Terry Southern facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Terry Southern
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Southern in the North Texas Agricultural College yearbook, 1940s
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| Born | May 1, 1924 Alvarado, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | October 29, 1995 (aged 71) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation |
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| Education | Northwestern University (BA) |
| Literary movement | New Journalism |
| Notable works |
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| Spouse |
Carol Kauffman Southern
(m. 1956; div. 1965) |
| Children | Nile Southern |
Terry Southern (born May 1, 1924 – died October 29, 1995) was an American writer. He wrote novels, essays, and screenplays for movies. He was known for his unique and funny style, often using satire. Satire is a way of using humor, irony, or exaggeration to criticize people's mistakes or foolishness.
Terry Southern was an important part of the writing scene in Paris in the 1950s. He also spent time with the Beat Generation writers in Greenwich Village, New York. In the 1960s, he was involved in Swinging London, a time when London was a center for fashion and music. He helped change how American movies were made in the 1970s. Later, he even wrote for the TV show Saturday Night Live for a short time in the 1980s. His funny and sometimes strange writing style influenced many writers, readers, and filmmakers.
Contents
About Terry Southern
Early Life and Education
Terry Southern was born in Alvarado, Texas. He finished high school in Dallas, Texas in 1941. He studied for a year at North Texas Agricultural College before going to Southern Methodist University. There, he became very interested in literature.
From 1943 to 1945, he served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He was a demolitions technician, which means he worked with explosives. He was stationed in Reading, England, which allowed him to visit London often. He earned a Bronze Star and a Good Conduct Medal for his service. After the war, he continued his studies at the University of Chicago and then at Northwestern University. He earned his degree in philosophy in 1948.
Living in Paris and Early Writing
In 1948, Southern moved to France using a special grant for veterans. He studied at the Sorbonne for four years. This time in Paris was very important for him as a writer. He became a key person in the American writer community there. He made friends with other writers like Mason Hoffenberg, Alexander Trocchi, and Mordecai Richler. He also met famous French thinkers like Jean Cocteau, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus.
During the early 1950s, he wrote some of his best short stories. His story "The Accident" was one of the first stories published in Paris Review when it started in 1953. He became good friends with the magazine's founders, including George Plimpton.
In 1952, he met a French model named Pud Gadiot. They got married and moved to New York City.
Life in New York City
In 1953, Southern and Pud Gadiot settled in Greenwich Village in New York City. Just like in Paris, Southern quickly became a well-known person in the art scene there. He met artists like Robert Frank and Larry Rivers. Through his friend Mason Hoffenberg, he also met famous Beat writers such as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Gregory Corso.
Southern often visited famous jazz clubs in New York. During this time, he became very interested in the work of British writer Henry Green. Green's writing had a big impact on Southern's early work.
Southern found it hard to get his work recognized at first. He wrote short stories and worked on his first solo novel, Flash and Filigree. Most of his stories were rejected by magazines. His wife, Pud, supported him during this time. However, their marriage ended in 1954.
Things started to improve for Southern when he got a literary agent in 1954. Through them, three of his short stories were accepted by Harper's Magazine.
In October 1955, Southern met Carol Kauffman, a model and editor. They got married in July 1956.
Time in Geneva and Published Works
Southern and Carol moved to Europe in 1956, living in Geneva, Switzerland, until 1959. Carol worked for UNESCO, which helped support them while Southern continued to write. This was a very productive time for him. He worked on Flash and Filigree, Candy, and The Magic Christian, as well as TV scripts and short stories. They visited Paris and London, where Southern met Henry Green.
In 1958, Southern started writing for movies. He worked with Canadian director Ted Kotcheff on a TV adaptation of The Emperor Jones. This was shown in the UK in March. Around the same time, his novel Flash and Filigree was published. It was well-received in the UK but not as much in the U.S.
His novel Candy, which he wrote with Mason Hoffenberg, was published in October 1958. It was immediately banned by the Paris police because of its content.
The Magic Christian, Southern's first novel written by himself, explores how money can corrupt people in a funny way. It was published in 1959 and quickly became popular with a special group of fans. After this, the Southerns decided to move back to the U.S. in April 1959.
Return to the U.S. and Family Life
After moving back to the U.S., Terry and Carol Southern bought their own home. Their son, Nile Southern, was born on December 29, 1960. Around this time, Southern started writing for a new magazine called Olympia Review. He also worked to have Candy reissued under his and Hoffenberg's real names.
In the summer of 1962, Southern worked as an editor at Esquire magazine for two months. He also had several stories published there.
Success in Hollywood
Terry Southern's career changed greatly on November 2, 1962. He received a message inviting him to London to work on a movie script for director Stanley Kubrick.
Kubrick asked Southern to help rewrite the screenplay for his new film, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). The movie was based on a book called Red Alert. Kubrick and the original writer, Peter George, had planned it as a serious thriller. Southern's main contribution was to help turn the script into a black comedy, which is a type of comedy that deals with serious or dark subjects in a humorous way.
Southern worked on the script for a short but intense period, from November 16 to December 28, 1962. Kubrick, George, and Southern all shared credit for the screenplay. However, there was some confusion and disagreement about who wrote what, partly because actor Peter Sellers often made up lines on the spot during filming.
After Dr. Strangelove was released in 1964, Southern received a lot of media attention. Many people wrongly gave him most of the credit for the screenplay, which he did not correct. This upset both Kubrick and Peter George. George wrote a letter to Life magazine, explaining that he and Kubrick had worked on the script for 10 months, while Southern was only involved for a short time.
Career Boom and Later Films
Southern's writing career really took off in 1963. His essay "Twirlin' at Ole Miss" was published in Esquire and is now considered an important example of New Journalism, a style of writing that uses literary techniques in non-fiction. Many other essays followed. The U.S. publication of Candy also became a huge success, becoming the second best-selling fiction book in America in 1963.
The success of Dr. Strangelove and Candy made Southern one of the most famous writers of his time. For the next six years, he lived a glamorous life, working with international stars in film, music, and TV. His work on Dr. Strangelove led to many well-paying jobs as a screenwriter. He could now charge much more for his work.
In the late 1960s, Southern worked on the screenplays for several popular films. These included The Loved One (1965), The Collector (1965), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), Casino Royale (1967), Barbarella (1968), Easy Rider (1969), The Magic Christian (1969), and End of the Road (1970).
He and Carol Kauffman divorced in 1965.
Challenges and Later Career
Southern's fame began to fade in the 1970s. He had fewer movie credits, and he wrote fewer books and stories. He also faced ongoing money problems. In 1968, he signed a pledge to refuse to pay taxes as a protest against the Vietnam War.
In 1970, Southern had to ask Dennis Hopper for a share of the profits from the movie Easy Rider, but Hopper refused. While his creative partners became wealthy from the film's success, Southern often struggled financially. He frequently had to take on work just to pay tax bills and keep up with his house payments.
His novel Blue Movie was published in 1970. It received mixed reviews, and its sales were hurt because The New York Times refused to run ads for it.
Southern worked on several screenplays after Easy Rider. While actors Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper claimed that much of Easy Rider was made up on the spot, Southern mostly stayed quiet about his own role in writing it.
Because of his money problems, Southern took a job teaching screenwriting at New York University from 1972 to 1974. He also started writing for National Lampoon magazine in 1972.
His only movie credit in the 1970s was for a TV movie called Stop Thief!. Even though he lived far from New York City, Southern kept up his social life there. He often visited places like Studio 54 and parties hosted by George Plimpton.
Final Years and Legacy
In 1984, Southern turned 60. His career continued to have ups and downs. His book Flash and Filigree was reissued. He also worked on a script about a jewel thief. However, he had problems with a new book he was writing about his childhood in Texas, and he had to give back an advance payment. In 1985, Candy and The Magic Christian were reprinted, and Southern was featured in a documentary about writer William S. Burroughs.
In 1989, Southern had surgery for stomach cancer. After recovering, he worked on a project about Howard Hughes. He also taught at the Sundance Screenwriters Lab.
With encouragement from his son Nile, Southern went back to his Texas novel. It was published in 1992 as Texas Summer. That same year, Southern was invited to teach screenwriting at Columbia University, where he worked until his death.
Southern's health declined in his last two years. He had a mild stroke in 1992. In September 1995, he received the Gotham Award for his lifetime achievements in film.
On October 25, 1995, Southern collapsed at Columbia University while going to class. He was taken to the hospital and died four days later from respiratory failure. He was 71 years old.
In 2003, Southern's collection of writings, letters, and photographs was acquired by the New York Public Library.
Works
Books
- Flash and Filigree (1958)
- Candy (with Mason Hoffenberg) (1958)
- The Magic Christian (1959)
- Blue Movie (1970)
- Texas Summer (1992)
- Now Dig This: The Unspeakable Writings of Terry Southern, 1950–1995 (2001)
Screenplays
- Dr. Strangelove (with Stanley Kubrick and Peter George) (1964)
- The Loved One (with Christopher Isherwood) (1965)
- The Collector (with John Kohn and Stanley Mann; uncredited) (1965)
- The Cincinnati Kid (with Ring Lardner Jr.) (1966)
- Casino Royale (1967) (with John Law, Wolf Mankowitz and Michael Sayers; uncredited)
- Barbarella (with Roger Vadim, Claude Brule, Vittorio Bonicelli, Clement Biddle Wood, Brian Degas and Tudor Gates) (1968)
- Easy Rider (with Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper) (1969)
- The End of the Road (with Dennis McGuire and Aram Avakian) (1969)
- The Magic Christian (with Joseph McGrath) (1969)
- The Telephone (with Harry Nilsson) (1988)
Awards and Nominations
- 1963 O. Henry Award; "The Road Out of Axotle", published in Esquire, August 1962
- 1964 Writers Guild of America; Screenwriter's Award for Best Written American Comedy of 1964, for Dr. Strangelove
- 1964 Academy Award nomination for Best Writing (Adaptation) for Dr. Strangelove
- 1965 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation for Dr. Strangelove
- 1969 Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay; Easy Rider (with Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper)
- 1975 The Paris Review; Funniest Story of the Year; "Heavy Put-Away, or, A Hustle Not Devoid of a Certain Grossness, Granted"
- 1994 Gotham Award; Writer Award
Images for kids
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Southern in the North Texas Agricultural College yearbook, 1940s
See also
In Spanish: Terry Southern para niños
