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Arts & Entertainment

Writers in Residence in Fairfield County

Some authors produced outstanding work while living in our midst

Copasetic. That’s the word that seems to best explain the relationship between Fairfield County and its legions of writers: They find it to be completely satisfactory.

Each town seems to have its own stable of famous writers, from the past and present, often cited for boasting rights on town directories.

Following up on last week’s list of , Patch did a quick (and inexhaustive) survey to compile a list of famous and somewhat less so devotees of the written word. Here follows a preliminary posting (in alphabetical order by town) of published writers who have spent some time in this area (full-time and weekending and everything in between), with some of their best-known works. Help us fill it out in the comments section below!

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Bridgeport

  • Joseph Payne Brennan (writer or fantasy and horror fiction)

 

Find out what's happening in Fairfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Darien

  • Richard Bissell (novelist and playwright)
  • Erskine Caldwell (Tobacco Road, God's Little Acre)
  • Tom Gammill (Emmy-winning TV producer and writer)
  • Anne Morrow Lindbergh (Dearly Beloved, Gift from the Sea)

 

Easton

  • Elise Broach (children’s book author, When Dinosaurs Came with Everything)
  • James Prosek author of 20 books (including Eels and A Connecticut Yankee Follows in the Footsteps of Walton, The Complete Angler) besides being an artist, naturalist and photographer.
  • Edna Ferber, novelist and playwright (So Big, Show Boat)
  • Helen Keller, author (Out of the Dark, The World I Live In)
  • Ida M. Tarbell, muckraking non-fiction writer (The History of the Standard Oil Company)

 

Fairfield

  • Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989), the only winner of a Pulitzer Prize for both fiction and poetry (All the King’s Men)
  • Pat Jordan (sportswriter, A False Spring)
  • Susan Cooper (author of The Dark is Rising, an award-winning five-volume fantasy saga set in and around England and Wales )

 

Greenwich

  • Taylor Caldwell (1900–1985)(novelist)(Tobacco Road, God’s Little Acre)
  • Truman Capote (1924–1984) (novelist, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, In Cold Blood)
  • Caroline B. Cooney (horror and mystery author)
  • A. J. Cronin (1896–1981) (Scottish author) (The Keys of the Kingdom)
  • Frederick Exley (1929–1992) (author)(A Fan’s Notes)
  • Howard Fast (Greenwich and Redding)(1914–2003)(author, Spartacus and dozens of novels)
  • Anya Seton (1904–1990) (author of historical romances)(Foxfire and Dragonwyck)

 

New Canaan

  • Armstrong Sperry (children’s book author, Call It Courage)
  • Ann Coulter (author and columnist, High Crimes and Misdemeanors)
  • Norman Cousins (magazine editor and author, Human Options)
  • Jack Douglas (humorist, My Brother Was an Only Child)
  • Phoebe Dunn (children’s book writer, The Little Pig)
  • Gerald Green (author, The Last Angry Man)
  • Warren Allen Smith (author of Who’s Who in Hell)

 

Norwalk

  • Author Philip Caputo (A Rumor of War)
  • Johnny Gruelle (author, children’s book illustrator and creator of Raggedy Ann)

 

Redding

  • Joel Barlow (1754-1812), epic poet (The Vision of Columbus and Columbia)
  • Tasha Tudor (1915-2008) (children’s book author and illustrator, Pumpkin Moonshine, Corgiville Fair)
  • Flannery O’Connor (novelist who wrote Wise Blood while living in Redding from 1949-51)
  • Elizabeth Janeway (Daisy Kenyon)
  • Joseph Wood Krutch (The Modern Temper)
  • Jane and Michael Stern (authors of Roadfood and other books)
  • Albert Bigelow Paine (biographer, Thomas Nast)
  • Ruth Stout (wrote about organic gardening)
  • Anne Parrish Titzell (1888-1957) (children’s book author, Pocket Full of Poses)
  • Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock
  • Mark Twain (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)
  • William H. Honan (author, Visions of Infamy, Treasure Hunt)
  • (Disclosure: Mr. Honan is the writer’s husband.)

 

Ridgefield

  • Judy Collins (singer-songwriter-novelist, Trust Your Heart, Sanity and Grace)
  • Harvey Fierstein (playwright, Torch Song Trilogy)
  • Eugene O’Neill (playwright, Long Day’s Journey Into Night)
  • Cornelius Ryan (The Longest Day, A Bridge Too Far)
  • Maurice Sendak (children’s book author and illustrator, Where the Wild Things Are)
  • Richard Scarry (children’s book author and illustrator, What Do People Do All Day?)
  • Andy Luckey (children’s book author and illustrator, Spin & Sparkle)
  • Clare Booth Luce (playwright, The Women)

 

Stamford

  • William F. Buckley, Jr. (author and columnist, God and Man at Yale)
  • Harry Harrison (science fiction writer, Make Room! Make Room!)
  • John Hawkes (novelist, The Lime Tree, The Beetle Leg)

 

Weston

  • Erica Jong (novelist and poet, Fear of Flying)
  • Keith Richards (Life)
  • James Thurber (Short storywriter, My Life and Hard Times)

 

Westport

 

Wilton

  • Ira Levin (playwright and novelist, Deathtrap and A Kiss Before Dying)
  • Ingri & Edgar Parin d’Aulaire (children’s book authors, The Terrible Troll Birds, East of the Sun and West of the Moon)
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