John Barth – 1930-2024 – An Eastern Shore Man
A Biography and Appreciation
John Barth, prominent American author and Eastern Shore native, passed away on April 2, 2024 in a hospice facility in Bonita Springs, Florida. He was 93.
Barth was the author of over twenty works of fiction and non-fiction. These include novels and short story collections, most with settings in Maryland, particularly the Chesapeake Bay and the Eastern Shore—plus three books of critical essays and numerous articles.
Born in Cambridge, Dorchester County, Md., in 1930, John Simmons Barth was the son of John Jacob and Georgia (Simmons) Barth. He had a twin sister, Jill, and an older brother, Bill. In a nod to his twin’s name, he was called Jack. And, although he used “John” professionally and publicly, it was as “Jack” that he was known to family and friends.
At Cambridge High School, Barth played drums in the band and wrote for the school newspaper.
Barth loved music and had initially planned to study music and become a jazz arranger. However, after graduating from high school in 1947, he entered a summer program at Julliard School of Music in New York. There, he realized that, while good, he didn’t have the same talent as many other students. In a 2008 interview, Barth recalled “that the young man to my right and the young woman to my left were going to be the real professional musicians of their generation, and that what I had hoped was a pre-professional talent was really just an amateur flair.” He decided to switch fields.
He attended Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he received a Bachelor’s degree in English in 1951 and a master’s degree in English and Creative Writing in 1952.
Following graduation, Barth began his four-decade long teaching career—first at Pennsylvania State University from 1953 to 1965 then at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo from 1965 to 1973. He also had a stint as a visiting professor at Boston University in 1972.
He returned to Maryland in 1973 and taught at his alma mater, Johns Hopkins, until his retirement in 1995 with the emeritus rank.
After retirement, Barth and his wife Shelly spent many years on the Eastern Shore in their home on Langford Bay in Kent County before moving to Florida.
Barth’s first novel, The Floating Opera published in 1956, was nominated for a National Book Award as was his 1968 short story collection, Lost in the Funhouse. In 1973, Chimera, a collection of three short novels focusing on the myths of Perseus, Bellerophon, and Scheherazade, won the award.
Barth’s breakthrough novel, though, was The Sot-Weed Factor, published in 1960. This picaresque story lampooned the conventions of historical novels and was a biting parody of 18th-century English novels, according to Britannica.com.
Set in the 1680s and ‘90s, first in London, England, then on the Eastern Shore of the colony of Maryland, the novel follows the escapades of one Ebeneezer Cooke, poet and son of a British tobacco merchant or “sot weed factor.”
Filled with bawdy capers, black humor, and an irreverent account of early Maryland colonial history, the Sot Weed Factor became a literary smash hit, with a cult following and a fan club that proudly termed itself “The Society for the Celebration of Barthomania.” Each year on Barth’s birthday, club members would inundate him with cards and letters. The club also made a board game based on Barth’s 1968 book, Lost in the Funhouse.
The Sot Weed Factor has been voted one of the 20 best post-war novels in a poll of authors and critics.
As a writer, according to the obituary in the British newspaper, The Telegraph. Barth “tore apart the classics of the Middle Ages and antiquity, reusing legends in different settings with his own casts of insane characters.”
References and More Information:
Associated Press (AP), “John Barth, innovative postmodernist novelist, dies at 93,” Brian White, April 3, 2024, https://apnews.com/article/john-barth-obituary-hopkins-university-31a8f5779b524125940da17b4b15d3bf
Britannica.com, “The Sot Weed Factor,” https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Sot-Weed-Factor
Johns Hopkins Libraries. Barthomania Society collection, 1970-2000, https://aspace.library.jhu.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/52388
New York Times, “John Barth, Writer Who Pushed Storytelling’s Limits, Dies at 93,” Michael T. Kaufman and Dwight Garner, April 2, 2024; https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/02/books/john-barth-dead.html
The Telegraph, “John Barth, author whose novels Giles Goat-Boy and The Sot-Weed Factor became a cult – obituary,” April 11, 2024. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/john-barth-author-whose-novels-135253683.html
Washington Post, “John Barth, novelist who orchestrated literary fantasies, dies at 93 - His comic novels and metafictional stories made him a giant of postmodernism,” Harrison Smith, 2 April 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/04/02/john-barth-author-dead-obituary/
Jane Jewell is a writer, editor, photographer, and teacher. She has worked in news, publishing, and as the director of a national writer's group. She lives in Chestertown with her husband Peter Heck, a ginger cat named Riley, and a lot of books.
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