A short life of the author
Michael Cunningham (b. 6 November 1952) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and grew up in La Cañada Flintridge, California. He studied at Stanford and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
Life and Career
A Home at the End of the World (1990) — about two childhood friends and a woman who form an unconventional family — was his debut, adapted into a 2004 film. Flesh and Blood (1995) is a multigenerational family novel.
The Hours (1998) — three interwoven narratives following Virginia Woolf on a day in 1923 as she begins writing Mrs Dalloway, a Los Angeles housewife reading the novel in 1949, and a New York editor named Clarissa Vaughan (nicknamed “Mrs Dalloway”) in the late 1990s — won the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. The 2002 film adaptation won Nicole Kidman the Academy Award.
Major Works and Themes
Cunningham writes about time, beauty, mortality, and the relationship between literature and life. His prose is lyrical and precise, and his engagement with Woolf is genuine rather than academic.
Key Works
- The Hours (1998)
- A Home at the End of the World (1990)
Collecting Cunningham
The Hours first edition (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998) in fine condition with dust jacket brings $50–$150. Signed copies bring more. Cunningham continues to publish.