Born in Exeter, NH. A highly imaginative storyteller whose fictional values and narrative techniques have invited comparison with Charles Dickens and other popular nineteenth-century novelists. Irving was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, where he acquired his lifelong interests in wrestling and writing. He attended the University of Pittsburgh and the Institute for European Studies in Vienna, a city that figures prominently in his earlier fiction. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1965 and subsequently earned an MFA from the University of Iowa, where he studied with Kurt Vonnegut. Later Irving taught at Mount Holyoke College, the Writers' Workshop in Iowa, and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. He has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. The father of three sons, Irving lives in Vermont and Toronto with his wife, Janet Turnbull, who is also his literary agent. Novels: Setting Free the Bears - Random House 1968; The Water-Method Man - Random House 1972; The 158-Pound Marriage - Random House 1974; The World According To Garp - E. F. Dutton 1978 / Warner Bros. 1982; The Hotel New Hampshire - E. F. Dutton 1981 / Orion, 1984; The Cider House Rules - William Morrow 1985 / Miramax 1999; A Prayer For Owen Meany - William Morrow 1989 / SIMON BIRCH - Hollywood Pictures 1998; A Son Of The Circus - Random House 1994; Trying to Save Piggy Sneed - Arcade 1996; A Widow For One Year - Random House 1998 / THE DOOR IN THE FLOOR - Focus Features 2003; The Fourth Hand - Random House 2001; Until I Find You - Random House 2005. Autobiography: The Imaginary Girlfriend - A Memoir Knopf Canada 1996. Memoir/Non-Fiction: My Movie Business: A Memoir - Random House 1999.  Best Achievement in Writing (Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published) 1999: THE CIDER HOUSE RULES 1 nomination, 1 Award