John Irving, 1942 - John Irving was born John Wallace Blunt, Jr. on March 2, 1942 in Exeter, New Hampshire. His named was changed to John Winslow Irving when his stepfather adopted him at the age of six. He was a dyslexic child and it took him five years to get through Exeter Academy, which is where his adoptive father taught Russian history. He received a B.A. (cum laude) from the University of New Hampshire in 1965 and an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, in 1967, where he studied with Kurt Vonnegut Jr. During college, he was an amateur wrestler and later went on to coaching. He has two sons from his first marriage to Shyla Leary, which ended in divorce in 1981 and a son from his second marriage to Janet Turnbull. Irvings novels are dark yet hilarious and are filled with bizarre characters. He explores subjects that range from prostitution, rape, abortion and transsexuality to dwarfism, speech impediments, castration and other disfigurements. Irving's first novel was "Setting Free the Bears" (1969) but it wasn't until "The World According to Garp" was published in 1978, that he became a literary star. The novel spent six months on the bestseller list and won the American Book Award in 1980. It was also made into a movie in 1982 that starred Robin Williams and costarred Glenn Close and John Lithgow. The next novel was "The Hotel New Hampshire" and it made its film debut in 1984 starring Jodie Foster and Rob Lowe. Also made into movies were the novels "A Prayer for Owen Meany" (1989), which was titled Simon Birch starring Jim Carrey, and "The Cider House Rules" (1985), which starred Michael Caine. Also written by Irving was the memoir detailing his wrestling adventures titled "The Imaginary Girlfriend" (1977), a collection of short stories, memoirs and homage pieces titled "Trying to Save Piggy Sneed" (1996), and "My Movie Business: A Memoir" (1999) that explains why he joined the ranks of Hollywood film producers.