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Minnesota Humanities Commission

Tim O'Brien

Biographical Notes

Date of birth: October 1, 1946, Austin, Minnesota

Tim O'Brien. Author. B.A., Macalester College, political science, 1968. Although against the Vietnam War, he was drafted in 1968 and served until 1970. Assigned to Third Platoon, A Company, Fifth Battalion, Forty-sixth Infantry as a foot soldier; awarded the Purple Heart. Postgraduate study, School of Government, Harvard University, 1970; interned at the Washington Post. National affairs reporter, Washington Post, 1974-75. Wrote several novels, including Northern Lights (1975), set in the northern Minnesota region, and Going after Cacciato (1978), based on his Vietnam War experience. Contributor to national magazines. O. Henry Award, 1976 and 1978; Best American Short Stories Award, 1977; National Book Award for Fiction, 1979. His war memoir, If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home (1973), was named Outstanding Book of 1973 by the New York Times.

Selected Works

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Tim O'Brien book cover

Additional Resources

Sources used to prepare this author entry

The following bibliography may include links to Web sites that are no longer operable or have changed location. The sources are shown as they existed in the fall of 1999 when the entries were compiled.
  • Barron, Ron. A Guide to Minnesota Writers: Expanded and Revised. Minnesota: Minnesota Council of Teachers of English, 1993.
  • Contemporary Authors. Vol. 85-88. Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1980.
  • Knapp, Marilyn. "Tim O'Brien Biography," 21 Nov. 1998. Online. Accessed 24 Aug. 1999. http://www.illyria.com/tobbio.html
  • Lee, Don. "Tim O'Brien Profile," 1995. Online. Accessed 24 Aug. 1999. http://www.emerson.edu/ploughshares/Winter1995/O'Brien_Profile.html
  • Minneapolis Star, 24 Apr. 1979, p. 5A.
  • Minneapolis Tribune, 10 Mar. 1979, Saturday Magazine, p. 4.
  • Minneapolis Tribune, 18 Mar. 1979, p. 1G.
  • Minneapolis Tribune, 24 Apr. 1979, p. 6A.


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