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WORK TITLE: Paradise by Paradise
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1942?
WEBSITE: https://www.howardburman.com/
CITY: Felton
STATE: CA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
Phone: 831-335-8231
RESEARCHER NOTES: Most books self-published; cannot locate enough reviews for any books listed
PERSONAL
Born c. 1942, in Brooklyn, NY; married, wife’s name Karen; children: Ty (son), Kerry (daughter).
EDUCATION:Attended Wilmington College, Wilmington, OH; Ohio State University, B.A., Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, novelist, director, producer, baseball historian, and educator. San Jose State University, instructor in dramatic literature and theatre history; Wayne State University, chair of theatre department; California State University, Long Beach, chair of Department of Theatre Arts. Hillberry Theatre, Detroit, artistic producing director; California Repertory Company, founder. Cameo Entertainments (a production company), cofounder.
AVOCATIONS:Cycling, skydiving, paraglider flying.
AWARDS:Fulbright Scholarship.
WRITINGS
Author of more than thirty produced plays, including The Author of the Iliad Was Either Homer or Somebody Else of the Same Name; Georgia Peach; Willie, Mickey, & the Duke; and Whistler’s Play.
SIDELIGHTS
Howard Burman is a writer, novelist, playwright, producer, director, and educator. He has been an instructor in dramatic literature and theater history at San Jose State University, the chair of the theater department at Wayne State University, and the chair of the Department of Theater Arts at California State University, Long Beach. In addition, he was the artistic producing director at Hillberry Theatre in Detroit and the founder of the California Repertory Company. Burman is the writer of more than thirty produced plays. He attended Wilmington College and earned a B.A. and Ph.D. from Ohio State University.
While at San Jose State University, Burman teamed with actor Anthony Zerbe to form Cameo Entertainments, he stated on the Howard Burman Website. “For several years we toured productions with television and film stars including Valerie Harper, Roscoe Lee Browne, Lee Meredith, Michael Learned, and Roy Dotrice,” Burman stated. The company also produced off-Broadway shows.
In Gentlemen at the Bat: A Fictional Oral History of the New York Knickerbockers and the Early Days of Base Ball, Burman presents a fictional history of the New York Knickerbockers “told in the style of oral history,” noted Richard Miller, writing in Sports Collectors Digest. Burman recounts the beginnings of the team and how, in 1845, they became the first organized baseball team to play with formal rules. In addition to their written rules of play, they had standards of conduct for players that helped make the game of baseball a consistent sport that saw increased numbers of players and growth among baseball clubs. Burman’s work includes the main characters who became associated with the team. Miller found the book to be a “highly readable introduction” to the Knickerbockers and to the formative years of baseball.
With the novel Paradise by Paradise, Burman looks at the absurdities in the life of a reclusive writer. Famed poet Roland Haller Paradise is a winner of major awards that include a Pulitzer Prize, a Nobel Prize, and a MacArthur “genius” grant. Unfortunately, very few people actually read his novels-in-verse. He has unexpectedly come up missing after the death of an elderly, unidentified man who died as a result of arson at the poet’s San Francisco home. In the aftermath, sales of Paradise’s work skyrocket as amateur detectives and others scour his written oeuvre for clues. Evidence accrues through avenues as varied as news reports and scenes from the poet’s life, but Paradise remains as enigmatic and inscrutable as ever. “Burman writes in an intricate, playful prose that brings his protagonist to life in all his lyric, bookish whimsy,” remarked a Kirkus Reviews contributor. The Kirkus Reviews writer called the novel a “truly enjoyable comic tale with an emotional core.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Back Stage West, November 14, 2002, Hoyt Hilsman, “Willie, Mickey, & the Duke—A Doo-Wop Musical at the Edison Theatre,” p. 17, review of Willie, Mickey, & the Duke.
Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2017, review of Paradise by Paradise.
Sports Collectors Digest, December 31, 2010, Richard Miller, review of Gentlemen at the Bat: A Fictional Oral History of the New York Knickerbockers and the Early Days of Base Ball, p. 38.
ONLINE
Howard Burman Website, http://www.howardburnham.com (June 8, 2018).
ABOUT ME
I was born in Brooklyn, grew up in Great Neck, went to college in Ohio, and have lived in California for most of my adult life.
I can’t say I remember much about Brooklyn since we moved out to Great Neck on Long Island when I was four. I do know we lived in the Flatbush area on Avenue H. Dad owned and operated a small trucking company. Occasionally in the summer he would take me to Ebbetts Field to see the Dodgers. My love of baseball, which is reflected in some of the books and plays I have written, began there.
In Great Neck I attended Great Neck South High School, was very involved with the Boy Scouts, played some Little League, and Pony League baseball, and a lot of stickball.
I went out to Ohio to attend Wilmington College. It was there that I became interested in theatre, when rather by accident I got roped into a production of Romeo and Juliet. After my sophomore year I transferred to The Ohio State University where I joined the Strollers Dramatic Society and met Karen who would become my wife.
At Ohio State I designed and produced shows for Strollers, and majored in Theatre History. After receiving my B.A., I stayed on to earn the Ph.D.
My first teaching job was at San Jose State University where I taught various courses in Dramatic Literature and Theatre History. I also directed a few plays, and wrote my first—The Author of The Iliad Was Either Homer or Somebody Else of the Same Name.
While still teaching there, I joined with Anthony Zerbe and formed Cameo Entertainments. For several years we toured productions with television and film stars including Valerie Harper, Roscoe Lee Browne, Lee Meredith, Michael Learned, and Roy Dotrice. We also produced a show, Behind the Broken Words, off-Broadway in New York.
I moved on to become Artistic Producing Director of the Hilberry Theatre in Detroit and the Chair of the Theatre Department at Wayne State University. In three years there I produced some 35 shows, including two that I wrote--Georgia Peach, and Whistler’s Play which was nominated for a national critics award.
I returned to California to start California Repertory Company and to chair the department of Theatre Arts at California State University, Long Beach. With Cal Rep I produced more than 150 shows including 23 which I wrote. Among the most successful were Article 24, The Boys of Summer, The Puccini Project, The Third Lie, The Miracle of Piaf, On the Beach, and Willie, Mickey & The Duke. We were able to take several productions on international tours.
My most successful show to date has been An O. Henry Christmas. First produced at Cal Rep, it has since been done by numerous theatre companies around the country.
It was while at Long Beach that I wrote my first novel, A Story Told by Two Liars.
I have traveled extensively in Europe and Asia and I have been a Fulbright scholar in Taiwan. For many years, I lived part time in Switzerland and then for a few years, in Ireland.
Now Karen and I live in Felton, California, a little town in the mountains south of San Francisco. Our son, Ty, our daughter, Kerry, and our granddaughters, Gabrielle and Lucy live nearby.
Howard Burman has:
Earned a PhD in Theater History from The Ohio State University.
Taught literature at three universities.
Served as a Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan
Served as Artistic Producing Director of two theater companies
Written over 30 produced plays
Written 12 books
Run eight marathons
Been a skydiver and paraglider pilot.
Been married for more than 50 years--two children, two grandchildren
Lived in Switzerland and Ireland.
Is an avid cyclist.
Lives in Northern California.
Gentlemen at the Bat: A Fictional Oral History of the New York Knickerbockers and the Early Days of Base Ball
Richard Miller
Sports Collectors Digest. 37.53 (Dec. 31, 2010): p38.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2010 F+W Media, Inc.
http://www.sportscollectorsdigest.com/GeneralMenu/
Full Text:
Beginning in 1845, the New York Knickerbockers were the first fully organized base ball club to play the game with written rules similar to those used today. They maintained standards of conduct and stabilized the game that resulted in the rapid growth of players and clubs.
Howard Burman writes a fictional work based on years of research and told in the style of oral history the features all the principal figures of the Knickerbocker team, including Doc Adams, James Whyte Davis, Alexander Cartwright, William Wheaton, and Duncan Curry. A highly readable introduction to the early days of baseball.
Gentlemen at the Bat: A Fictional Oral History of the New York Knickerbockers and the Early Days of Base Ball, Howard Burman, McFarland & Co., 2010, soft cover, 364 pages.
Miller, Richard
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Miller, Richard. "Gentlemen at the Bat: A Fictional Oral History of the New York Knickerbockers and the Early Days of Base Ball." Sports Collectors Digest, 31 Dec. 2010, p. 38. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A357592436/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=00b3e5bf. Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A357592436
Willie, Mickey, & the Duke--a doo-wop musical at the Edison Theatre
Hoyt Hilsman
Back Stage West. 9.46 (Nov. 14, 2002): p17.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2002 e5 Global Media, LLC
Full Text:
While doo-wop music had undeniably authentic origins in the voices of the urban streets, it also carried for listeners a kind of campy, tongue-in-cheek pleasure from the outset. This was not the soulful wailing of Elvis Presley that grew out of the Southern blues or even the underground music of African-Americans. These were the innocent, playful, and tuneful musings of mostly white, Eisenhower-era teenagers. In this original doo-wop musical (named for baseball greats Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, and Duke Snyder), writer Howard Burman and composer Matt Vinson have added a heavy dose of nostalgia and perhaps too much seriousness to an essentially lighthearted form. In the story, Burman singles out both doo-wop and street stickball, each already heavily laden with nostalgic associations, for an overly weighty journey of memory.
Set in the 1950s in Bayside, Queens, at the intersection of Northern Boulevard and 221st Street, the story revolves around a group of stickball buddies: Scooter (Kelley Hinman), Bobby (Jay Wallace), Cotton (Wilson Bell), Marilyn (Heidi Godt), and Wick (Wesley Hunt). Scooter, who is smart and ambitious enough to have set his sights on CalTech, is devastated to learn that his father has raided his college fund, and he may have to settle for City College. To solve his financial problems, his pals cook up a big stickball game with the reigning team from the Bronx--called the Bombers, naturally--and before long the neighborhood bookie has raised $5,000 in bets on the game.
While the plot is clunky and the tone often ponderous, the music and, most especially, the performances go a long way to lifting the show. The score, while not particularly memorable, is a great chance to showcase the talents of these singers, who perform amazing feats of a cappella doo-wop. Wallace captures perfectly the doo-wop bass, while Bell and Godt do often miraculous vocal stunts, and Hunt and Hinman are solid in their solos. The entire ensemble is flawless in its harmony and rhythm, thanks to Vinson's solid musical direction. Although much of the fun of doo-wop is lost in the plodding story, and the missed opportunities for humor are legion, the chance to hear some very talented singers take a joyous ride into doo-wop almost makes up for the shortcomings of the show.
"Willie, Mickey, & the Duke--a doo-wop musical," presented by California
Repertory Company at the Edison Theatre, 213 E. Broadway, Downtown Long
Beach. Tues.-Thurs. 7 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. Nov. 1-27.
$15-20. (562) 432-1818.
Hilsman, Hoyt
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Hilsman, Hoyt. "Willie, Mickey, & the Duke--a doo-wop musical at the Edison Theatre." Back Stage West, 14 Nov. 2002, p. 17. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A94931560/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=b0d9855b. Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A94931560
Burman, Howard: PARADISE BY PARADISE
Kirkus Reviews. (Sept. 1, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Burman, Howard PARADISE BY PARADISE iUniverse (Indie Fiction) $28.95 3, 6 ISBN: 978-0-595-87249-7
Burman (The Secret Game, 2016, etc.) pieces together the life of a reclusive poet in this satirical novel. Roland Haller Paradise, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Nobel laureate, MacArthur fellow, and author of verse novels that nobody reads, is missing. Following the mysterious arson-related death of an elderly John Doe in Paradise's San Francisco loft, the famous poet vanished with barely a trace, leaving the police and media to speculate as to his whereabouts, motivations, and sanity. The chattering classes assume he must have committed the crime, and his book sales go through the roof as amateur sleuths attempt to find evidence in his work. Paradise himself, the mischievous narrator of this novel, recounts all of this with only mild interest. He's always had a prodigious mind, and as a result, he's always confused people. As the book amasses evidence via news reports, eyewitness accounts, literary excerpts, and anecdotes from the poet's life, its real mystery turns out not to be who's responsible for the corpse in the apartment but the true nature of the enigmatic, absent storyteller himself. Burman writes in an intricate, playful prose that brings his protagonist to life in all his lyric, bookish whimsy. With its postmodern flourishes and seemingly endless allusions to literary history, the author manages to evoke the imaginative classics of Flann O'Brien, Anthony Burgess, and David Markson. This is a meditation on the contradictions inherent to a life of the mind, and Burman presents a memorable hero who's alternately comic and tragic, enlightening and infuriating. The story ends up in what's perhaps a predictable place, but readers won't close the book unsatisfied. It ultimately serves as a striking elegy for 20th-century literature and the bygone world in which it greatly mattered. A truly enjoyable comic tale with an emotional core.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Burman, Howard: PARADISE BY PARADISE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A502192009/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=cc3cf972. Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A502192009