscurity.html |title=Shy Author Likes to Live And Work In Obscurity |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=April 9, 1997 |access-date=October 10, 2018}}</ref><ref name= "puzzler">{{cite news |last=Keyser |first=Tom |url= https://www.timesunion.com/entertainment/article/Get-inside-the-mind-of-puzzler-Cathy-Allis-1018749.php |title=Get inside the mind of puzzler Cathy Allis |work=[[Times Union (Albany)|Times Union]] |date=February 18, 2011 |access-date=October 10, 2018}}</ref><br />
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Together they have a daughter, Anna, and a son, Jonathan.<ref>Ingersoll, 2014 p. 3: Millhauser and Allis were married in 1984.</ref><br />
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==Awards and honors==<br />
*2012 [[The Story Prize]], ''[[We Others: New and Selected Stories|We Others]]''<br />
*1997 [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]], ''Martin Dressler''<br />
*1990 [[World Fantasy Award—Short Fiction]], "The Illusionist"<ref>{{cite web |title=Steven Millhauser |url=https://www.sfadb.com/Steven_Millhauser |publisher=science fiction awards database |access-date=6 October 2025}}</ref><br />
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==Novels==<br />
* {{cite book <!--|author=Millhauser, Steven --> |title=[[Edwin Mullhouse|Edwin Mullhouse : the life and death of an American writer, 1943-1954, by Jeffrey Cartwright : a novel]] |location=New York |publisher=Knopf |year=1972 <!--isbn=0394480090-->}}<br />
*''Portrait of a Romantic'' (1977) {{ISBN|0-671-63089-X}}<br />
*''[[From the Realm of Morpheus]]'' (1986)<br />
*''[[Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer]]'' (1996) {{ISBN|0-517-70319-X}}<br />
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==Short fiction==<br />
{{ quote box|width=30em|bgcolor=cornsilk|fontsize=100%|salign=center|quote= “Is it possible not to be drawn to the novella? Everything about it is immensely seductive. It demands the rigor of treatment associated with the short story, while at the same time it offers a liberating sense of expansiveness, of widening spaces. And it strikes me as having real advantages over its jealous rivals, the short story and the novel.”—Steven Millhauser, 2003 interview with critic [[Jim Shepard|Shepard, Jim]] at [[Bomb (magazine)|Bomb magazine]].}}<br />
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===Novellas===<br />
*''[[Little Kingdoms: Three Novellas]]'' (1993)<br />
*''[[The King in the Tree: Three Novellas]]'' (2003)<br />
*''[[Enchanted Night: A Novella]]'' (1999))<br />
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===Short story collections===<br />
*''[[In the Penny Arcade (collection)|In the Penny Arcade]]'' (1986)<br />
*''[[The Barnum Museum]]'' (1990)<br />
*''[[The Knife Thrower and Other Stories]]'' (1998)<br />
*''[[Dangerous Laughter: 13 Stories]]'' (2008)<br />
*''[[We Others: New and Selected Stories]]'' (2011)<br />
*''[[Voices in the Night: Stories]]'' (2015)<br />
*''[[Disruptions: Stories]]'' (2023)<br />
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===Short stories===<br />
* {{cite journal |date=November 14, 2011 |title=Miracle Polish |journal=The New Yorker |volume=87 |issue=36 |pages=68–75 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2011/11/14/111114fi_fiction_millhauser}}<br />
* {{cite magazine |date=December 16, 2013 |title=Coming soon |magazine=The New Yorker |volume=89 |issue=41 |pages=74–78 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/12/16/coming-soon}}<br />
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==Essays==<br />
*“The Fascination of the Miniature” ''[[Grand Street (magazine)|Grand Street]]'' 2.4 (Summer 1983): 128–135<br />
*“Replicas” ''[[The Yale Review]]'' 83 (July 1995): 50–61<br />
*“The Ambition of the Short Story” ''[[New York Times Book Review]]'', October 3, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/books/review/Millhauser-t.html.<br />
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===Critical studies and reviews of Millhauser's work===<br />
*''Understanding Steven Millhauser (Understanding Contemporary American Fiction)'', by Earl G. Ingersoll. University of South Carolina Press, 2014 {{ISBN|1611173086}}<br />
*''Steven Millhauser : la précision de l'impossible'', by Marc Chénetier. Paris: Belin, 2013 ISSN 1275-0018<br />
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== Footnotes ==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
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== Sources ==<br />
*Gabinski, Andrzej. 2009–2010. Steven Millhauser: Interview. ''Short Fiction'' No. 6. Interview conducted from October 6, 2009, to June 6, 2010, by Andrzej Gabinski.https://www.shortfictionjournal.co.uk/stevenmillhauser Accessed 10 May 2025.<br />
*Ingersoll, Earl G. 2014. ''Understanding Steven Millhauser''. ''[[The University of South Carolina Press]]'', Columbia, SC. {{ISBN | 978-1-61117-308-6}}<br />
*[[Jim Shepard|Shepard, Jim]]. Steven Millhauser. ''[[Bomb (magazine)|Bomb]]'', Issue 83 Spring 2003, LITERATURE. https://web.archive.org/web/20080720032248/http://www.bombsite.com/issues/83/articles/2557 Accessed 25 May 2025<br />
*[[John Updike|Updike, John]] and [[Katrina Kenison|Kenison, Katrina]]. 2000. ''The Best American Short Stories of the Century''. ''[[Houghton-Mifflin Company]]'', New York. {{ISBN |978-0395843673}}<br />
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==External links==<br />
*[http://transatlantica.revues.org/5302 Interview] conducted by Etienne Février for ''Transatlantica'' (2011)<br />
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080720032248/http://www.bombsite.com/issues/83/articles/2557 Interview] conducted by Jim Shepard for ''BOMB'' (2003)<br />
*[http://transatlantica.revues.org/562 Interview] conducted by Marc Chénetier for ''Transatlantica'' (2003)<br />
* {{ISFDB name|id=Steven_Millhauser|name=Steven Millhauser}}<br />
*{{IMDb name|1841035}}<br />
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070104072250/http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/1199/millhauser/excerpt.html Excerpt] from ''Enchanted Night''<br />
{{Steven Millhauser}}<br />
{{PulitzerPrize Fiction 1976–2000}}<br />
{{World Fantasy Award Best Short Fiction}}<br />
{{Authority control}}<br />
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