A twentieth-century American fiction writer, he published over a dozen novels and was nominated for the 1985 PEN/Faulkner Award. His controversial works typically focus on the lives of social outcasts and members of minority groups and include such titles as Eustace Chisholm, Color of Darkness & Malcolm, and Garments the Living Wear. He taught French at Greenbriar Military School in West Virginia and subsequently earned a master's degree in English from the University of Chicago.
