WRITER

William Gaddis

1922 - 1998

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William Thomas Gaddis Jr. (December 29, 1922 – December 16, 1998) was an American novelist. The first and longest of his five novels, The Recognitions, was named one of TIME magazine's 100 best novels from 1923 to 2005 and two others, J R and A Frolic of His Own, won the annual U.S. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of William Gaddis has received more than 481,338 page views. His biography is available in 25 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 21 in 2019). William Gaddis is the 4,362nd most popular writer (down from 4,255th in 2019), the 5,829th most popular biography from United States (up from 5,870th in 2019) and the 469th most popular American Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 480k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 49.33

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 25

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 3.14

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.55

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

JR
Fiction, Boys, Capitalists and financiers
1975
The recognitions
1955
Carpenter's gothic
Fiction, Married people, Veterans
1985
Agape agape
Fiction, Fathers and daughters, Terminally ill
1997
Agapē agape
Literature, Parent and adult child, Fiction
"Either the last true masterpiece of the 20th century or the first of our new millenium" —San Francisco ChronicleWilliam Gaddis published four novels during his lifetime, immense and complex books that helped inaugurate a new movement in American letters. Now comes his final work of fiction, a subtle, concentrated culmination of his art and ideas. For more than fifty years Gaddis collected notes for a book about the mechanization of the arts, told by way of a social history of the player piano in America. In the years before his death in 1998, he distilled the whole mass into a fiction, a dramatic monologue by an elderly man with a terminal illness. Continuing Gaddis's career-long reflection on those aspects of corporate technological culture that are uniquely destructive of the arts, Agape Agape is a stunning achievement from one of the indisputable masters of postwar American fiction.
2002
A frolic of his own
American Dramatists, Cases, College teachers
1994

Among WRITERS

Among writers, William Gaddis ranks 4,362 out of 7,302. Before him are Pierre Mac Orlan, Yury Trifonov, Feodor Gladkov, Jean-Richard Bloch, Elke Erb, and Frik. After him are Arkady Fiedler, Bhoja, Rūdolfs Blaumanis, Yōko Ogawa, Jacques Roumain, and Manuel José Quintana.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1922, William Gaddis ranks 267. Before him are José Luis López Vázquez, Juhan Smuul, Július Torma, Hal Moore, Agustina Bessa-Luís, and Gordon Tullock. After him are Ruby Dee, Károly Németh, Norman Lear, Lizabeth Scott, Leonel Brizola, and Pio Laghi. Among people deceased in 1998, William Gaddis ranks 194. Before him are Nicolas Bouvier, Wanda Jakubowska, Pruden, Jean Shiley, Marion Donovan, and Héctor Vilches. After him are Johannes Kotkas, Consalvo Sanesi, Fred Alderman, Vladimir Dudintsev, Junior Wells, and John Pulman.

Others Born in 1922

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Others Deceased in 1998

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In United States

Among people born in United States, William Gaddis ranks 5,829 out of 20,380. Before him are Herman Daly (1938), Kevin Conroy (1955), Steve Porcaro (1957), Harry Stenqvist (1893), Eileen Collins (1956), and Jess Willard (1881). After him are Barbara Harris (1935), Walter Lang (1896), Ruby Dee (1922), Joe Henderson (1937), Andy Griffith (1926), and Steven Zaillian (1953).

Others born in United States

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Among WRITERS In United States

Among writers born in United States, William Gaddis ranks 469. Before him are Philip Arthur Fisher (1907), Mike Resnick (1942), Helen Prejean (1939), Connie Willis (1945), Larry Collins (1929), and Robert G. Ingersoll (1833). After him are William Wharton (1925), Arthur Golden (1956), Charles Brockden Brown (1771), Norman Lear (1922), David Baldacci (1960), and Anna Katharine Green (1846).

American born Writers

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