John Nichols (writer)

{{Infobox writer

| name = John Nichols

| image = John Nichols (writer).jpg

| birth_name = John Treadwell Nichols

| birth_date = {{birth date|1940|7|23}}

| birth_place = Berkeley, California, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2023|11|27|1940|7|23}}

| death_place = Taos, New Mexico, U.S.

| alma_mater = Hamilton College

| occupation = Novelist

| period = 1965–2022

| children = 2

| relatives = {{ubl|William Weld (cousin)|John Treadwell Nichols (grandfather)|Anatole Le Braz (great-grandfather)|Tina Weymouth (second cousin)|Yann Weymouth (second cousin)}}

}}

John Treadwell Nichols (July 23, 1940 – November 27, 2023) was an American novelist. He wrote the New Mexico Trilogy - The Milagro Beanfield War (1974), The Magic Journey (1978), and The Nirvana Blues (1981) - as well as numerous other works of fiction and nonfiction.

Early life

Nichols was born in Berkeley, California, in 1940.{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/02/books/john-nichols-dead.html|title = John Nichols, Author of 'The Milagro Beanfield War,' Dies at 83|last = Roberts|first = Sam|authorlink = Sam Roberts (journalist)|date = December 2, 2023|accessdate = December 3, 2023|newspaper = The New York Times|url-access = limited}} He was the grandson of ichthyologist John Treadwell Nichols and a first cousin of Massachusetts politician William Weld.{{cite web |first=John |last=Nichols |url=http://www.johnnicholsbooks.com/johnnicholsbooks/Biography.html |title=Biography - John Nichols |work=JohnNicholsBooks.com |publisher=John Nichols |accessdate=March 11, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230121841/http://www.johnnicholsbooks.com/johnnicholsbooks/Biography.html |archive-date=December 30, 2016 |url-status=dead }} His mother, who died when Nichols was two years old, was from France but spent much of her childhood in Spain. He moved frequently as a child, and graduated from Hamilton College in 1962.

Writing career

=Fiction=

After graduating, he lived in Spain with his grandmother, where he wrote his first novel, The Sterile Cuckoo, which was published in 1965. He lived in Guatemala in the mid-1960s. This period was heavily influential on his political development. The Associated Press said his work was defined by an emphasis on social justice, and noted that he described himself as a "liberation ecologist".{{cite news |title=Writer John Nichols, author of 'The Milagro Beanfield War' with a social justice streak, dies at 83 |url=https://apnews.com/article/milagro-writer-john-nichols-dead-dbb65dedda8881349efdd75a00e04c98 |access-date=November 30, 2023 |publisher=Associated Press |date=November 29, 2023|last = Lee|first = Morgan}} Nichols later returned to the United States, living in SoHo, Manhattan for a short time before settling in Taos, New Mexico in 1969.

Nichols was the author of the "New Mexico trilogy", a series about the complex relationship among history, race and ethnicity, and land and water rights in the fictional town of Chamisaville, New Mexico.{{cite news |last=Tessier |first=D |title=John Nichols, unconventional socialist |url=http://newmexicoindependent.com/8074/socialism-to-save-the-planet|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110721185847/http://newmexicoindependent.com/8074/socialism-to-save-the-planet|archive-date = July 21, 2011 |work=New Mexico Independent |date=November 3, 2008 |accessdate=December 3, 2023}} The trilogy consists of The Milagro Beanfield War (which was adapted into a movie of the same title directed by Robert Redford), The Magic Journey, and The Nirvana Blues.

Two of his other novels have been made into films. The Sterile Cuckoo was adapted for a film by Alan J. Pakula in 1969.{{cite web |work=The New York Times |title=The Sterile Cuckoo (1969) Screen: 'The Sterile Cuckoo,' Old-Style TV Drama |authorlink=Vincent Canby |first=Vincent |last=Canby |date=October 23, 1969| url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9505E1D9163AE433A25750C2A9669D946891D6CF}} The Wizard of Loneliness was published in 1966, and the film version with Lukas Haas was made in 1988. He also had a hand, uncredited due to a decision in an arbitration with the Writers Guild, in the Oscar-winning Best Adapted Screenplay for Costa-Gavras' 1982 film Missing.{{cite web |url=http://www.milagroman.yolasite.com |title=John Nichols – American Author |accessdate=April 6, 2019}}

=Non-fiction=

Nichols also has written non-fiction, including the trilogy If Mountains Die, The Last Beautiful Days of Autumn and On the Mesa. After arriving in Taos in 1969, Nichols remained in northern New Mexico until his death. His last book was the memoir I Got Mine: Confessions of a Midlist Writer, published in 2022.{{Cite web|url=https://logosjournal.com/2023/review-john-nichols-i-got-mine-confessions-of-a-midlist-writer-albuquerque-high-road-books-2022/|title=REVIEW: John Nichols, I Got Mine: Confessions of a Midlist Writer (Albuquerque: High Road Books, 2022)|work = Logos Journal}} He is the subject of a feature documentary by director Kurt Jacobsen and co-producer Warren Leming entitled The Milagro Man: The Irrepressible Multicultural Life and Literary Times of John Nichols, which premiered at the 2012 Albuquerque Film Festival and screened at a dozen more film festivals.{{Cite web|title=The Milagro Man|url=http://milagroman.yolasite.com/|website=}}

Photography

Nichols was also a photographer. Many of his photographs appear in his book On the Mesa, among others. He also participated as an instructor in fine art photographic workshops, most notably with the Los Angeles photographer Ray McSavaney. He was long-time political activist for progressive and especially environmental causes.{{Cite book|last=Jacobsen|first=Kurt|title="An Interview with John Nichols" in Maverick Voices: Conversations with Political and Cultural Rebels|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2004}}

Personal life and death

Nichols was married three times, with the marriages ending in divorce. He had two children from his first marriage.

Nichols died from heart failure at his home in Taos on November 27, 2023, aged 83.{{Cite web |url=https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/acclaimed-author-of-the-milagro-beanfield-war-john-nichols-dies/article_5bce1be4-8e0c-11ee-8c8b-e7337fbee002.html |title=Acclaimed author of the 'Milagro Beanfield War,' John Nichols, dies |first1=Lynne |last1=Robinson |website=Santa Fe New Mexican |date=November 28, 2023 |access-date=November 28, 2023}}

Published works

= Novels =

{{cite book |title=The Sterile Cuckoo (novel) |publisher=David McKay Company, Inc. |year=1965}}
{{cite book |title=The Wizard of Loneliness |publisher=Putnams |year=1966}}
New Mexico Trilogy
{{cite book |title=The Milagro Beanfield War (novel) |publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston |year=1974}}
{{cite book |title=The Magic Journey |publisher=Holt, Rinehart, and Winston |year=1978 |isbn=9780345310491}}
{{cite book |title=The Nirvana Blues |publisher=Holt, Rinehart, and Winston |year=1981 |isbn=9780345304650 }}
{{cite book |title=A Ghost in the Music|publisher=Holt, Rinehart, and Winston |year=1979 |isbn=9780030425769 }}
{{cite book |title=American Blood |publisher=Henry Holt & Co |year=1987}}
{{cite book |title=An Elegy for September |publisher=Henry Holt & Co |year=1992 |isbn=9780805019940 }}
{{cite book |title=Conjugal Bliss: A Comedy of Martial Arts |publisher=Henry Holt & Co |year=1994}}
{{cite book |title=The Voice of the Butterfly |publisher=Chronicle Books |year=2001 |isbn=9780811832014 }}
{{cite book |title=The Empanada Brotherhood |publisher=Chronicle Books |year=2007}}
{{cite book |title=On Top Of Spoon Mountain |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |year=2012}}
{{cite book |title=The Annual Big Arsenic Fishing Contest! |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |year=2016}}
{{cite book |title=Goodbye, Monique |publisher=Acequia Madre Press |year=2019}}

= Non-fiction =

Non-fiction trilogy
{{cite book |title=If Mountains Die: A New Mexico Memoir |others=With William Davis (photographer) |publisher=Knopf |year=1979}}
{{cite book |title=The Last Beautiful Days of Autumn |publisher=Henry Holt & Co |year=1982 }}
{{cite book |title=On the Mesa |publisher=Gibbs Smith |year=1986}}
{{cite book |title=A Fragile Beauty: John Nichols' Milagro Country |publisher=Gibbs Smith |year=1987}}
{{cite book |title=Keep It Simple: A Defense of the Earth |publisher=Norton |year=1992}}
{{cite book |title=Dancing on the Stones:Selected Essays |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |year=2000}}
{{cite book |title=An American Child Supreme: The Education of a Liberation Ecologist |publisher=Milkweed Editions |year=2001|isbn=9781571312532 }}
I Got Mine: Confessions of a Midlist Writer University of New Mexico Press 2022

References

11. "Taos loses a literary icon", Taos News, December 12, 2023,https://www.taosnews.com/obituaries/taos-loses-a-literary-icon/article_63b1fbe4-6701-5c5a-9707-28c8a7d4e8cd.html

Category:1940 births

Category:2023 deaths

Category:20th-century American male writers

Category:20th-century American novelists

Category:21st-century American male writers

Category:21st-century American novelists

Category:American expatriates in Guatemala

Category:American expatriates in Spain

Category:American male novelists

Category:American people of English descent

Category:American people of French descent

Category:Deaths from congestive heart failure in the United States