John Barth (1930 – 2024) was an American writer known for his postmodern and metafictional works. His novels, including The Sot-Weed Factor (1960), Giles Goat-Boy (1966), and Lost in the Funhouse (1968), redefined narrative structure, influencing generations of writers. He was a co-recipient of the National Book Award in 1973 for Chimera.
Born in Cambridge, Maryland, Barth briefly studied music at Juilliard before earning his BA and MA from Johns Hopkins University. His early novels, The Floating Opera (1956) and The End of the Road (1958), explored existential themes. With The Sot-Weed Factor, he shifted to elaborate storytelling, blending historical fiction with satire.
Giles Goat-Boy, an allegory of the Cold War set in a fictional university, became a bestseller. His later works, such as LETTERS (1979) and The Tidewater Tales (1987), continued his metafictional approach. Barth also wrote theoretical essays, most notably The Literature of Exhaustion (1967), which examined the limits of traditional storytelling and became a key postmodernist text.
Barth taught at Pennsylvania State, SUNY Buffalo, and Johns Hopkins, retiring in 1991. He died in 2024 at 93, leaving a legacy of literary innovation and a profound impact on postmodern literature.