Fielding Dawson

Fielding Dawson (August 2, 1930 – January 5, 2002, aged 71) was a Beat-era author of short stories and novels, and a student at Black Mountain College. He was also a painter and collagist whose works appeared in several books of poetry and many literary magazines.

Biography Dawson was born in New York City. As a child, his family moved to Kirkwood, Missouri. His father was a journalist. He studied portrait drawing with Tanasko Milovich. In 1949, he enrolled at Black Mountain College. With Robert Rauschenberg and Kenneth Noland, he studied painting with under Franz Kline. He also studied writing with Charles Olson.

He has been called "The Best St. Louis Writer You've Never Read" by David Clewell, a professor of history at Webster University.

Porter Fox has written of Dawson, "Many of his best pieces were short, often autobiographical. Some of the greatest were just a page or two. The writing was plain-faced, without contrived plots, bookish vocabulary, or literary allusions."

Robert Creeley said of his work, "I have never seen a writer capable of such fast shifts, so instantly, nervously exact."

The Fielding Dawson Papers are housed at the library of the University of Connecticut.

Partial bibliography Stories Elizabeth Constantine (Biltmore Press, 1955) Krazy Kat and One More (The Print Workshop, 1955) Thread (Ferry Press, 1964) Krazy Kat/The Unveiling and Other Stories from 1951-1968 (Black Sparrow, 1969) The Dream/Thunder Road: Stories and Dreams, 1955-1965 (Black Sparrow, 1972) The Greatest Story Ever Told: A Transformation (Black Sparrow, 1973) The Sun Rises Into the Sky and Other Stories 1952-1966 (Black Sparrow, 1974) The Man Who Changed Overnight and Other Stories & Dreams 1970-1974 (Black Sparrow, 1976) Krazy Kat & 76 More: Collected Stories 1950-1976 (Black Sparrow, 1982) Virginia Dare: Stories 1976-1981 (Black Sparrow, 1985) Will She Understand? New Short Stories (Black Sparrow, 1988) The Trick: New Stories (Black Sparrow, 1990) The Orange in the Orange: A Novella & Two Stories (Black Sparrow, 1995) The Land of Milk & Honey: A Big Little Book: New Stories (XOXOXpress, 2001) The Dirty Blue Car: New Stories (XOXOXpress, 2004)

Novels Open Road (Black Sparrow, 1970) The Mandalay Dream (Bobbs-Merrill, 1971) A Great Day for a Ballgame (Bobbs-Merrill, 1973) Penny Lane (Black Sparrow, 1977) Two Penny Lane (Black Sparrow, 1977) Three Penny Lane (Black Sparrow, 1981) Tiger Lilies: An American Childhood (Duke University, 1984) No Man's Land (Times Change, 2000)

Other An Emotional Memoir of Franz Kline (Pantheon, 1967) The Black Mountain Book (E.P. Dutton, 1970) (revised, Wesleyan College Press, 1991)