James L Magnuson

Jim was born in 1941 in Madison, Wisconsin, the first of four children of Roy and Evelyn Magnuson. His unassuming character and lifelong love of baseball were nurtured by his Midwestern childhood there and on his mother’s farm in North Dakota. At the University of Wisconsin, where Jim studied English, an inspirational teacher told him that he had a way with words. It was a lifechanging piece of advice. After earning his Master’s degree in 1964, Jim left for New York, where he worked in the welfare department to support his writing.

In New York Jim wrote furiously, across genres, producing street theatre in Harlem and plays of his own. He hit a softball farther in Central Park than anyone had ever seen before. In 1970, he received the luckiest car ride of his life when he hitched home from a wedding with a Princeton professor of religion, who thought he was a good fit for the university’s Hodder Fellowship. He applied and was the first playwright to receive the one-year fellowship, which turned into four years, eight produced plays, and a group of lifelong friends.

Jim returned to New York and in 1974, at age 32, published his first novel, Without Barbarians. It was a critical success, but an even more consequential event occurred when his literary agent, Wendy Weil, introduced him to Hester Ferris, who would become his wife. They had two children: Martha in 1980, and William in 1982. Jim wrote Hester a Christmas letter professing his love every year of their marriage, including this last.

Nearing middle age and with a family to support, Jim accepted an associate professorship at the University of Texas at Austin in the mid-80s, teaching fiction writing. Near the same time, the author James Michener began a long relationship with the University, where he generously endowed a graduate creative writing program. Magnuson became director of that program in the 90s.

Slow to warm to the administrative side of academia, Jim took a leave of absence when an old friend from the Upper West Side convinced him to try his hand at television writing on Knots Landing, a nighttime soap he was then producing. Having never seen the show, Jim read up on it in People magazine and produced a draft that dazzled the stars and producers. The family moved to Santa Monica for one celebrity-studded year, but Hollywood felt like a distraction for Jim, who believed most in his novels.

Returning to the fledgling MFA program, Jim applied his considerable charm and flexibility to grow the Michener Center for Writers into one of the most prestigious MFA programs in the country, drawing outstanding young playwrights, novelists, screenwriters and poets to study their craft and bringing the world’s great writers to teach and lecture. The program provided what Jim had struggled with himself—financial support and time to write—and he ran it with legendary back-slapping warmth and enthusiasm.

Jim began each day in his campus library carrel, scribbling drafts of his novels on yellow legal pads. In all, he wrote ten novels: Without Barbarians, The Rundown, Orphan Train, Open Season, Money Mountain, Ghost Dancing, Windfall, The Hounds of Winter, Famous Writers I Have Known, and Young Claus, published in 2023. His plays, which found the humanity and humor in moments of history, legend and faith, were performed around the country in schools and in theaters, including Lincoln Center.

Everyone Jim met became a friend, from teammates to colleagues to mailmen to nurses. The Magnuson home, always a magnet of hospitality and scene of great dinner party conversation, remained a lively hub even as Jim’s mobility waned. He loved his world: his family, his friends, his books.

Jim is survived by Hester, daughter Martha, son William and his wife Jane, and his four beloved grandchildren, Ferris James Headley, Cecile Flowers Headley, Catherine Edwards Magnuson, and Emma Edwards Magnuson. He is also survived by his sister, Mary Loew (husband Jim diseased) in Verona, WI, and brother, Mark Magnuson (wife Carrie) in Middleton, WI, as well as numerous devoted nieces and nephews. His last months were made easier by the excellent care of Denise Hunt, Sefaker Torker and Kenneth Uzoukwu.

A service will be held at 11:00, February 2, at the Texas State Cemetery. In lieu of memorials, buy a good book for someone you love. The Michener Center plans a memorial program later in the spring.