Dorris, Michael 1945–1997

views updated

Dorris, Michael 1945–1997

(Michael Anthony Dorris, Milou North, a joint pseudonym)

PERSONAL: Born January 30, 1945, in Louisville, KY (some sources say Dayton, WA); committed suicide April 11, 1997, in Concord, NH; son of Jim and Mary Besy (Burkhardt) Dorris; married Louise Erdrich (a writer), 1981; children: Reynold Abel, Jeffrey Sava, Madele Hannah, Persia Andromeda, Pallas Antigone, Aza Marion. Education: Georgetown University, B.A. (cum laude), 1967; Yale University, M.Phil., 1970.

CAREER: University of Redlands, Johnston College, Redlands, CA, assistant professor, 1970; Franconia College, Franconia, NH, assistant professor, 1971–72; Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, instructor, 1972–76, assistant professor, 1976–79, associate professor, 1979, professor of anthropology, 1979–88, chair of Native American studies department, 1979–85, chair of Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program, 1982–85, adjunct professor, 1989–97. University of New Hampshire, visiting senior lecturer, 1980. Director of urban bus program, summers, 1967, 1968, and 1969. Society for Applied Anthropology, fellow, 1977–97; Save the Children Foundation, board member, 1991–92, advisory board member, 1992–97; U.S. Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality, member, 1992–97. Consultant to National Endowment for the Humanities, 1976–97, and to television stations, including Los Angeles Educational Television, 1976, and Toledo Public Broadcast Center, 1978. Appeared on numerous radio and television programs.

MEMBER: PEN, Author's Guild, Writer's Guild, Modern Language Association of America (delegate assembly and member of minority commission, 1974–77), American Anthropological Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science (opportunities in science commission, 1974–77), National Indian Education Association, National Congress of American Indians, National Support Committee (Native American Rights Fund), Save the Children (board of directors, 1993–94), Research Society on Alcoholism, National Organization for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Sigma Nu.

AWARDS, HONORS: Woodrow Wilson fellow, 1967 and 1980; fellowships from National Institute of Mental Health, 1970 and 1971, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, 1978, Rockefeller Foundation, 1985, National Endowment for the Arts, 1989, and Dartmouth College, 1992; Indian Achievement Award, 1985; best book citation, American Library Association, 1988, for A Yellow Raft in Blue Water; PEN Syndicated Fiction Award, 1988, for "Name Games"; honorary degree, Georgetown University, 1989; National Book Critics Circle Award for general nonfiction, 1989, and Christopher Award, Heartland Prize, and Outstanding Academic Book, Choice, all 1990, all for The Broken Cord: A Family's Ongoing Struggle with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome; Medal of Outstanding Leadership and Achievement, Dartmouth College, 1991; Sarah Josepha Hale Literary Award, 1991; Scott Newman Award, 1992, and Gabriel Award for National Entertainment Program, ARC Media Award, Christopher Award, Writers Guild of America award, and Media Award, American Psychology Association, all for television film of The Broken Cord: A Family's Ongoing Struggle with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome; Montgomery fellow, Dartmouth College, 1992; International Pathfinder Award, World Conference on the Family, 1992; Award for Excellence, Center for Anthropology and Journalism, 1992, for essays on Zimbabwe; Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, American Library Association, 1992, for Morning Girl.

WRITINGS:

Native Americans: Five Hundred Years After (nonfiction), photographs by Joseph C. Farber, Crowell (New York, NY), 1977.

(As Michael A. Dorris, with Arlene B. Hirschfelder and Mary Gloyne Byler) A Guide to Research on North American Indians (nonfiction), American Library Association (Chicago, IL), 1983.

A Yellow Raft in Blue Water (novel), Holt (New York, NY), 1987.

The Broken Cord: A Family's Ongoing Struggle with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (nonfiction), foreword by wife, Louise Erdrich, Harper (New York, NY), 1989, published as The Broken Cord: A Father's Story, Collins (New York, NY), 1990.

(With Louise Erdrich) The Crown of Columbus (novel), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1991.

(With Louise Erdrich) Route Two and Back, Lord John, 1991.

Morning Girl (young adult novel), Hyperion (New York, NY), 1992.

Rooms in the House of Stone (nonfiction), Milkweed Editions (Minneapolis, MN), 1993.

Working Men (stories), Holt (New York, NY), 1993.

Paper Trail (essays), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1994.

Guests (young adult novel), Hyperion (New York, NY), 1995.

Sees behind Trees, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1996.

Cloud Chamber (novel), Scribners (New York, NY), 1997.

The Window (young adult novel), Hyperion (New York, NY), 1997.

(Editor) The Most Wonderful Books: Writers on Discovering the Pleasures of Reading, Milkweed Editions, 1997.

Also author of article "House of Stone" and short story "Name Games." Contributor to books, including Racism in the Textbook, Council on Interracial Books for Children, 1976; Separatist Movements, edited by Ray Hall, Pergamon, 1979; and Heaven Is under Our Feet, edited by Don Henley and Dave Marsh, Longmeadow Press, 1991. Contributor of articles, poems, short stories, and reviews to periodicals, including Chicago Tribune, Life, Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, New York Times Book Review, Parents magazine, Vogue, and Woman (with Louise Erdrich, under the joint pseudonym Milou North). Viewpoint, editor, 1967; American Indian Culture and Research Journal, member of editorial board, 1974–97; MELUS, member of editorial board, 1977–79. Author of screen treatment to Sleeping Lady, Mirage Films/Sydney Pollack, 1991; author of songs with Judy Rodman, Warner-Chappell Music, 1993.

ADAPTATIONS: The Broken Cord: A Family's Ongoing Struggle with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome was produced for television by Universal Television/ABC-TV, 1992. A Yellow Raft in Blue Water and The Broken Cord: A Family's Ongoing Struggle with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome were released on audiocassette by HarperAudio, 1990; The Crown of Columbus was released on audiocassette by HarperAudio, 1991. Film rights to The Crown of Columbus were sold to Cinecom.

SIDELIGHTS: Deemed by many reviewers as one of the most renowned Native American writers of his generation, Michael Dorris helped to promote the study of Native American culture through his works of nonfiction and fiction. Part Modoc on his father's side, Dorris coauthored a North American Indian research guide, founded the Native American Studies Department at Dartmouth College, created juvenile stories about Native American life, and researched Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)—the abnormalities occurring in a child when alcohol consumption during pregnancy destroys the brain cells of the fetus. FAS is a particular concern of some Native Americans since the rate of alcohol abuse is higher than the national average on reservations.

Dorris first became aware of FAS when, as a single parent, he adopted a three-year-old Sioux boy who had been taken from his neglectful, alcoholic mother. Dorris, unaware of the physical and mental impact of FAS, initially believed that with love and security his adopted son would outgrow many of his health and behavior problems. Over time, however, developmental impairments in the child became more obvious and limitations more pronounced. In addition to seizures and physical dysfunctions, his son experienced poor vision, near deafness, and slow growth, and was unable to relate cause and effect. After consulting with numerous professionals, Dorris regretfully learned that his son was not getting better. In 1982 Dorris discovered that his son's problems stemmed from FAS; the boy's biological mother, who died of alcohol poisoning, drank heavily during her pregnancy. The discovery inspired Dorris to confront the topic of alcoholism among Native Americans. His extensive research and personal story led to the publication of The Broken Cord: A Family's Ongoing Struggle with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome—also published as The Broken Cord: A Father's Story—a semi-autobiographical account of the events leading up to and succeeding the adoption of his son (called Adam in the book) along with the information Dorris unearthed on FAS.

Granted the National Book Critics Circle Award for general nonfiction, The Broken Cord received widespread praise for Dorris's sharing of his personal story as well as the statistical information he gathered. "The Broken Cord, beautifully written, angry, dispassionate, painfully honest, is the deeply moving and fierce story of Michael Dorris's search for answers," noted Detroit News contributor Stephen Salisbury. "Part memoir, part mystery, part love story, polemic, and social and public-health study, this is that rare book that focuses attention like a magnifying glass on a hot, sunny day. It burns." Carl A. Hammerschlag wrote in the Los Angeles Times Book Review that "it is not enough to say that The Broken Cord … is good. Written like a prayer from the heart of someone strong enough to share his pain, it tells a tale of crimes against Native American children that approach the dimensions of genocide…. Whatever the theories of causation, alcohol is threatening to destroy 1.5 million contemporary Indian people. The annihilation is almost unimaginable. Dorris gives all this a name, a face and a personal history that make it impossible for the reader to remain detached." Accord-ing to Phyllis Theroux of the Washington Post, "Dorris gradually uncovers the ghastly dimensions of [FAS], clearly intending The Broken Cord to be an [alarm] that neither lay nor professional readers can ignore. He succeeds brilliantly."

In addition to nonfiction topics, Dorris wrote fictional accounts about such notable events as the arrival of Columbus in America. In 1992, the five-hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus's discovery of the Americas, Dorris published his first book for young adults, Morning Girl, a story of Bahamian youths living in 1492. Morning Girl, who loves the day, and Star Boy, who prefers the night, are siblings who are like two sides of the same coin and often display their conflicting feelings about one another. As their identities develop and emerge, however, the children discover similarities in their caring for their family. The daily adventures of the young narrators are the focus of the novel, and Dorris interweaves the backdrop of nature and the prominent role of the natural world in the children's native culture. The book comes to a close when Columbus's crew from the Nina lands on the island. "This sad, lovely and timely tale gives us an alternative view of America's 'discovery,'" related Suzanne Curley in the Los Angeles Times Book Review.

Dorris's second book for young adults, Guests, was published in 1995. The novel tells the story of Moss, a young Native-American boy growing up several centuries ago; the guests of the title are Europeans invited by Moss's father to a celebratory dinner in honor of the harvest. "As in Morning Girl, … Dorris writes lyrically of nature. The descriptions fill the senses," praised Linda Perkins in the New York Times Book Review. Nancy Vasilakis, writing in Horn Book, stated, "The narrative voice in this book is natural and believable, though this book, like [Morning Girl,] is very much an introspective novel." A reviewer for the Chicago Tribune Books concluded that in Guests "Dorris brings readers close to his characters at the same time he evokes how far away they were."

Dorris also wrote collaboratively with his wife, author Louise Erdrich, and among their works is The Crown of Columbus, an adult novel about explorer Christopher Columbus. Columbus's story is framed by a love story about two Dartmouth professors, Vivian Twostar and Roger Williams, with little in common but a physical attraction. Both are involved in the research of Christopher Columbus; Vivian, a Native-American single parent, has been assigned the task of writing an academic piece on Columbus from the Native American viewpoint, while Roger, an English professor and poet, is writing an epic poem about Columbus for People magazine. The research leads them on an adventure and eventually forces them to question the impact of Columbus's journey for the contemporary world, especially Native Americans.

The Crown of Columbus received mixed reactions. Some reviewers believed that the work was below the standards of both Dorris's and Erdrich's previous books and claimed it was manufactured to become a bestseller rather than a literary effort. Other reviewers found Vivian and Roger's adventures amusing, vibrant, and charming. "Erdrich and Dorris, who write so convincingly elsewhere from their own experience, seem here to have been a little hasty in trying to exploit Columbus's," claimed Kirkpatrick Sale in the Nation. Sale also found The Crown of Columbus "difficult to read without remembering that the Dorris-Erdrich team got some $1.5 million to turn out a book from their Indian perspective for the Quincentenary." More enthusiastic about the couple's effort, Library Journal's Ann Fisher declared the book "a sure-fire winner on all levels" and praised the authors' depiction of the relationship of the two main characters as "funny, vivid, and life-affirming." New York Times Book Review contributor Robert Houston complimented the "moments of genuine humor and compassion, of real insight and sound satire," but also commented that, "in the end, The Crown of Columbus never really finds itself."

Cloud Chamber, published just prior to Dorris's death in 1997, refers readers back to his novel A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, a 1987 work that introduces fifteen-year-old Rayona Taylor, part African American, part Native American. While Yellow Raft describes Rayona's adventures as a feisty tomboy, including entering a bronco-riding contest, Cloud Chamber traces the teen's lineage back to her great-great-grandmother from Ireland. In doing so, it relates the complex love relationships that have patterned the family over the years. John Skow of Time called the novel "intricate and brooding."

Dorris also published a book of short stories titled Working Men. A number of the stories included were previously published in other publications such as Mother Jones, Ploughshares, and Northwest Review. Despite its title, the collection examines the lives of men and women, straight and gay, young and old in a variety of settings. Noted Phillip Graham in the Chicago Tribune Books, "No two of these stories are the same, though each rests on the solid authority of a distinctive human voice and a slyly elastic definition of work."

Working Men received praise from a number of reviewers. "All [of the stories] are strikingly different and are told with flair and efficiency and honed craftsmanship," praised Ron Hansen in the Los Angeles Times Book Review. "Working Men is admirable not just for its mastery and variety, but for Michael Dorris's faith in the heroism and importance of ordinary American life." Mentioning the stories "The Vase" and "Jeopardy" specifically, Charles R. Larson wrote in the Washington Post Book World that Working Men "contains two stories as good as we are likely to find by anyone writing today, and that is all the measure needed for any artist worthy of serious attention."

While The Crown of Columbus was the first novel to result from the Dorris-Erdrich collaboration, the couple worked closely together on all of their books. As Dorris once explained to Dulcy Brainard in a Publishers Weekly interview: "The person whose name is on the book is the one who's done most of the primary writing. The other helps plan, reads it as it goes along, suggests changes in direction, in character and then acts as editor." Considering their popular following, the system seemed to work well for Dorris and Erdrich. New York Times Magazine's Vince Passaro pointed out that "one senses the act of collaboration serves a vital, extra-literary function, perhaps as a fortification against an insinuating and inevitable competition. If every work that leaves their hands is in some sense a joint work, they can escape the awful consequences of one talent overshadowing another."

Despite seemingly successful careers intertwined with a solid marriage, Erdrich and Dorris quietly separated in 1996 and were undergoing divorce proceedings when Dorris ended his life in April of 1997. Following his death, it became public that Dorris was under investigation for child abuse and that he had previously attempted suicide two weeks prior to his death. However, in an interview with the New York Times, Erdrich said that her husband's depression had existed throughout their marriage: "Suicide. It's a very tangled road, a tangle of paths and dead ends and clear places and it's gone. He descended inch by inch, fighting all the way."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Erdrich, Louise, and Michael Dorris, Conversations with Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris, University Press of Mississippi (Jackson, MS), 1994.

Native North American Literature, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1994.

Weil, Ann, Michael Dorris, Raintree Steck-Vaughn (Austin, TX), 1997.

PERIODICALS

America, May 10, 1997, p. 7.

Bloomsbury Review, May-June, 1995, p. 19.

Christian Science Monitor, March 2, 1989, pp. 16-17.

Georgia Review, summer, 1995, p. 523.

Horn Book, January-February, 1995, p. 58.

Library Journal, March 15, 1991, p. 114.

Los Angeles Times, September 18, 1988, sec. 6, pp. 8-9.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, June 21, 1987, p. 2; September 27, 1992, p. 12; August 3, 1993, p. 11; November 7, 1993, p. 2; October 30, 1994, p. 8.

Missouri Review, 1988, pp. 79-99.

New Statesman and Society, September 7, 1990, p. 44.

Newsweek, June 16, 1997, p. 54.

New York, June 16, 1997, p. 30.

New York Times, April 19, 1991, p. C5; February 2, 1992, sec. L, pp. 29, 38.

New York Times Book Review, June 7, 1987, p. 7; July 30, 1989, pp. 1, 20; April 28, 1991, p. 10; August 1, 1993, p. 18; May 18, 1994, p. 18; January 1, 1995, p. 20; January 29, 1995, p. 20.

New York Times Magazine, April 21, 1991, pp. 35-40, 76.

North Dakota Quarterly, winter, 1987, pp. 196-218.

Publishers Weekly, August 4, 1989, pp. 73-74; August 10, 1992, p. 71.

Time, February 17, 1997; April 28, 1997, p. 68.

Times Literary Supplement, August 24, 1990, p. 893; July 19, 1991, p. 21; December 2, 1994.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), May 10, 1987, pp. 6-7; July 23, 1989, pp. 1, 11; April 28, 1991, p. 5; October 24, 1993, pp. 6-7; August 14, 1994, p. 7.

U.S. Catholic, May, 1997, p. 46.

Washington Post Book World, October 17, 1993, p. 6.

Western American Literature, February, 1992, pp. 369-371.

Women's Review of Books, October, 1991, pp. 17-18.