Washington and Lee University
The death of William Hoffman came as a shock to the Shenandoah community not only because Bill was a gracious, eloquent and scrupulous man nor even because he was a gifted and hard-working writer who produced fourteen novels and dozens of splendid short stories, but also because he had been an early and frequent contributor to this magazine and an unswerving supporter of its mission for almost six decades.
When Shenandoah was founded by a group of Washington and Lee undergraduates (including Bill) and faculty members, Hoffman was a World War II veteran and Hamden-Sydney graduate enrolled as a W & L law student, and he wrote stories while studying creative writing (with Tom Wolfe and John P. Bowen, Jr.) under the tutelage of George Foster. He went on to study at the University of Iowa and to teach literature and writing at Hamden-Sydney, which along with W & L and The University of the South eventually awarded him honorary degrees.
Instead of cultivating an eccentric artistic persona or immersing himself in the sparkle of literary networks, Bill preferred to let his writing speak for itself. He lived in Charlotte Court House and vigorously wove his spellbinding stories about the manners and mysteries of the South, taking time for family and church, hunting, riding and sailing. Religion, the environment, the tenor of history and human responsibility figure prominently in his fiction, and his narratives are unapologetically straight shooting, which does not mean they were short on suspense, wit, surprise or resonance. Like Frost, Bill simply preferred "the old ways of being new."
Though he never became a best-selling writer or literary celebrity, he was much praised and decorated. The Dos Passos Prize for Excellence in Literature, the Dashiell Hammett Award for mystery writers and the Hillsdale Prize for Fiction are among his awards, and among the books he is likely to be remembered for are Wild Thorn, Blood and Guile and Follow Me Home.
On two occasions (1989 and 1993) Hoffman was awarded Shenandoah's Goodheart Prize for fiction, which is judged by previous winners and honors the best story from the pages of Shenandoah in a year. His most recent piece in our pages was an excerpt from Pagans and Pilgrims in spring, 2007, and I remember seeing the envelope when the mail arrived and reading it that night. I won't ever forget the deadpan satire as the protagonist arrives at the shabby but proud college where he's to lead five classes as they (in his new employer's words) "rassle the written word" and "go to the mat" with it in a building called Liberty Hall.
Untheatrical and canny, William Hoffman was fully aware that, as Flannery O'Connor wrote, "A story always involves, in a dramatic way, the mystery of personality." As Fred Chappell described Hoffman's tales, "They are lean but strong, moving with quick grace from point to point, and when they conclude, the figure they have shaped is a memorable and pleasing one." For these reasons readers will return to his work for a long time to come, which in the wake of his loss brings some small comfort.
-- R.T.S.
Work by William Hoffman appearing in Shenandoah:
"July 4, 1944 / Vol. 1, No. 1(1950)
"Indian Serenade / Vol. 1, No. 2 (1950)
"Boy Up a Tree" / Vol.39, No. (1989)
"Business Trip" / Vol. 42, No. 1 (1992)
"Coals" / Vol. 42, No.3 (1992)
"Doors" / Vol. 43, No. 3 (1993)
"Stones" / Vol. 44, No. 4 (1994)
"Place" / Vol .47, No. 1 (1997)
from Pagans and Pilgrims, A Novel-in-Progress / Vol. 57, No. 1 (2007)
Casey Clabough, "The Truths of William Hoffman's Fiction, New and Old" / Vol. 57, No. 1 (2007)
