Calder Willingham

Calder Willingham
BornCalder Baynard Willingham Jr.
(1922-12-23)December 23, 1922
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
DiedFebruary 19, 1995(1995-02-19) (aged 72)
Laconia, New Hampshire, United States
Occupation
  • Writer
  • novelist
  • screenwriter
LanguageEnglish
GenreFiction, screenwriting, short story
Notable worksEternal Fire
The Graduate (screenplay)
Rambling Rose

Calder Baynard Willingham Jr. (December 23, 1922 – February 19, 1995)[1] was an American novelist and screenwriter.

Before the age of 30, after three novels and a collection of short stories, The New Yorker was describing Willingham as having “fathered modern black comedy,”[2] his signature a dry, straight-faced humor, made funnier by its concealed comic intent. His work matured over six more novels, including Eternal Fire (1963), which Newsweek wrote “deserves a place among the dozen or so novels that must be mentioned if one is to speak of greatness in American fiction.”[3] He had a significant career in cinema too, with screenplays including Paths of Glory (1957), One-Eyed Jacks (1960), The Graduate (1967) and Little Big Man (1970).

  1. ^ Alex Macaulay, Biographical entry of Calder Willingham Archived 2012-10-21 at the Wayback Machine from the New Georgia Encyclopedia
  2. ^ "Calder Willingham". The Literary Encyclopedia. January 9, 2008. Retrieved December 11, 2012.
  3. ^ Kroll, Jack. Newsweek, March 10, 1969