Jack Matthews (22 July 1925 – 28 November 2013) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright and former professor. He published 7 novels, 11 story collections, a novella, and 8 volumes of essays. He was an avid book collector, and many of his book finds served as a basis for his essays and the historical topics he explored in his fiction. His 1972 novel The Charisma Campaigns was nominated by Walker Percy for the National Book Award. He has often made 19th century America and the Civil War period the setting for his fiction, starting with his 1981 novel Sassafras and most recently with the 2011 novel Gambler's Nephew (which tells the story of how an abolitionist accidentally kills an escaped slave) and a 2015 story collection Soldier Boys: Tales of the Civil War. His plays have been performed at multiple theaters around the country.
Life
Jack Matthews (born John Harold Matthews) was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1925. According to a 2009 interview, Matthews "had a wonderful childhood and didn’t know there was a Depression. My father was an attorney, born on a farm in Gallia County, Ohio, who studied law under a country judge, passed the bar and eventually had his own law firm in Columbus." He served with the Coast Guard between 1943-5, working as "a radioman on the Coast Guard Cutter Maclaine in the North Pacific, on anti-submarine patrol out of Sitka & Juneau. It was wonderful, for this was the very sea that Wolf Larsen (a character from the [Sea-Wolf]) sailed in." According to a biographical profile written by critic Stanley Lindberg, Matthews studied at The Ohio State University in Columbus between 1945-9 and 1952-4 where he received a B.A. in classics and English in 1949; in 1954 he received his M.A. in English from the same university. After college, Matthews worked at various jobs that “gave me an excuse to knock on doors.” That included selling things door to door as a Fuller Brush Man and selling encyclopedias. For a short time he worked as a private detective and later as a produce warehouseman. While he and wife were raising two daughters, he worked 9 years with the Post Office on afternoons and nights; that gave him time to write and attend graduate classes in the morning. During the 1950s he worked as a post office clerk, and from 1959, he started teaching at various colleges. He was associate professor, 1959–62, and professor of English, 1962–64, Urbana College, Ohio; associate professor, 1964–70, Distinguished Writer-in-Residence, Wichita State University, Kansas, 1970-71. From 1971-77, he was professor of English and since 1978 Distinguished Professor, Ohio University, Athens.
Matthews was married for over 60 years to his wife Barbara. With Barbara, he had three children - John Harold III, Barbara Ellen (Barbiel), and Cynthia Ann. His daughter Barbiel Matthews-Saunders did cover and artwork for many of his fiction titles — including all of his later ebooks.
Matthews died on November 28, 2013, at his home in Athens, Ohio.
Later Publications
After teaching creative writing and critical approaches to fiction and drama over a period of four decades at Ohio University, Matthews retired, taught writing classes part-time, and devoted his energies to writing novels and stories. In 2011, he published A Worker's Writebook (a 75,000 word fiction writing guide which he handed out to his students) and Gambler's Nephew (an historically accurate story about how an accidental killing of a slave in 19th century United States affected various families and communities). Claire Blechman, reviewing the book for Ploughshares said, "For a story focused on morality and rife with violence, The Gambler’s Nephew is surprisingly light-hearted. Many contemporary authors try to make you writhe under the weight of heavy philosophical issues, but Matthews would rather you shake your head and give a small smile."
In March 2012, an early work, Hanger Stout, Awake!, was republished as an ebook. According to the ebook publisher's information, "Time Magazine described it as a 'gentle first novel told with a fine ear for adolescent patois,' and National Book Award winning poet William Stafford named this book as one of the most neglected works of the 20th century. Southern novelist Eudora Welty said about the book: 'I like it, and warmly admire his sturdy subject and delicately restrained treatment. It seemed to me blessed with honesty, clarity, directness, proportion and a lovely humor. . . .' The novella tells the story of Clyde Stout, a high school graduate in a small Ohio town who discovers he has a new talent: the ability to hang from a metal bar longer than anybody.