The Hustler is a 1959 debut novel by American writer Walter Tevis . It tells the story of a young pool hustler , Edward "Fast Eddie" Felson, who challenges the legendary Minnesota Fats . The novel was well-received by critics, and was adapted into a 1961 film of the same title , starring Paul Newman as Fast Eddie, Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats, and Piper Laurie as Sarah. A sequel, The Color of Money , was published in 1984.
38-448: Walter Stone Tevis Jr. ( / ˈ t ɛ v ɪ s / ; February 28, 1928 – August 9, 1984) was an American novelist and screenwriter. Three of his six novels were adapted into major films: The Hustler , The Color of Money and The Man Who Fell to Earth . A fourth, The Queen’s Gambit , was adapted into a miniseries with the same title and shown on Netflix in 2020. His books have been translated into at least 18 languages. Tevis
76-472: A "disguised autobiographical reference" to San Francisco, where Tevis was born. A pool player named Eddie Parker asserted that he was the basis for the Fast Eddie character. But Tevis maintained that Fast Eddie was fictitious, and he resented assertions to the contrary, that he had "created such memorable characters out of mere reportage". After his death in 1984, his widow debunked claims for years that
114-413: A "disguised autobiographical reference" to San Francisco, where Tevis was born. A pool player named Eddie Parker asserted that he was the basis for the Fast Eddie character. But Tevis maintained that Fast Eddie was fictitious, and he resented assertions to the contrary, that he had "created such memorable characters out of mere reportage". After his death in 1984, his widow debunked claims for years that
152-410: A child from San Francisco, "the city of light," to rural Kentucky, and of the childhood illness that long confined him to bed, leaving him, once recovered, weak, fragile, and apart. It was also – as he realized only after writing it – about his becoming an alcoholic. Beyond that, it is, of course, a Christian parable, and a portrait of the artist. It is, finally, one of the most heartbreaking books I know,
190-613: A college student, Sarah, at a bus station. They commence an affair and begin to live together. Returning to Brannigan's he encounters Bert, a professional gambler, who tells Eddie that despite his talent he lost to Fats due to lack of character, as well as an ingrained eagerness to lose. Nevertheless he offers to back him in a game with a rich pool player in Kentucky named Findlay, taking 75 percent of any winnings while absorbing all losses and paying expenses. Eddie turns him down and resumes hustling. Disregarding Bert's advice, he hustles pool at
228-853: A disadvantage. During the game he realizes that Findlay is a billiard hustler. Though chagrined that he is being "hustled," Eddie has an epiphany . Watching Findlay falter, he realizes the validity of what Bert had been telling him about winning being everything, how people crave an excuse to lose, and how character is as important as skill. Despite continual pain in his thumbs, he wins against Findlay. He and Bert drive back to Chicago, where Eddie reunites with Sarah but does not move back in with her. He returns to Brannigan's where he sees Charlie, who says that he had been worried about him and flew out from Oakland to find him. He confesses that he had held out $ 5,000 in winnings and pays it to him. Eddie proceeds to play Minnesota Fats with his own money, and beats him. Bert demands thirty percent of his winnings and says that he
266-676: A game with a rich pool player in Kentucky named Findlay, taking 75 percent of any winnings while absorbing all losses and paying expenses. Eddie turns him down and resumes hustling. Disregarding Bert's advice, he hustles pool at a pool hall patronized by tough migrants from Appalachia . They break his thumbs. After recuperating at Sarah's apartment, he accepts Bert's offer. Leaving Sarah behind in Chicago, they travel to Kentucky and Eddie plays Findlay at his home in Lexington . It turns out that Findlay plays billiards , not pool, which puts Eddie at
304-565: A number of games, at one time being ahead of him by $ 18,000, he gets drunk and proceeds to lose to Fats, collapsing exhausted after 40 hours of playing. Eddie leaves Charlie without saying goodbye and returns to hustling. Eddie meets a college student, Sarah, at a bus station. They commence an affair and begin to live together. Returning to Brannigan's he encounters Bert, a professional gambler, who tells Eddie that despite his talent he lost to Fats due to lack of character, as well as an ingrained eagerness to lose. Nevertheless he offers to back him in
342-440: A pool hall patronized by tough migrants from Appalachia . They break his thumbs. After recuperating at Sarah's apartment, he accepts Bert's offer. Leaving Sarah behind in Chicago, they travel to Kentucky and Eddie plays Findlay at his home in Lexington . It turns out that Findlay plays billiards , not pool, which puts Eddie at a disadvantage. During the game he realizes that Findlay is a billiard hustler. Though chagrined that he
380-445: A threnody on great ambition and terrible failure, and an evocation of man's absolute, unabridgeable aloneness. During his time teaching at Ohio University, Tevis became aware that the level of literacy among students was falling at an alarming rate. That observation gave him the idea for Mockingbird (1980), set in a grim and decaying New York City in the 25th century. The population is declining, no one can read, and robots rule over
418-639: A year, during which time they returned to Kentucky, where the Tevis family had been given an early land grant in Madison County. Walter traveled across country alone by train at age 11 to rejoin his family in Kentucky. He made friends with Toby Kavanaugh, a fellow high school student, and learned to shoot pool in the Kavanaugh mansion in Lawrenceburg . In the library there, he read science fiction for
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#1732797656788456-411: Is a 1959 debut novel by American writer Walter Tevis . It tells the story of a young pool hustler , Edward "Fast Eddie" Felson, who challenges the legendary Minnesota Fats . The novel was well-received by critics, and was adapted into a 1961 film of the same title , starring Paul Newman as Fast Eddie, Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats, and Piper Laurie as Sarah. A sequel, The Color of Money ,
494-748: Is being "hustled," Eddie has an epiphany . Watching Findlay falter, he realizes the validity of what Bert had been telling him about winning being everything, how people crave an excuse to lose, and how character is as important as skill. Despite continual pain in his thumbs, he wins against Findlay. He and Bert drive back to Chicago, where Eddie reunites with Sarah but does not move back in with her. He returns to Brannigan's where he sees Charlie, who says that he had been worried about him and flew out from Oakland to find him. He confesses that he had held out $ 5,000 in winnings and pays it to him. Eddie proceeds to play Minnesota Fats with his own money, and beats him. Bert demands thirty percent of his winnings and says that he
532-404: Is his manager. Charlie backs him up. Eddie rejects paying Bert any money and shrugs off Bert's threat to have his thumbs and an arm broken, and ridicules Bert's intimation that he has criminal connections. As the novel ends, Eddie and Bert are at a stalemate. New York Times critic Rex Lardner called the book "a tense, jolting trip to the tough, dusty, smoky, ball-clackety, money-filled world of
570-404: Is his manager. Charlie backs him up. Eddie rejects paying Bert any money and shrugs off Bert's threat to have his thumbs and an arm broken, and ridicules Bert's intimation that he has criminal connections. As the novel ends, Eddie and Bert are at a stalemate. New York Times critic Rex Lardner called the book "a tense, jolting trip to the tough, dusty, smoky, ball-clackety, money-filled world of
608-594: The University of Kentucky , and Southern Connecticut State University . Tevis taught English literature and creative writing at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio , from 1965 to 1978, where he was named University Professor. Tevis was a member of the Authors Guild . Tevis wrote more than two dozen short stories for a variety of magazines. "The Big Hustle," his pool hall story for Collier's (August 5, 1955),
646-424: The Fast Eddie character was based on a real person. In 2019, a researcher examined the novel's original manuscript and found that Tevis had changed the character name from "New York Fats" to "Minnesota Fats," lending credence to the claim of Rudolf Wanderone, who called himself "New York Fats," that he was the inspiration for the character. Available editions include: The Hustler (novel) The Hustler
684-720: The Hustler . She died August 4, 2006. In 1983, Tevis married Eleanora Walker, later the trustee of the Walter Tevis Copyright Trust. She died December 9, 2016, at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, in an apparent suicide. Walter Tevis's literary output is represented by the Susan Schulman Literary Agency. The Hustler (novel) Eddie "Fast Eddie" Felson is a young pool hustler from Oakland, California , who travels
722-660: The Sun (1983), The Queen's Gambit (1983), and The Color of Money (1984), a sequel to The Hustler . His short stories were collected in Far from Home in 1981. Three of Tevis's six novels were adapted for major motion pictures, and one for a TV mini-series. The Hustler , directed by Robert Rossen , and The Color of Money , directed by Martin Scorsese , followed the escapades of fictional pool hustler "Fast Eddie" Felson. The Man Who Fell to Earth , directed by Nicolas Roeg ,
760-746: The author of The Big Sky . While a student there, Tevis worked in a pool hall and published a story about pool written for Guthrie's class. He later attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop , where he received an MFA in creative writing in 1960. After graduation, Tevis wrote for the Kentucky Highway Department. He taught classes in fields from the sciences and English to physical education in small-town Kentucky high schools in Science Hill , Hawesville , Irvine , and Carlisle . He also taught at Northern Kentucky University ,
798-613: The character Beth Harmon in The Queen's Gambit , and according to Tevis, part of the reason for his later alcoholism. Tevis was able to overcome his alcohol habit in the 1970s with help from Alcoholics Anonymous . Tevis spent his last years in New York City as a full-time writer, where he died of lung cancer in 1984. He was buried in Richmond, Kentucky . In 2003, Jamie Griggs Tevis published her autobiography, My Life with
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#1732797656788836-653: The clock ticking toward what was to come." He called himself as a "B-minus" pool player who could not play professionals with any hope of winning. The pool rooms described in the book were fictionalized by Tevis, and he insisted that despite claims by Rudolf Wanderone to be the model of the character, Minnesota Fats was entirely fictional. He told an interviewer in 1981: "A lot of people ask me, 'When did you first meet Minnesota Fats?' And I feel like Walt Disney being asked, 'When did you meet Donald Duck ?' Come on, I made him up. One of my contributions to American folklore." Tevis has described Fast Eddie's hometown of Oakland as
874-653: The clock ticking toward what was to come." He called himself as a "B-minus" pool player who could not play professionals with any hope of winning. The pool rooms described in the book were fictionalized by Tevis, and he insisted that despite claims by Rudolf Wanderone to be the model of the character, Minnesota Fats was entirely fictional. He told an interviewer in 1981: "A lot of people ask me, 'When did you first meet Minnesota Fats?' And I feel like Walt Disney being asked, 'When did you meet Donald Duck ?' Come on, I made him up. One of my contributions to American folklore." Tevis has described Fast Eddie's hometown of Oakland as
912-530: The country with his middle-aged partner Charlie Fenniger, pretending to be a worse pool player than he actually is to win bets. He goes with Charlie to Chicago, where he plays the legendary pool player George Hegerman, known as Minnesota Fats, at Brannigan's pool hall. After beating Fats in a number of games, at one time being ahead of him by $ 18,000, he gets drunk and proceeds to lose to Fats, collapsing exhausted after 40 hours of playing. Eddie leaves Charlie without saying goodbye and returns to hustling. Eddie meets
950-477: The drugged, illiterate humans. With the birth rate dropping, the end of the species seems a possibility. Tevis was a nominee for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1980 for Mockingbird . During one of his last televised interviews, he revealed that PBS once planned a production of Mockingbird as a follow-up to their 1979 film of Ursula K. Le Guin 's The Lathe of Heaven . Tevis also wrote The Steps of
988-731: The first time. They remained lifelong friends. Kavanaugh later became the owner of a pool room in Lexington , which would have an impact on Tevis's writing. Tevis joined the Navy on his seventeenth birthday. He became a carpenter's mate , serving on the USS Hamul in Okinawa. After his discharge, he graduated from Model Laboratory School in 1945. He entered the University of Kentucky , where he received B.A. (1949) and M.A. (1954) degrees in English literature and studied with A. B. Guthrie Jr. ,
1026-399: The love story is a cliche, and author Tevis' writing is sometimes too painfully exact. What remains is a succession of scenes in which a smoky, seedy world becomes sharply alive, and where crises are intense even though the scene is grubby and the game is only pool." Kirkus Reviews called it a "compact, tidy novel", and said: "Through a language of casual statement which does not disguise
1064-399: The love story is a cliche, and author Tevis' writing is sometimes too painfully exact. What remains is a succession of scenes in which a smoky, seedy world becomes sharply alive, and where crises are intense even though the scene is grubby and the game is only pool." Kirkus Reviews called it a "compact, tidy novel", and said: "Through a language of casual statement which does not disguise
1102-404: The money he earned from the movie rights to The Hustler and moved his family to Mexico, where he later claimed that he "stayed drunk for eight months." When Tevis was drinking, he couldn't write. According to his son Will, "[Walter Tevis] is the [anti-]hero of all his own books." Having a heart condition, Tevis was given phenobarbital at a young age. This is considered part of the inspiration for
1140-457: The pool shark," and wrote that Tevis "writes like a streak, making straight pool as exciting as a Stanley Ketchell fight. This is a fine, swift, wanton, offbeat novel." An unsigned review in Time said that The Hustler "has its faults as a novel, but opens the door on a world that books have not yet made commonplace". It went on to say that: "The moral of The Hustler is obviously sententious,
1178-408: The pool shark," and wrote that Tevis "writes like a streak, making straight pool as exciting as a Stanley Ketchell fight. This is a fine, swift, wanton, offbeat novel." An unsigned review in Time said that The Hustler "has its faults as a novel, but opens the door on a world that books have not yet made commonplace". It went on to say that: "The moral of The Hustler is obviously sententious,
Walter Tevis - Misplaced Pages Continue
1216-399: The seriousness of its intent, this exploration of moral experience is a pithy and competent performance." Tevis grew up in Kentucky, and became good friends with a youth whose father bought him a pool table to keep him out of trouble. He was introduced to gambling when he was in the Navy, and a writer for Kentucky Monthly observed in 2019 that "The combination of pool and gambling started
1254-399: The seriousness of its intent, this exploration of moral experience is a pithy and competent performance." Tevis grew up in Kentucky, and became good friends with a youth whose father bought him a pool table to keep him out of trouble. He was introduced to gambling when he was in the Navy, and a writer for Kentucky Monthly observed in 2019 that "The combination of pool and gambling started
1292-466: The surface, Man is the tale of an alien who comes to earth to save his own civilization and, through adversity, distraction, and loss of faith ("I want to... But not enough"), fails. Just beneath the surface, it might be read as a parable of 1950s conventionalism and of the Cold War . One of the many other things it is, in Tevis's own words, is "a very disguised autobiography," the tale of his removal as
1330-607: Was born in San Francisco , California , in 1928 to Anna Elizabeth "Betty" ( née Bacon) and Walter Stone Tevis, an appraiser , growing up in the Sunset District , across the street from Golden Gate Park . His sister, Betty, was born in 1925. He developed a rheumatic heart condition , so his parents placed him in the Stanford Children's Convalescent home (and given heavy doses of phenobarbital ), for
1368-726: Was illustrated by Denver Gillen. It was followed by short stories in The American Magazine , Bluebook , Cosmopolitan , Esquire , Galaxy Science Fiction , Playboy , Redbook and The Saturday Evening Post . His first novel, The Hustler , was published by Harper & Row in 1959. Tevis followed it with The Man Who Fell to Earth , published in 1963. Tevis drew from elements of his childhood in The Man Who Fell to Earth , as noted by James Sallis , writing in The Boston Globe : On
1406-407: Was published in 1984. Eddie "Fast Eddie" Felson is a young pool hustler from Oakland, California , who travels the country with his middle-aged partner Charlie Fenniger, pretending to be a worse pool player than he actually is to win bets. He goes with Charlie to Chicago, where he plays the legendary pool player George Hegerman, known as Minnesota Fats, at Brannigan's pool hall. After beating Fats in
1444-506: Was released in 1976; it was subsequently re-made in 1987 as a TV film , and in 2022 as a TV series . The Queen’s Gambit is a 2020 Netflix mini-series starring Anya Taylor-Joy . Tevis married Jamie Griggs in 1957, and they remained together for over twenty years before getting divorced. They had two children, a son, William Thomas, and daughter, Julia Ann. Tevis was a frequent smoker, gambler and alcoholic, and his works often included these vices as central themes. Tevis took some of
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