The friction contributed to the failure of his first marriage. According to Conroy, members of his mother's family would picket his book signings, passing out pamphlets asking people not to buy the novel. The Great Santini caused friction within the Conroy family, who felt that he had betrayed family secrets by writing about his father. (According to My Losing Season, Donald Conroy was even worse than the character depicted in Santini. The character is based on Conroy's father Donald. Bull Meecham also psychologically abuses his teenage son Ben. The main character of the novel is Marine fighter pilot Colonel "Bull" Meecham, who dominates and terrorizes his family. In 1976, Conroy published his novel, The Great Santini. Hallmark produced a television version of the book in 2006. It was also made into a feature film, Conrack, starring Jon Voight in 1974. The book won Conroy a humanitarian award from the National Education Association and an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. He later wrote The Water Is Wide based on his experiences as a teacher. He then accepted a job teaching children in a one-room schoolhouse on remote Daufuskie Island, South Carolina.Ĭonroy was fired at the conclusion of his first year on the island for his unconventional teaching practices, including his refusal to use corporal punishment on students, and for his lack of respect for the school's administration. Īfter graduating from The Citadel, Conroy taught English in Beaufort, South Carolina while there he met and married Barbara Jones, a young widow of the Vietnam War who was pregnant with her second child. Colonel Courvoisie had been removed from his position as assistant commandant and given a job in the warehouse he paid to self-publish the book, borrowing the money from a bank. Conroy began the book in 1968, after learning that Lt. Colonel Thomas Nugent Courvousie, who had served as Assistant Commandant of Cadets at The Citadel from 1961 to 1968 Courvoisie was the inspiration for the fictional character Colonel Thomas Berrineau, a.k.a. His first book, The Boo, is a collection of anecdotes about cadet life centering on Lt. The latter details his senior year on the school's underdog basketball team, which won the longest game in the history of Southern Conference basketball against rival Virginia Military Institute in quadruple overtime in 1967. Conroy also cites his family's frequent military-related moves and growing up immersed in military culture as significant influences in his life (in both positive and negative ways).Ī standout athlete, he was recruited to The Citadel to play basketball his 2002 book My Losing Season focused on his experiences playing his senior year, and like The Lords of Discipline, also served as a retrospective of his cadet years.Īs a graduate of The Citadel's Corps of Cadets, his experiences there provided the basis for two of his best-known works, the novel The Lords of Discipline and the memoir My Losing Season. While living in Orlando, Florida, Conroy's fifth-grade basketball team defeated a team of sixth graders, making the sport his prime outlet for bottled-up emotions for more than a dozen years. The pain of a youth growing up in a harsh environment is evident in Conroy's novels, which use autobiographical material, particularly The Great Santini and The Prince of Tides. His alma mater is The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina in Charleston, where he graduated from the Corps of Cadets portion as an English major.Ĭonroy had said his stories were heavily influenced by his military brat upbringing, and in particular, difficulties experienced with his own father, a US Marine Corps pilot, who was physically and emotionally abusive toward his children. During his senior year in high school, he was a protégé of Ann Head who was an influence on his future writing. He did not have a hometown until his family settled in Beaufort, South Carolina, where he finished high school. His father was a Marine Corps fighter pilot, and Conroy moved often in his youth, attending 11 schools by the time he was 15.
Early life īorn in Atlanta, Georgia, he was the eldest of seven children (five boys and two girls) born to Marine Colonel Donald Conroy, of Chicago, Illinois, and the former Frances "Peggy" Peek of Alabama. He is recognized as a leading figure of late-20th-century Southern literature. Donald Patrick Conroy (Octo– March 4, 2016) was an American author who wrote several acclaimed novels and memoirs his books The Water is Wide, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini were made into films, the last two being nominated for Oscars.
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