Author Irving to Speak

"In selecting the commencement speaker, we looked for somebody who understands the NMH experience and can tell a good story," said Head of School Thomas K. Sturtevant at Monday's campus meeting.

Sturtevant then announced that author and NMH parent John Irving would deliver the commencement address at Northfield Mount Hermon’s 127th Commencement Exercises on May 23, at 11 am, on Thorndike Field. Irving is the father of graduating senior Everett Irving and of Colin Irving ’83.

A native of New Hampshire and graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy, Irving attended universities in Europe and America. He studied with Kurt Vonnegut at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop and published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, at 26. Irving has since published 12 novels with reoccurring themes such as wrestling, New England, absent parents, and social outcasts.

Irving is best known for his novels The World According to Garp (1978), The Cider House Rules (1985) and A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989). Many of his novels have been made into films. In 2000, Irving won an Academy Award for his screenplay adaptation of The Cider House Rules, which was partly filmed at the Northfield drive-in theater.

For his most recent novel, Last Night in Twisted River (2009), Irving said he “tried to have fun with the self-referential stuff.” The novel, about a cook and his son on the run, explores the profession of writing through the character of Danny Baciagalupo, who becomes a famous author. Irving is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Over the past four years, Irving has been a guest at NMH English and Bible studies classes, a familiar figure at NMH athletics and arts events, and a speaker during the school’s Banned Books Week. His wife, Janet, is a member of the NMH Board of Trustees. The couple live in Vermont and Toronto.