MIDDLEBURY — Richard Hawley will read from and sign “The Three Lives of Jonathan Force,” at a book launch to be held Tuesday, June 14, at 7 p.m. at the Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury.
“The Three Lives of Jonathan Force” is a major new novel by the author of the beloved classic, “The Headmaster’s Papers.” Told in three parts, the book sets forth the life of its title character from first sense impression to final breath. Jonathan Force is born in the final hours of World War II and lives through the early decades of this century. Written in Hawley’s vivid, rich prose, “The Three Lives of Jonathan Force” is an invigorating book of ideas, a meditation on the lives of boys and men, and a moving story of one man’s search for meaning.
Richard Hawley grew up in Arlington Heights, Ill., before attending Middlebury College, where he completed his B.A. in political science. Further studies took him to Case Western Reserve University and St. John’s College, Cambridge University. He began his teaching career at Cleveland’s University School and would go on to teach history, economics, philosophy and English literature, while also serving the school as history department chairman, dean of students, director of the Upper School, and, from 1988 until his retirement in 2005, headmaster.
A writer of fiction, poetry and literary nonfiction, Hawley has published more than 20 books and several monographs. His essays, articles and poems have appeared in dozens of literary, scholarly, and commercial journals, including The New York Times, the Atlantic Monthly, and the Christian Science Monitor and is represented in many literary anthologies. For 10 years he taught fiction and nonfiction writing at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in Vermont, and he continues to teach developing writers in a variety of settings. Recent work, including work in progress, draws increasingly from depth psychology and classical philosophy to illuminate contemporary problems.
Hawley lives with his wife, Mary Hawley, a painter and fabric artist, in Ripton.
For more information, contact Jenny Lyons at 802-388-2061 or [email protected].