TERRY, Marshall (Northway, Jr.) 1931-

PERSONAL: Born February 7, 1931, in Cleveland, OH; son of Marshall N. and Margaret (Carpenter) Terry; married Antoinette Barksdale, 1953; children: Antoinette Terry Bryant, Mary Marshall Terry Benton. Education: Attended Amherst College, 1949–50, and Kenyon College, 1950–51; Southern Methodist University, B.A., 1953, M.A., 1954. Religion: Methodist.

ADDRESSES: Home—2717 Lovers Lane, Dallas, TX 75225-7905. Office—Department of English, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275-0001. E-mail—mterry@mail.smu.edu.

CAREER: Writer and educator. Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, instructor, 1953–55, director of public relations, instructor in English, and alumni editor, 1957–64, instructor in English, 1965–67, assistant director, 1968, associate professor, 1969–71, professor, 1972–98, chair of English department, 1971–75, 1979–82, E. A. Lilly Professor of English, 1998–, president of faculty senate, 1993–94, associate provost, 1994–98, also served as director of the creative writing program. Has also worked as an advertising agency copywriter, 1955–57. Former trustee, Incarnate Word College, San Antonio, TX; former secretary of the board of trustees, Fort Burgwin Research Center, Ranchos de Taos, NM. Founder, Southern Methodist University Literary Festival, 1975. Member of Conference of College Teachers of English; Texas Institute of Letters, president, 1977–79, councilor, 1980.

MEMBER: Modern Language Association of America, American Association of University Professors (chapter president, 1991).

AWARDS, HONORS: Jesse H. Jones fiction award, Texas Institute of Letters, 1968; Best Short Story award, Southwest Review, 1973; Southwest Writer of the Year award, 1988; Willis M. Tate Award, Southern Methodist University, 1990, and 1994; Lon Tinkle Award, Texas Institute of Letters, 1991, for continuing excellence in letters.

WRITINGS:

Old Liberty (novel), Viking, 1961.

(Editor and author of introduction) Prize Stories, Texas Institute of Letters, Still Point Press (Dallas, TX), 1986.

Dallas Stories (fiction), Southern Methodist University Press (Dallas, TX), 1987.

Ringer, Corona (San Antonio, TX), 1987.

Angels Prostate Fall (novel), Southern Methodist University Press (Dallas, TX), 2001.

Tex Rex (novel), Three Forks, 2003.

Book reviewer, Dallas News, 1970–75.

"NORTHWAY SAGA" SERIES; FICTION

Tom Northway, Harcourt, Brace & World (New York, NY), 1968.

My Father's Hands, Texas Tech University Press (Lubbock, TX), 1992.

Land of Hope and Glory: A True Account of the Life and Times of General Marcus Northway, Ret. and of the Character of His Eminent Friends, University of North Texas Press (Denton, TX), 1996.

SIDELIGHTS: Marshall Terry is the author of several novels, including novels in the "Northway Saga" series, which follows the lives of one family over one hundred years of American history. In one of these books, Land of Hope and Glory: A True Account of the Life and Times of General Marcus Northway, Ret. and of the Character of His Eminent Friends, Terry recounts the story of General Northway and his family during the years between World War I and the Great Depression. Also in the book are such historical figures as Luther Burbank, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford.

In a book outside the "Northway Saga," Angels Prostate Fall, the author tells a very different story of a modern English professor suffering from prostate cancer. At first the professor, Stanley Morris, resigns himself to the fact that he has a good chance of dying, but soon it is the people around him who face death, including a friend who commits suicide and an attendant at a blood donation clinic who has a stroke as the professor watches. In the aftermath of surgery, while still under the effects of anesthesia, the professor meets the ghost of his dead friend and talks with Jesus. The professor ultimately rebounds and returns to work, only to encounter another dramatic change in his life when someone else dies and the university hires a new female dean for the English department. "The story pleases in its seeming effortlessness," a Kirkus Reviews contributor noted, "and Stanley's inner self is worthy of one limned by a Bellow or a nicer Phillip Roth." A Publishers Weekly reviewer commented that the author "writes with verve and style." Bill Marvel, writing for the Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, added: "The book is really about crossing that line that all of us must if we hope to become grown-ups. On one side, we think we will never die. On the other, we're never quite sure we're going to live another day."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 1987, review of Ringer, p. 888; December 15, 1991, review of My Father's Hands, p. 1557; August 15, 2001, review of Angels Prostate Fall, p. 1161.

Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, January 23, 2002, Bill Marvel, review of Angels Prostate Fall, p. K3993.

New York Times Book Review, November 29, 1987, review of Ringer, p. 20.

Publishers Weekly, July 3, 1987, review of Ringer, p. 54; October 29, 2001, review of Angels Prostate Fall, p. 38.

Southwest Review, summer, 1986, review of Prize Stories, Texas Institute of Letters, p. 402.

University Press Book News, December, 1991, review of Old Liberty, p. 41.

Western American Literature, summer, 1988, review of Prize Stories, p. 163, and review of Ringer, p. 168; winter, 1989, review of Dallas Stories, p. 387.

ONLINE

Southern Methodist University Web site, http://www.smu.edu/ (July 28, 2003), "Marshall Terry."