Communities David Rhodes '69
Author returns to the literary scene with Driftless
"It's just simply awe-inspiring and stunning how things unfold on a minute by minute basis and become constantly renewed. To try to get that down of course is an impossible task, but the attempt to put it down, nevertheless, is a valuable experience in itself," says David Rhodes ‘69, while reflecting on the path which led him to the publication of Driftless, his first novel in over thirty years.
Literary success came quickly for Rhodes after leaving Marlboro. He was accepted into the renowned University of Iowa Writer's Workshop, and the three novels he wrote before 1975 earned him a popular following as well as a reputation as "one of the best eyes in recent fiction," according to novelist and critic John Gardner.
Then a 1976 motorcycle accident left him paralyzed from the waist down. Rhodes continued to write during his years of recovery, but did not attempt to publish again until he was rediscovered by the editors of Milkweed Editions.
"Writing for me was always a way of slowing my life down and being able to look at it through the characters that I was working on. Living through the characters and watching how they developed and watching how they would deal with their emotions gave me the time and the space to figure out better how I was feeling about things," says Rhodes, who has lived in the same, century-old farmhouse in southwestern Wisconsin since 1972.
The manuscript for Rhodes' first novel, The Last Fair Deal Going Down, was part of his Plan of Concentration at Marlboro. He recalls one of the most crucial moments in his writing career occurring when former faculty member Peter Lefcourt, who was his plan sponsor, read the story. "He basically said, ‘this is what you need to do. This is the real thing," Rhodes recalls.
Rhodes would like to see Marlboro remain the same sort of college that he attended. "It fills a niche that it needs to fill for a certain number of students that want that kind of environment," he says. "I just can't imagine ever finding another place that works as well for me. It was just really important that I found Marlboro. Or it found me, one or the other."