Life
Born in Granville, New York, Whitaker became enthralled with stories as a boy. His family struggled with poverty. He lived for several years in Albany, New York as a youth (a time portrayed in his last published work).
Whitaker earned bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Washington. While there he wrote and directed his three-act play Eve of the Bursting, which was his Master's thesis production in the UW Playhouse. The Company Manager and Assistant Director of the production was Jerry Pournelle. Whitaker went on to earn a doctorate in communications and film at Northwestern University.
He taught at Dana College in Blair, Nebraska, where he was chairman of the communications division. He served in the US Navy during the Korean War. Later he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship for study in England.
When Whitaker wrote his first two novels, he was chairman of the Department of Radio, TV and Film at the University of Texas, Austin, where he continued to teach for many years.
Whitaker married the former Diane Brandon, and they had four children: sons Lance and Christian, and daughters Alexandra and Tomasin. They lived for years in the Basque countryside of France.
Whitaker died December 14, 2005, in the English West Country. He was survived by his wife and grown children.
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Famous quotes containing the word life:
“Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!—
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)
“Glorious bouquets and storms of applause ... are the trimmings which every artist naturally enjoys. But to move an audience in such a role, to hear in the applause that unmistakable note which breaks through good theatre manners and comes from the heart, is to feel that you have won through to life itself. Such pleasure does not vanish with the fall of the curtain, but becomes part of one’s own life.”
—Dame Alice Markova (b. 1910)
“Culture is the name for what people are interested in, their thoughts, their models, the books they read and the speeches they hear, their table-talk, gossip, controversies, historical sense and scientific training, the values they appreciate, the quality of life they admire. All communities have a culture. It is the climate of their civilization.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)