Dan Wakefield

Dan Wakefield(May 21, 1932 – March 13, 2024) was an American novelist, journalist, and screenwriter.

Dan Wakefield
Born	(1932-05-21)May 21, 1932 Indianapolis, Indiana,U.S.
Died	March 13, 2024(2024-03-13)(aged 91) Miami, Florida,U.S.
Occupation	Novelist journalist screenwriter
Alma mater	Columbia University
Notable works	Going All the Way(1970) Starting Over(1973) New York in the Fifties(1992)
Website
danwakefield

His best-selling novels,Going All the Way(1970) andStarting Over(1973), were made into feature films.

Wakefield wrote the screenplay forGoing All the Way,which starredBen Affleck,Rachel WeiszandRose McGowan.

Wakefield created the NBC prime time television seriesJames at 15(1977–78) and was story editor of the series (1977).

His other notable works includeIsland in the City: The World of Spanish Harlem(1959), a pioneering journalistic account of a Puerto Rican neighborhood in New York, and the memoirNew York in the Fifties(2001), produced as a documentary film by Betsy Blankenbaker. His memoir,Returning: A Spiritual Journey(1988), was called byBill Moyers"one of the most important memoirs of the spirit I have ever read". He edited and wrote the Introduction toKurt Vonnegut Letters(2012). Wakefield received The Bernard DeVoto Fellowship at The Bread Loaf Writer Conference in 1958, a Nieman Fellowship in Journalism (1963–64) and a Rockefeller Grant in Writing, 1968.

Wakefield retired as writer in residence atFlorida International University(1995–2009), where he received The Faculty Award for Mentorship. He moved back to his home town of Indianapolis in 2011.

Early life and education

Dan Wakefield was born inIndianapolis, Indiana,where his family lived in theBroad Rippleneighborhood.

Wakefield went to Public School #80 andShortridge High School,where he began his writing career as a sports columnist for the school newspaper,The Shortridge Daily Echo,and was the school's sports correspondent forThe Indianapolis Star.He worked summers during college inThe Starsports department and as a general assignment reporter forThe Grand Rapids Press.

Wakefield left Indianapolis in 1952 for New York City, where he graduated fromColumbia College,with a B.A. with Honors in English, after having studied with the literary criticsMark Van DorenandLionel Trilling,as well as the sociologistC. Wright Mills.

Career

Wakefield worked as a reporter after college onThePrinceton Packet,New Jersey's oldest weekly, and left to become a research assistant for the sociologist C. Wright Mills, his professor at Columbia. His research duties left him time to begin his career as a freelance journalist, covering theEmmett Tillmurder trial in Mississippi forThe Nationmagazine, and continued to write for them from Israel in 1956, becoming a staff writer for the magazine on his return the same year. He also published in periodicals such asDissent,Commonweal,Commentary,New World Writing,Harpers,Esquire,The Atlantic,The Yoga Journal,GQandTV Guide.

On publication of his collection of articles and commentaryBetween The Lines(1966),The New York Timessaid he was "acknowledged to be one of the country's most perceptive and sensitive independent commentator-reporters". After his year as aNieman Fellow,he moved toBeacon HillinBoston,where he began writing forThe Atlantic,writing the entire issue of the magazine for March 1968, called "Supernation at Peace and War", which then was published as a book. He became a contributing editor ofThe Atlantic(1968-1981).

Wakefield taught writing at theUniversity of Massachusetts at Boston,Emerson College,Boston University,The University of IllinoisJournalism School and The Iowa Writers Workshop.

After publication of his memoirReturning,which began as an article inThe New York Times Magazine,Wakefield began giving workshops on spiritual autobiography, based on the course he took atKing's Chapel,originated by The Rev. Carl Scovel. Wakefield has led these workshops at churches, monasteries, synagogues, retreat centers, health spas, adult education centers and atSing Singprison, throughout the U.S. and in Northern Ireland and Mexico.

The Story of Your Life: Writing an Autobiographygrew out of the workshops. His other books in this area includeExpect a Miracle(1995) andThe Hi-Jacking of Jesus(2010).

He edited and wrote the Introduction of the letters of his friend and fellow Shortridge High School graduateKurt Vonnegut(Kurt Vonnegut Letters) as well as a collection of Vonnegut's graduation speeches and other related pieces (If This Isn’t Nice What Is?...).

In 2016, Open Road Media brought out all his five novels as well as his memoir,New York in the Fifties,as ebooks.

Personal life

During college, Wakefield became an atheist and did not return to church until 1980 when he went to a Christmas Eve service atKing's Chapel,aUnitarian Universalistcongregation in Boston.

Wakefield returned to Indianapolis to speak on a panel discussion of the work of Vonnegut at the Vonnegut Library and Museum in November 2011. A month later, he moved back to Indianapolis to live, thus contradicting Vonnegut's prediction in his review ofGoing All The WayinLife magazine(and reprinted inWampeters, Foma and Granfalloons:"Having written this book, Dan Wakefield will never be able to go back to Indianapolis. He will have to watch the500 mile raceon television "). After moving back, Wakefield was inducted into The Indianapolis Public Schools Hall of Fame, The Shortridge High School Hall of Fame,The Indy ReadsLiteracy Leaders Hall of Fame, and received a Cultural Vision Award from the news weeklyNUVO.

On June 1, 2016, the neighborhood park at 61st and Broadway Street in the Broad Ripple neighborhood of Indianapolis, Indiana, was renamed Dan Wakefield Park.

Wakefield said his philosophy of life was encompassed in a quote attributed toPhilo,the ancient Egyptian philosopher: “Be kind, for everyone you know is fighting a great battle.”

Wakefield died in Miami on March 13, 2024, at the age of 91.

Awards

• Nieman Fellowshipin Journalism
• Bernard DeVotoFellowship
• RockefellerGrant for Creative Arts
• National Endowment for the ArtsGrant

Works

Books

• Island in the City(1959)
• Revolt in the South(1962)
• The Addict: An Anthology(1963)
• Between The Lines(1965)
• Supernation at Peace and War(1968)
• Going All The Way(1970)
• Starting Over(1973)
• All Her Children: The Making of a Soap Opera(1975)
• Home Free(1977)
• Under The Apple Tree(1982)
• Selling Out(1985)
• Returning: A Spiritual Journey(1988)
• The Story of Your Life: Writing a Spiritual Autobiography,(Beacon Press), (1990)
• New York in the Fifties(1992)
• Expect a Miracle(1995)
• Creating from the Spirit(1996)
• How Do We Know When It's God?(1999)
• Releasing the Creative Spirit(SkyLight Paths), (2001)
• Spiritually Incorrect: Finding God in All the Wrong Places,(SkyLight Paths), (2003)
• The Hijacking of Jesus: How the Religious Right Distorts Christianity and Promotes Prejudice and Hate(Nation Books), (2006)
• If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice to the Young(Seven Stories Press), (2014)
• Editor,Kurt Vonnegut Letters(Random House), (2012)
• Editor,If This Isn't Nice What Is? Vonnegut's Graduation Speeches,(Seven Stories Press), (2013)
• Editor,Complete Stories by Kurt Vonnegut(Seven Stories Press), (2017)

Films and television

• Creator/consultant,James at 15(1977)
• Writer/co-producer,The Seduction of Miss Leona(1980)
• Writer,Going All the Way(1997)

External links

• Dan Wakefield,Facebookpage
• Dan Wakefield,Twitterpage
• Dan Wakefield website
• Dan Wakefield articlesatThe Nation
• Dan WakefieldatIMDb