American novelist and writer
Tartt's three novels in German, published by
Goldmann .
Donna Louise Tartt (born December 23, 1963)
[2] is an American novelist and essayist. Her novels are
The Secret History (1992),
The Little Friend (2002), and
The Goldfinch (2013), which has been adapted into
a 2019 film of the same name
[3] She was included in
Time magazine's 2014 "
100 Most Influential People " list.
[4]
Early life and education
Donna Louise Tartt was born in
Greenwood, Mississippi , in the
Mississippi Delta , the elder of two daughters. She was raised in the nearby town of
Grenada . Her father, Don Tartt, was a
rockabilly musician, turned freeway "service station owner-cum-local politician", while her mother, Taylor, was a secretary.
[5]
[6]
[7] Her parents were avid readers, and her mother would read while driving.
[8] As a child, Tartt memorized "really long poems by
A. A. Milne ", and described herself as a "horrible repository of doggerel verse."
[5]
Tartt wrote her first poem in 1968, when she was 5 years old.
[9] She was first published at 13, when a sonnet was included in a 1976 edition of the
Mississippi Review .
[5]
[10] In high school, she was a freshman cheerleader for the basketball team and worked in the public library.
[6]
[11]
[12] Tartt's essays about patriotism and alcoholism won prizes,
[5] and she also wrote "short stories about death" during this period.
[5]
In 1981, Tartt enrolled in the
University of Mississippi , where she pledged for the
Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and wrote short stories for
The Daily Mississippian .
[5] An editor at the paper gave one of her stories to prominent writer
Willie Morris , who found Tartt at the
Holiday Inn bar one evening and declared her "a genius."
[9]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16] Following a recommendation from Morris,
Barry Hannah , then an
Ole Miss
writer-in-residence , admitted the eighteen-year-old Tartt into his graduate course on the
short story . Hannah referred to her as "deeply literary", and "a literary star."
[17]
In 1982, following the suggestion of Morris and others, she transferred to
Bennington College . At Bennington, Tartt studied classics with
Claude Fredericks , and also met
Bret Easton Ellis ,
Jonathan Lethem , and
Jill Eisenstadt .
[18]
[2] Tartt graduated in 1986.
[19]
Career
The Secret History (1992)
[20]
[21] was derived from her time at Bennington College.
[22]
Amanda Urban was her agent and the novel became a critical and financial success.
[23]
[24] Vanity Fair called Tartt a precocious literary genius, as she was just 29 years old.
[25]
Tartt's novel
The Little Friend (2002) was first published in
Dutch , since her books sold more
per capita in the
Netherlands than elsewhere.
[26]
[27]
[28]
[29]
[30]
In 2006, Tartt's short story "The Ambush" was included in the
Best American Short Stories 2006 .
[31]
Her 2013 novel
The Goldfinch stirred reviewers as to whether it was a literary novel, a controversy possibly based on its best-selling status.
[25]
[32]
[33] The book was adapted for the movie
The Goldfinch . Tartt was reportedly paid $3m for the movie rights but parted company with her long-standing agent, Amanda Urban, over the latter's failure to secure Tartt a role in the screenplay writing or wider production.
[34] The movie was a critical and commercial failure.
[35]
[36]
Tartt is a convert to
Catholicism and contributed an essay, "The spirit and writing in a secular world", to The Novel, Spirituality and Modern Culture (2000). In her essay she wrote that "faith is vital in the process of making my work and in the reasons I am driven to make it."
[37] However, Tartt also warned of the danger of writers who impose their beliefs or convictions on their novels. She wrote that writers should "shy from asserting those convictions directly in their work."
[37]
[5]
She has spent about ten years writing each of her novels.
[25]
[38]
[39]
Personal life
In 2002, it was reported that Tartt had lived in
Greenwich Village , the
Upper East Side ,
[40] and on a farm near
Charlottesville, Virginia .
[41] Tartt is 5 feet (1.5 m) tall.
[42] She has also stated that she would never get married.
[43]
In 2013, Tartt claimed that she was not a recluse while stressing the freedoms of shutting the door, closing the curtains and not participating in the life of culture.
[38]
In 2016, Tartt's cousin, police officer James Lee Tartt, was killed while on duty.
[44]
As of 2016, Virginia Living published that Tartt lived with art gallery owner Neal Guma. Both of them studied at Bennington. She and her partner purchased the Charlottesville property back in 1997.
[45] Tartt also dedicated her second novel to someone named Neal, although she does not elaborate his identity.
Awards
Bibliography
Works authored by
Novels
Short stories
"Tam-O'-Shanter",
The New Yorker , April 19, 1993, pp. 90–91
[51]
"A Christmas Pageant",
Harper's Magazine 287.1723, December 1993, pp. 45–51
"A Garter Snake",
GQ 65.5, May 1995, pp. 89ff
"The Ambush",
The Guardian , June 25, 2005
Nonfiction
"Sleepytown: A Southern Gothic Childhood, with Codeine", Harper's Magazine 285.1706, July 1992, pp. 60–66
Tartt's great-grandfather gave the five-year-old, for tonsillitis, whiskey, and codeine cough syrup, for two years, when kept home due to tonsillitis, she would read and write poetry.
[52]
"Basketball Season" in The Best American Sports Writing , edited and with an introduction by Frank Deford, Houghton Mifflin, 1993
"Team Spirit: Memories of Being a Freshman Cheerleader for the Basketball Team", Harper's Magazine 288.1727, April 1994, pp. 37–40
"My friend, my mentor, my inspiration". in
Remembering Willie . University Press of Mississippi. 2000.
ISBN
978-1-57806-267-6 .
"Afterword" in
True Grit , Charles Portis, Overlook Press, New York, 2010, pp. 255-267
Audiobooks read by
Works by Tartt
The Secret History
The Little Friend (abridged)
Works by others
References
^
"Donna Tartt" . Front Row . November 4, 2013.
BBC Radio 4 . Retrieved November 4, 2013 .
^
a
b Kuiper, Kathleen (December 19, 2020).
"Donna Tartt" . Encyclopedia Britannica .
^ Bloomgarden-Smoke, Kara (February 12, 2013).
"Donna Tartts Long Awaited Third Novel Will Be Published This Year" . New York Observer . Retrieved October 15, 2013 .
^
a
b
Patchett, Ann (April 23, 2014).
"Donna Tartt"
Archived April 8, 2020, at the
Wayback Machine .
Time .
^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g Kaplan, James (September 1992).
"Smart Tartt: Introducing Donna Tartt" . Vanity Fair . Retrieved February 22, 2019 .
^
a
b Ybarra, Michael J. (December 8, 2002).
"Famous and yet unknown" .
Los Angeles Times . Retrieved January 31, 2021 .
^ Brown, Mick (December 26, 2013).
"The Goldfinch author Donna Tartt: 'If I'm not working, I'm not happy' " .
Gulf News . Retrieved January 31, 2021 .
^
"Your guide to mysterious literary genius Donna Tartt" . Dazed . November 14, 2017. Retrieved January 31, 2021 .
^
a
b
"Donna Tartt (1963- )" . Mississippi Writers Page . English Department,
University of Mississippi . November 9, 2015. Archived from
the original on October 10, 2022. Retrieved January 31, 2021 .
^
"The Mississippi Literary Review. (University of Mississippi) Volume I, Number 1, November, 1941 - first and only issue" . PB Auction Galleries, Inc . Retrieved January 31, 2021 .
^
"Elizabeth Jones Library" . librarytechnology.org . Retrieved January 31, 2021 .
^
"Elizabeth Jones Library" . Elizabeth Jones Library . Retrieved January 31, 2021 .
^ Tartt, Donna.
"My friend, my mentor, my inspiration" . Remembering Willie . University Press of Mississippi. Retrieved January 31, 2021 .
^
"Donna Tartt" .
The Guardian . Retrieved January 31, 2021 .
^ Ross, Peter Ross (November 2002).
"Donna Tartt" .
Sunday Herald . Retrieved January 31, 2021 .
^
Oxford, Mississippi#Media
^ Galbraith, Lacey (Winter 2004).
"Interview: Barry Hannah, The Art of Fiction" . Paris Review, no. 184 . Retrieved October 15, 2013 .
^ Anolik, Lili (May 28, 2019).
"Money, Madness, Cocaine and Literary Genius: An Oral History of the 1980s' Most Decadent College" . Esquire .
^ McCaffrey, Caitlin;
Bennington College (January 13, 2014).
"Donna Tartt, '86, photograph, circa 1992" . 75 Years of Pioneering Innovation .
Issuu . p. 67. Retrieved January 31, 2021 .
^ Steinz, Pieter (March 14, 1993).
"Donna Tartt on The Secret History" . The John Adams Institute . John Adams Institute. Retrieved January 31, 2021 .
^
"Donna Tartt interview (1992)" . YouTube. Retrieved January 31, 2021 .
^ Anolik, Lili (May 28, 2019).
"Money, Madness, Cocaine and Literary Genius: An Oral History of the 1980s' Most Decadent College" . Esquire .
^
"Donna Tartt (1963- )" . Mississippi Writers Page . Ole Miss. Archived from
the original on October 3, 1999. Retrieved January 31, 2021 .
^ Fein, Esther B. (November 16, 1992).
"The Media Business; The Marketing of a Cause Celebre (Published 1992)" . The New York Times . Retrieved January 31, 2021 .
^
a
b
c Peretz, Evgenia (June 11, 2014).
"It's Tartt—But Is It Art?" .
Vanity Fair . Retrieved July 18, 2020 .
^ Buchsbaum, Tony.
"Review | The Little Friend by Donna Tartt" .
January Magazine . Retrieved February 1, 2021 .
^ Lin, Francie (November 10, 2002).
"Her brother's keeper" . Los Angeles Times . Retrieved February 1, 2021 .
^ Thorpe, Vanessa (July 28, 2002).
"The secret history of Donna Tartt's new novel" . The Guardian . Retrieved February 1, 2021 .
^ Mabe, Chauncey (November 10, 2002).
"Tartt, A Dutch Treat, Stirs A Storm At Home" .
Sun-Sentinel . Archived from
the original on February 1, 2021. Retrieved February 1, 2021 .
^ Patterson, Troy (November 1, 2002).
"The Little Friend" . Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved February 1, 2021 .
^
"The Best American Short Stories 2006" . Kirkus Reviews . August 15, 2006. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .
^ Kakutani, Michiko (October 7, 2013).
"A Painting as Talisman, as Enduring as Loved Ones Are Not" . The New York Times .
^ Wood, James (October 14, 2013).
"The New Curiosity Shop" .
The New Yorker . Retrieved January 31, 2021 .
^
"Why Donna Tartt's the Secret History Never Became a Movie" . September 15, 2019.
^
"The Goldfinch review – Donna Tartt's art-theft epic has its wings clipped | Peter Bradshaw's film of the week" .
TheGuardian.com . September 26, 2019.
^
"Box Office: 'The Goldfinch' Flops in Another Disaster for Warner Bros.' Doomed Dramas" .
Forbes .
^
a
b Doino Jr., William (December 9, 2013).
"Donna Tartt's Goldfinch" . First Things . Retrieved March 22, 2018 .
^
a
b
"Interview: The very, very private life of Ms Donna Tartt" . The Irish Independent . November 24, 2013. Retrieved July 19, 2020 .
^
"Interview: The very, very private life of Ms Donna Tartt" . independent . November 24, 2013. Retrieved January 31, 2021 .
^ Cryer, Dan (November 4, 2002).
"Her Own Twist / Donna Tartt says she writes the kind of old-fashioned novels that suit her taste. Luckily, other people seem to like them, too" . Newsday . Retrieved January 31, 2021 .
^
"A most complex Lolita" . The Sydney Morning Herald . November 2, 2002. Retrieved January 31, 2021 . ,
^
"Famous and yet unknown" . Los Angeles Times . December 8, 2002.
^ Viner, Katharine (October 19, 2002).
"Interview: Donna Tartt" . The Guardian . Retrieved January 31, 2021 .
^
Associated Press in Iuka, Mississippi (February 20, 2016).
"Law enforcement agent killed and three others wounded in Mississippi standoff" .
TheGuardian.com . Retrieved July 18, 2022 .
^
"Arresting Images" . virginialiving.com .
^
"Announcing the National Book Critics Awards Finalists for Publishing Year 2013" . National Book Critics Circle. January 14, 2014. Archived from
the original on January 15, 2014. Retrieved January 14, 2014 .
^ Brown, Mark (April 7, 2014).
"Donna Tartt Heads Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2014 Shortlist" .
The Guardian . Retrieved April 11, 2014 .
^
"The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt (Little, Brown)" . www.pulitzer.org . Retrieved March 22, 2018 .
^
"Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction & Nonfiction | Awards & Grants" . www.ala.org . Retrieved March 22, 2018 .
^
"Vanity Fair's best-dressed list: Donna Tartt's life-long style" . The Guardian . August 7, 2014. Retrieved March 22, 2018 .
^ Tartt, Donna (April 19, 1993).
"Fiction: Tam-O'-Shanter" (abstract) .
The New Yorker . Retrieved January 14, 2008 .
^ Williams, Cameron (January 11, 2012).
"Profile: Donna Tartt" . Southern Literary Review . Retrieved January 31, 2021 .
General references
Hargreaves, Tracy (2001). Donna Tartt's "The Secret History" . New York and London: Continuum International Publishing Group.
ISBN
0-8264-5320-1 .
Kakutani, Michiko (1992).
"Students Indulging in Course of Destruction" . The New York Times , September 4, 1992.
Kaplan, James (September 1992).
"Smart Tartt" . Vanity Fair .
McOran-Campbell, Adrian (August 2000). The Secret History .
Tartt, Donna (2000). "Spanish Grandeur in Mississippi".
Oxford American ,
Fall 2000 .
Yee, Danny (1994).
"Studying Ancient Greek Warps the Mind of the Young?"
Corrigan, Yuri (December 1, 2018). "Donna Tartt's Dostoevsky: Trauma and the Displaced Self". Comparative Literature . 70 (4): 392–407.
doi :
10.1215/00104124-7215462 .
S2CID
165480509 .
External links
Donna Tartt interviewed by Robert Birnbaum at identitytheory.com
Tartt Interview
Archived June 4, 2015, at the
Wayback Machine with
Jill Eisenstadt in
Bomb
Steinz, Pieter (March 14, 1993).
"Donna Tartt, in conversation" .
The John Adams Institute .
De Kleine Komedie , Amsterdam. Retrieved February 1, 2021 .
video at
YouTube
Donna Tartt and Anne Rice interviewed by
Ray Suarez ,
NPR :
Talk of the Nation : (October 30, 1997)
Donna Tartt interviewed by
Lynn Neary ,
NPR :
Talk of the Nation : (November 5, 2002)
Tartt on reading and her Scottish grandmother
Archived February 7, 2012, at the
Wayback Machine at
Maud Newton
Tartt in Vogue on her teenage worship of Hunter S. Thompson
Archived April 7, 2013, at the
Wayback Machine at
Maud Newton
"Donna Tartt and Lorrie Moore talk about the writing process" . YouTube . January 4, 2021.
Donna Tartt interviewed by James Naughtie at
BBC Radio 4 – Bookclub (January 5, 2014)
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