Thom Jones | Author | LibraryThing

About the Author

Thomas Douglas Jones was born in Aurora, Illinois on January 26, 1945. While still a teenager, he joined the Marines. He was discharged after being savagely beaten in a boxing match and mistakenly given a diagnosis of schizophrenia. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Washington show more in 1970 and a master's in fine arts from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. At the age of 47, he was recovering from alcoholism and addiction to prescription drugs and working nights as a janitor in a high school. He mailed an unsolicited, fictionalized Vietnam War story entitled The Pugilist at Rest to The New Yorker. It was printed in 1991 and won the O. Henry Award in 1993 for best short story. His short story collections include The Pugilist at Rest, which was nominated for a National Book Award; Cold Snap: Stories; and Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine. He died from complications of diabetes on October 14, 2016 at the age of 71. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Includes the names: Thom Jones, Thom; Thom Jones Jones, By (author) Thom Jones

Image credit: Faber and Faber

Works by Thom Jones

Popular Recent

The Pugilist at Rest: Stories (1993) 614 copies

Cold Snap: Stories (1995) 300 copies

Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine: Stories (1999) 251 copies

Night Train (in Best American Nonrequired Reading 2004 - EGGERS) (2018) 33 copies

Anna Gaskell (2001) 23 copies

Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine (Faber Stories) (2019) 13 copies

The Dark City (The Guardians of Elestra) (2011) 3 copies

Coup de froid (2007) 2 copies

The Giants of the Baroka Valley (The Guardians of Elestra) (2013) 2 copies

Sonny Liston était mon ami (2011) 2 copies

I Want To Live! 1 copy

The Pugilist at Rest [short story] 1 copy

Sonny Liston Was A Friend Of Mine Stories By Thom Jones 1 copy

Noćni vlak : nove i odabrane priče (2024) 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

The Best American Short Stories of the Century (2000) — Contributor — 1,567 copies

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2004 (2004) — Contributor — 744 copies

The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction: Fifty North American American Stories Since 1970 (1999) — Contributor — 516 copies

The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories (1994) — Contributor — 483 copies

The Best American Short Stories 1995 (1995) — Contributor — 302 copies

The Best American Short Stories 1993 (1993) — Contributor — 277 copies

The Best American Short Stories 1994 (1994) — Contributor — 243 copies

The Best American Short Stories 1992 (1992) — Contributor — 225 copies

The New Granta Book of the American Short Story (2007) — Contributor — 214 copies

The Workshop: Seven Decades of the Iowa Writers Workshop - 43 Stories, Recollections, & Essays on Iowa's Place in… (1999) — Contributor — 187 copies

Why I Write: Thoughts on the Craft of Fiction (1998) — Contributor — 187 copies

Granta 108: Chicago (2009) — Contributor — 142 copies

Nerve: Literate Smut (1998) — Contributor — 127 copies

The Other Side of Heaven: Post-War Fiction by Vietnamese and American Writers (1995) — Contributor — 40 copies

The New Great American Writers' Cookbook (2003) — Contributor — 21 copies

Passion and Craft: Conversations with Notable Writers (1998) 9 copies

Playboy's College Fiction: A Collection of 21 Years of Contest Winners (2007) — Foreword — 7 copies

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#2ck (3) #@2db (3) 1990s (5) 1999 (4) 20th century (13) 20th century literature (3) America (4) American (23) American fiction (4) American literature (18) anthology (5) boxing (17) collection (7) contemporary American fiction (6) dark (5) fiction (142) fiction - short stories (4) Fiction - Stories (4) Fiction HB (3) first edition (16) hardcover (5) HC (6) literary (8) literary fiction (5) literature (13) own (7) owned (5) read (16) short fiction (9) short stories (168) signed (13) stories (21) Thom Jones (4) to-read (50) unread (11) Unread Contemporary (4) USA (5) Vietnam (5) Vietnam War (4) war (5)

Common Knowledge

Legal name: Jones, Thomas Douglas
Birthdate: 1945-01-26
Date of death: 2016-10-14
Gender: male
Nationality: USA
Birthplace: Aurora, Illinois, USA
Place of death: Olympia, Washington, USA
Education: University of Washington (MA|1970)
Iowa Writers' Workshop (MFA)
Occupations: short-story writer
Organizations: United States Marine Corps

Members

Reviews

The Pugilist at Rest: Stories by Thom Jones

One of the best story collections, aside from Tim O'Brien's THE THINGS THEY CARRIED, about the Vietnam war (or war in general) that I've ever read. The title stories from both of these collections are powerful and haunting.

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prairiemage | 10 other reviews | May 29, 2024 |

The Pugilist at Rest: and other stories by Thom Jones

A little thematically monotonous but hey, he’s got a great style. Very visceral and funny descriptions of epilepsy, ‘Nam and boxing. Get it dummy, it says ‘pugilist’ in the title. An old woman with cancer reading Schopenhauer though? Come on now, quit awkwardly shoving a who’s who of random Nietzsche and Schopenhauer quotes into everything.

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theoaustin | 10 other reviews | Dec 26, 2023 |

The Pugilist at Rest: Stories by Thom Jones

some excellent stories...Would go 4.5 stars if possible

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Mcdede | 10 other reviews | Jul 19, 2023 |