Early Media Work
In late 1957, Robbins enrolled at Richmond Professional Institute, a school of art, drama, and music, which later became Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). He was editor of the college newspaper and worked nights on the sports desk of the daily Richmond Times-Dispatch. After graduating with honors from VCU in 1959 and indulging in some hitchhiking, Robbins joined the staff of the Times-Dispatch as a copy editor.
In 1962, Robbins moved to Seattle to seek a Master's degree at the Far East Institute of the University of Washington. During the next five years in Seattle (minus a year spent in New York city researching a book on the painter, Jackson Pollock) he worked for the Seattle Times as an art critic. In 1965, he wrote a column on the arts for Seattle Magazine. Also during this time, he hosted a weekly "underground" radio show at non-commercial KRAB-FM. It was in 1967, while writing a review of the rock band The Doors, that Robbins says he found his literary voice.
Read more about this topic: Tom Robbins
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