Historical Figures Codexery

Robert M. Pirsig

Author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Robert M. Pirsig was an American writer and philosopher born September 6, 1928, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[1][2] Pirsig's life ended on April 24, 2017, at his South Berwick, Maine residence, when he was 88 years old.[1]

Quick Facts

Birth name
Robert Maynard Pirsig
Born
6 September 1928
Birthplace
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Died
24 April 2017
Place of death
South Berwick, Maine, U.S.
Occupation
Writer, philosopher
Genre
Philosophical fiction
Notable works
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974); Lila: An Inquiry into Morals (1991)

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Pirsig was the son of Harriet Marie Sjobeck and Maynard Pirsig, who taught at the University of Minnesota Law School from 1934 and served as its dean from 1948 to 1955.[3][4] He studied biochemistry at the University of Minnesota but was expelled after his grades declined due to his preoccupation with philosophical questions about scientific method.[5][6] He married Nancy Ann James on May 10, 1954, and they had two sons, Chris and Theodore.[7] Pirsig worked as a technical writer for Northern Pump in the mid- to late 1960s, and in 1968 conceived the idea for an essay about fixing motorcycles and Zen religious ideas that grew into his novel.[8]

At nine years old, Pirsig was considered a gifted child with a reported IQ of 170; he advanced through multiple grades and, by May 1943, had obtained a high school diploma at age 14.[9][4] The writing of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance required close to four years; during this period, Pirsig resided above a south Minneapolis shoe store and held a technical writing position at Honeywell.[10] A Guggenheim Fellowship for General Nonfiction, awarded in 1974, enabled Pirsig to finish his second book.[11] From 1973 through 1975, Pirsig held the position of vice-president at the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center.[12]

What the cited sources add

A 2017 New York Post article notes that 121 publishers rejected Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance before the 122nd accepted it with a $3,000 advance.[13] The same source describes Pirsig as "probably the most widely read philosopher alive" according to a British journalist in 2006.[13] The New York Post article also states that Pirsig's alter ego Phaedrus, like the real-life Pirsig, had an IQ of 170 and underwent electroconvulsive therapy.[13] The same source notes that Pirsig also attended Benares Hindu University in India to study Eastern philosophy.[14]

The Guardian reports that Pirsig worked on the sequel Lila: An Inquiry into Morals for 17 years before its 1991 publication.[15]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Robert M. Pirsig" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Italie, "'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' author dead", The Kansas City Star, April 24, 2017 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Robert M. Pirsig" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Robert M(aynard) Pirsig", St. James Press, 1997 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Robert M. Pirsig" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Robert M. Pirsig", It Happened in History; "A Tribute to Dean Pirsig", University of Minnesota Law School; "A Tribute to Dean Pirsig", University of Minnesota Law School (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. "Robert M. Pirsig", It Happened in History. facts only, no text reused. amsaw.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Robert M. Pirsig" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Robert Pirsig: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author dies aged 88", The Guardian, April 24, 2017 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Robert M. Pirsig" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Vitello, "Robert M. Pirsig, Author of 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance', Dies at 88", The New York Times, April 24, 2017 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Robert M. Pirsig" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Author Robert Pirsig dies at 88", New York Post, April 25, 2017 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Robert M. Pirsig" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Robert M. Pirsig on the Book He Wrote (And the One He Didn't)", lithub.com, April 29, 2022; Pirsig, "Robert M. Pirsig on the Book He Wrote (And the One He Didn't)", Literary Hub, 2022-04-29 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Robert M. Pirsig" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Robert M. Pirsig", It Happened in History; Adams, "The interview: Robert Pirsig", The Guardian, November 18, 2006 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Robert M. Pirsig" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Tillotson, "Art found a fit at Roberts Shoe Store, but now Shoebox Gallery must also close", Star Tribune, 2014-11-19 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Robert M. Pirsig" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Robert Pirsig", gf.org (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  12. Wikipedia, "Robert M. Pirsig" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Pirsig, Robert M(aynard) 1928–", Major 21st-Century Writers, 2005 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  13. "Author Robert Pirsig dies at 88", New York Post, April 25, 2017. facts only, no text reused. nypost.com
  14. "Robert M. Pirsig on the Book He Wrote (And the One He Didn't)", lithub.com, April 29, 2022. facts only, no text reused. lithub.com
  15. "Robert Pirsig: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author dies aged 88", The Guardian, April 24, 2017. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Robert M. Pirsig (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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