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Themes in Irving's novels oftern draw upon his upbringing and personal experiences, and cover a number of topics such as New England life, Feminism , Religion , Marriage and Wrestling . Irving enjoys a wide and varied audience and is frequently cited by younger literary writers as a major influence. Irving lives in Vermont , Toronto , and New York . BIRTH AND YOUTH John Irving was born John Wallace Blunt, Jr in 's oldest and most distinguished families, divorced Irving's biological father when he was two years old. The family maintained a strict silence regarding his natural father. Helen Winslow later married Colin F.N. Irving, a teacher at the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy when Irving was six years old; John Wallace Blunt, Jr became John Winslow Irving, taking his adoptive father's name. Until the mid 2000s, he never sought the identity of his biological father, claiming "I already have a father." In 2001 he discovered he had a half brother from his biological father's second marriage. Irving attended Exeter, where he was a mediocre student due to then-undiagnosed Dyslexia , but was an outstanding wrestler. The trials of pre-sexual revolution single-motherhood, wrestling, and New England academic life feature prominently in Irving's novels, particularly '' The World According To Garp '' and '' A Prayer For Owen Meany ''. The primary settings for both novels are based on Phillips Exeter Academy . STUDIES While a student at Exeter, Irving was mentored by famed Presbyterian theologian and novelist Frederick Buechner and writing teacher George Bennett , who later helped Irving gain admission to the Iowa Writer's Workshop , at the time America's most elite graduate writing program. Irving briefly studied at the University Of Pittsburgh and eventually graduated from the University Of New Hampshire . At Iowa, Irving studied alongside future award-winning novelists Gail Godwin , John Casey , and Donald Hendrie, Jr. , and was mentored by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. While on foreign study in Vienna , Austria , Irving met his first wife, Shyla Leary , an art student. They married after Shyla became unexpectedly Pregnant , and eventually had two sons before divorcing in the mid- 1980 s. Irving later wed his agent, Janet Turnbull , with whom he has a third son. CAREER Irving's career began at the age of 26 with the publication of his first novel, '' Setting Free The Bears ''. The novel was reasonably well reviewed, but failed to garner much of an audience. His second and third novels, '' The Water-Method Man '' and '' The 158-Pound Marriage '', were similarly received. At around this time, in 1975, Irving accepted a position as Assistant Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College . Frustrated at the lack of promotion his novels were garnering from his first publisher, Random House , Irving chose to offer his fourth novel, '' The World According To Garp '' ( 1978 ), to Dutton , which promised him a stronger marketing push. The novel went on to become a massive international bestseller and cultural phenomenon, and was a finalist for the American Book Award (now the National Book Award ) for hardcover fiction in 1979 (the award went to Tim O'Brien for '' Going After Cacciato ''). ''Garp'' won the National Book Foundation 's award for paperback fiction the following year. ''Garp'' was later made into a film directed by George Roy Hill and 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 in the film as an official in one of Garp's high school wrestling matches. Irving also has a cameo appearance in the film version of '' The Cider House Rules '' as a train station agent. ''Garp'' transformed Irving from an obscure, academic literary writer to a household name, guaranteeing bestseller status for all of his subsequent books. The first of these was '' The Hotel New Hampshire '' ( 1981 ), which sold well despite being poorly received by critics and, like Garp, was quickly made into a film, this time directed by Tony Richardson and starring Jodie Foster , Rob Lowe , and Beau Bridges . In 1985 Irving published '' The Cider House Rules '', a sprawling epic centered around a Maine orphanage. Its most prevalent theme is Abortion , and the novel is perhaps the most obvious example of Charles Dickens 's influence on Irving's writing. Irving followed in 1989 with '' A Prayer For Owen Meany '', another New England family epic centered around themes of religiousness. Again, the main setting is a New England boarding school, and inspirations for the characters can be found in many of Irving's influences, including '' The Tin Drum '' by Günter Grass , '' The Scarlet Letter '' 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 since he was already a married father and a teacher when the draft was instituted. ''Owen Meany'' became Irving's bestselling book since ''Garp'', and is now a frequent feature on high school English reading lists. Irving returned to Random House for his next book, A Son Of The Circus ( 1995 ). Arguably his most complicated and difficult book, it was dismissed by critics but became a national bestseller on the strength of Irving's reputation for fashioning literate, engrossing page-turners. Irving returned to better form in 1998 with '' A Widow For One Year '', which was named a New York Times Notable Book. The Fourth Hand , was published in 2001 ; savaged by critics, it nevertheless became a bestseller. Irving's most recent novel, entitled '' Until I Find You '' was released on July 12 , 2005 . On '' contains two specifically personal elements about his life that he has never before discussed publicly: his sexual abuse at age 11 by an older woman, and the recent entrance in his life of his biological father's family. In 1999 , after nearly ten years in development, Irving's screenplay for '' The Cider House Rules '' was made into a film directed by Lasse Hallström and starring Michael Caine , Tobey Maguire , Charlize Theron , and Delroy Lindo . The film was nominated for several Academy Awards , including Best Picture, and earned Irving an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. OTHER PROJECTS Since the publication of "Garp" made him independently wealthy, Irving has been able to concentrate solely on fiction writing as a vocation, sporadically accepting short-term teaching positions (including one at his alma mater, the Iowa Writer's Workshop ) and serving as an assistant coach on his sons' high school wrestling teams. In addition to his novels, he has also published '' Trying To Save Piggy Sneed '', a collection of his writings including a brief memoir and unpublished short fiction, and '' My Movie Business '', an account of the protracted process of bringing '' The Cider House Rules '' to the big screen. RECENT In recent years, his three most highly regarded novels, '' The World According To Garp '', '' The Cider House Rules '', and '' A Prayer For Owen Meany '', have been published in Modern Library editions. ''Owen Meany'' was adapted into a children's film, ''Simon Birch'' (Irving disowned this adaptation, going so far as to request that all of the characters' names be changed for the film version). In 2004 , '' A Widow For One Year '' was adapted into '' The Door In The Floor '', starring Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger . HIS STATURE Irving's literary stature is a subject of some debate. Advocates consider him the heir to , Richard Ford , Cormac McCarthy , and Joan Didion ; Irving, on the other hand, enjoys a wider audience than all of those novelists combined—particularly among younger readers—and is frequently cited by younger literary writers as a major influence. Arguments about Irving's merit tend to reflect the division between those who see literature's primary value as aesthetic and those who believe that for a work to be great it must influence culture writ large. Regardless of the differing opinions on the critical merit of his work, Irving is guaranteed to be one of the few American novelists of his era who will be read and discussed for many years to come. BIBLIOGRAPHY
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