Bill Henderson (novelist)

William McCranor Henderson (born in 1943 in Charlotte, North Carolina) is an American author whose writing explores the mutual influences of popular culture and literature, and the dark side of celebrity. Boston Magazine noted that his work displays "a real feel for the sad, ridiculous squalor in America, the tacky bars and beauty shops and motel swimming pools, the even cheaper dreams of the people who hang out at them." Henderson, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, "has managed the estimable feat of breathing new life into the theme of adulation and emulation in a fame-happy era."

Writing

Henderson is best known for his novels, Stark Raving Elvis and I Killed Hemingway. The Village Voice characterized Stark Raving Elvis (E.P. Dutton, 1984) as "profoundly concerned with contemporary American culture and its myths." Nikki Giovanni, in The New York Times, called it "funny and revealing," and The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote, "Henderson's writing is nothing if not sure-handed––lean, taut, oddly graceful... There is dark fun to be had in Stark Raving Elvis."

Published nine years later, I Killed Hemingway (Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's, 1993) was a 1993 New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Scott Byrd wrote (in Spectator Magazine), "Henderson's novel is as intricate as a Swiss watch. Fortunately, it runs efficiently—with a strong narrative drive, firm delineation of character, and desperate knowledge of how difficult it is for the central character to make sense of his life, to make peace with his shortcomings, and to define himself authentically." Publishers Weekly observed that: "Henderson's dementedly comic, ribald foray into fiction and fact may alter forever the way we perceive the delicate art of biography."

I Elvis, Confessions of a Counterfeit King (Berkely/Boulevard, 1997), is a nonfiction account of Henderson's own struggle to learn the craft of Elvis impersonation for what became, according to Kirkus Reviews, "a rollicking piece of gonzo journalism." Kirkus added: "Henderson's great achievement is to convey, in elegantly droll prose, what it's like to imagine being a great performer…in the face of real-world evidence to the contrary."

Life

Henderson grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. As a teenager, he was influenced by John Dos Passos' novel The Big Money. He attended Oberlin College, where he majored in philosophy. He was accepted to the Iowa Writers' Workshop in poetry, and switched his course to fiction, studying with novelists Nelson Algren and Kurt Vonnegut.