Voice for Equality: John Irving

By support
Apr 03, 2009 at 10:53 am

John Irving’s first novel, SETTING FREE THE BEARS, was published in 1968. THE WATER-METHOD MAN was his second novel (1972), followed by THE 158-POUND MARRIAGE (1974), HOTEL NEW HAMPSHIRE (1981), CIDER HOUSE RULES (1985), A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY (1989), and A WIDOW FOR ONE YEAR (1998) among others. He and his wife, Janet, and their three sons live in southern Vermont.

In March 2009, author John Irving wrote to his friend and fellow author Edmund White and White forwarded that note to his friends including Evan Wolfson, Executive Director of Freedom to Marry.

Edmund White wrote: Here is a letter to me from the famous (straight) novelist John Irving (The World According to Garp) about the marriage bill in Vermont. He would like you to make it widely available. - Thanks, Edmund White (Excerpt below)

Dear Edmund...Why should it matter to straight couples if gay couples Want to be married? How insecure must heterosexuals be in order to feel threatened by gay marriage? Civil unions aren't good enough -- they're not equal enough!

Irving was born in Exeter, New Hampshire in 1942. He was educated at the University of Pittsburgh and University of New Hampshire, and also attended the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop where one of his teachers was Kurt Vonnegut.

Thanks to Evan Wolfson for this nomination.

**Make your NOMINATION for a Voice for Equality today!