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American writer George V. Higgins (1939-1999) is the subject of a major retrospective exhibition in the mezzanine exhibition gallery of Thomas Cooper Library Nov. 9 through Jan. 15, 2007.
The exhibition coincides with the opening of The George V. Higgins Archive at the University, a comprehensive collection of the author’s personal papers and manuscripts, acquired from the Higgins family in 2003.
An opening reception at 4:30 p.m. Nov. 9 in the library will feature remarks at 5 p.m. about Higgins and provide an introduction to the exhibition by Matthew J. Bruccoli, Jefferies Distinguished Professor of English, Emeritus.
Higgins, the author of The Friends of Eddie Coyle and 25 other novels, wrote gripping, ultra-realistic stories about individuals in crisis: criminals, police officers, lawyers, and politicians.
His work has been cited as a major influence by such acclaimed authors as Elmore Leonard, James Ellroy and David Mamet. The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1972) was hailed by The Observer as one of the top 20 American novels of the 20th century.
Higgins was born and lived outside of Boston and wrote extensively about Massachusetts. He wrote 26 novels, four nonfiction books, scores of short stories, newspaper and feature-length magazine journalism, literary criticism and book reviews, and quite literally hundreds of columns for three major newspapers.
He also had parallel careers as a prosecutor and U.S. attorney, a lawyer in private practice, and a professor and teacher of writing. The Friends of Eddie Coyle was his first published book, became a bestseller, and was later turned into a successful film starring Robert Mitchum and Peter Boyle.
Higgins kept up his law practice after becoming a published novelist, often taking on controversial cases such as the defense of Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver and successfully gaining a Presidential pardon for convicted Watergate burglar G. Gordon Liddy.
The exhibition documents the life and work of Higgins and provides an introduction to The Higgins Archive at USC. Items on display include manuscripts, first editions, personal photographs, correspondence with G. Gordon Liddy, Eldridge Cleaver, John Updike, and Robert Pinsky, and personal effects, including Higgins's college trumpet, .38 Special, and the quill pen flags once flown on his sailboat, the Scribbler.
The exhibition is supplemented by books from the Matthew J. and Arlyn Bruccoli Collection of George V. Higgins.
For information, contact Jeffrey Makala at 7-0296 or makalaj@gwm.sc.edu.
10/06
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George V. Higgins
