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Frederick Busch, Colgate’s Edgar WB Fairchild Professor of Literature, Emeritus, died of a heart attack Feb. 23 at the age of 64.
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Frederick Busch, Colgate’s Edgar WB Fairchild Professor of Literature, Emeritus, died of a heart attack Feb. 23 at the age of 64.
From 1966 to 2003, Busch taught writing and literature at Colgate, having been named to the Fairchild professorship in 1986. While at Colgate, he published 27 books and built a national reputation for his critically acclaimed writing and impassioned teaching. He retired in 2003.
Busch invented the popular course, “English 360, Living Writers,” which became a model for its innovative approach to the teaching of contemporary literature. Each week, Busch invited published authors into the classroom to read from their work and to answer questions prepared in advance by the students who had studied their stories and novels.
The exchange supported the popularization of fiction writing in America, while inspiring many of his students to become writers themselves.
In 2001, the course was offered online, allowing alumni, friends of the college, and prospective students to witness the conversations. This progressive step was facilitated in part by Busch’s wife, Judy, who was an instructional librarian at Colgate.
Busch was a master of the short story and one of America’s most prolific writers of fiction long and short.
His first novel was I Wanted A Year Without Fall, published in 1971; his novels include The Mutual Friend (about Charles Dickens), Girls, The Night Inspector (about Herman Melville), Don't Tell Anyone, and North. He also authored a book of criticism on the fiction of John Hawkes and a number of books on writing: Letters to a Fiction Writer, A Dangerous Profession, and When People Publish. Several of Busch’s novels are set in Central New York.
In his obituary in The New York Times, Busch’s novels and stories were called “precise” and “poetic.” He was called “a writer's writer” who told “tales of ordinary-seeming people … in a manner some likened to John Cheever’s or Chekhov’s.”
At Colgate, Busch instituted a creative writing concentration in the English department. He also established the Creative Writing Fellowship, a position that brings a new visiting writer to the department each year, and founded the annual Chenango Valley Writers’ Conference that takes place at Colgate each June. Busch was also instrumental in the evolution of the Colgate Bookstore into the literary resource for the Hamilton community that it is today.
“Generations of alumni – not just English majors, but students across the disciplines – have considered Fred to be a mentor and a friend,” said President Rebecca S. Chopp. “He made an indelible impression on the Colgate community, and he also brought Central New York alive for millions of readers. Fred will certainly be missed, but I know that his legacy will live on through his incredible body of work.”
Busch received many of the writing world’s most prestigious awards, including the National Jewish Book Award in 1984, American Academy of Arts and Letters Fiction Award in 1986, the PEN/Malamud Prize for achievement in the short story in 1991, and the Award of Merit of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, for “a writer’s lifetime achievement,” in 2001.
He also was a finalist for the National Book Critics’ Circle Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award. His work has been widely anthologized, performed in dramatic readings, and translated into Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, and Spanish.
In 2001, Busch was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Busch graduated from Muhlenberg College and earned a master's degree from Columbia University. Muhlenberg awarded him an honorary doctorate of letters in 1980.
Over the years, he held positions and directorships at various writing programs, including the Writers’ Workshop of the University of Iowa. He created the national program Writers’ Harvest, an annual series of readings offered for the charity Share Our Strength.
He is survived by his wife, the former Judith Burroughs, of Sherburne, NY; two sons, Benjamin, of College Park, Md., and Nicholas, of Syracuse, NY; and one granddaughter. At the family’s request, there will be no calling hours. A memorial service will be held in New York City in the spring.
Barbara Brooks
Office of Public Relations and Communications
315.228.7416
