Rogers, Thomas Hunton 1927-

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Rogers, Thomas Hunton 1927-

PERSONAL:

Born June 23, 1927, in Chicago, IL; son of Thomas (a chemist) and Elizabeth (a chemist) Rogers; married Jacqueline Ragner, June 16, 1956; children: Rebecca, Susan. Education: Harvard University, B.A. (cum laude), 1950; University of Iowa, M.A., 1953, Ph. D., 1960. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Presbyterian.

ADDRESSES:

Home—State College, PA. Office—131 South Burrows, University Park, PA 16801. Agent—Georges Borchardt, Inc., 136 E. 57th St., New York, NY 10022.

CAREER:

University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, instructor, 1955-58, assistant professor of English, 1958-61; Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, assistant professor, 1961-68, associate professor, 1968-73, professor of English, 1973—. Military service: U.S. Army Air Forces, 1945-46.

MEMBER:

P.E.N.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Guggenheim grant, 1969; Rosenthal Foundation Award, 1973, for The Confession of a Child of the Century by Samuel Heather; Friends of American Writers prize, 1973.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

The Pursuit of Happiness, New American Library (New York, NY), 1968.

The Confession of a Child of the Century by Samuel Heather, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1972.

Jerry in Love, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1980.

Jerry Engels, Handsel Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor of stories and reviews to various periodicals.

ADAPTATIONS:

The Pursuit of Happiness was adapted as a film in 1971.

SIDELIGHTS:

Thomas Hunton Rogers's The Pursuit of Happiness, as a reviewer for Newsweek observed, is a decidedly pre-Vietnam and novel about a young disenchanted couple. A National Book Award nominee, it is the story of William Popper and Jane Kaufman, graduate students at the University of Chicago and children of good families. When William faces a one-year prison sentence for killing an old woman in a car accident, they realize they cannot pursue happiness in the United States and exile themselves to Mexico.

Rogers's second novel, The Confession of a Child of the Century by Samuel Heather, is a first-person narrative, told in the words of Samuel Heather. According to its "author," the book is a "comical historical pastoral" written in "a mixed style, both high and low, banal and eloquent, witty and sloppy." It begins in Kansas City in 1949, where Samuel, the son of the Episcopal bishop, is on vacation from Harvard. His story takes him from Boston to China by way of Korea, through a father-son struggle and love affairs with an Old Boston heiress and a Peking Maoist. After a stint with the CIA, he ends up writing successful spy novels.

In Jerry Engels, the title character is a 1951 college junior at Penn State who is obsessed with the erotic. Familiar with the scandalous new Kinsey report, Engels sleeps with his friend Anne while urging her to pursue her lesbianism. After giving one girlfriend a sexually transmitted disease, Engels begins a relationship with a recently divorced English teacher. "Their unlikely courtship … is both amusing and touching," noted Joanne Wilkinson in Booklist. A Kirkus Reviews contributor noted the author's "gently ironic dialogue," adding: "He's truly a novelist of the old school, who manages to elevate this dumb, girl-crazy boy into a sympathetic character."