Duane Carr

Background

Duane Carr was born on November 16, 1934 in Ottawa, Kansas, United States to the family of a manual laborer Robert Henry Carr and a laundry worker Lora Martha Keim.

Education

Persuaded by a friend, Carr began attending classes at the University of Southern Colorado in Pueblo, eventually receiving a bachelor’s degree in English. From there he moved to El Paso to work on a master’s degree at the University of Texas and met his wife, a fiction writer who, at the time, was a newly arrived assistant professor at the university. At her urging, he pursued a doctorate at the University of Tulsa.

Career

After graduating from high school, Duane Carr moved to Denver and worked for sixteen years as an agent-telegrapher for the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad in various locations throughout Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico with one interrupt for military service in 1957-1959. Then, persuaded by a friend, he began attending classes at the University of Southern Colorado in Pueblo. After obtaining Bachelor and Master degrees Carr worked as an instructor at the University of Texas at El Paso, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the University of New Orleans. After completing the doctorate Carr and his wife moved to the Sacramento Mountains of southern New Mexico with their two youngest children to devote themselves to writing. After an additional move to the Ozarks, economic necessity forced them back into academia until they were at last able to return to Arkansas.

Achievements

• Duane Carr wrote two books that brought him acknowledgment as a writer.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Bough Of Summer

    (Fine Mid-Twentieth Century Coming of Age Novel A young ma...)

    1976
  • A Question of Class: The Redneck Stereotype in Southern Fiction

    (“Rednecks” have long been subjects of scorn and ridicule,...)

    1996

Views

Quotations: “Under the influence of Steinbeck and Hemingway, I wrote a novel, The Bough of Summer, in which I utilized my experiences on the railroad. The nonfiction, A Question of Class, came about after I encountered the erroneous conclusions about poor whites made by my academic colleagues. I am currently involved in writing essays that recount my own experiences of growing up poor. They represent an attempt to explain the lasting effects of childhood poverty on individuals.”

Interests

• piano, guitar, singing

• Writers

  Steinbeck, Hemingway

Connections

Duane Carr married a writer and university professor Pat Moore on March 26, 1971. They have four children: Stephanie, Michelle, Sean, Jennifer.

Father:

Robert Henry Carr

Mother:

Lora Martha Keim

Wife:

Pat Moore

Daughter:

Stephanie Carr

Daughter:

Michelle Carr

Son:

Sean Carr

Daughter:

Jennifer Carr

References

• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 166 This volume of Contemporary Authors contains biographical information on approximately 300 modern writers.
  1998