David Leavitt's The Lost Language Of Cranes

939 Words2 Pages

David Leavitt was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on June 23, 1961, the son of Harold Jack Leavitt and Gloria Rosenthal Leavitt. David was raised in Palo Alto, California after his family moved there. David also had 2 other siblings, a brother, John, and a sister, Emily. (David Leavitt Biography, 2015) The early years of his life were a bit nomadic. The family had to move frequently, following the course of his father’s career. His father, Harold, taught at Rensselear, then at the University of Chicago. It was in Chicago that his brother and sister were born. Afterwards the family then moved to Pittsburgh so his father could teach at Carnegie-Mellon. David was born here in 1961. When David was a toddler about 4 or 5 years old, his father Harold, then took a position at the Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. (Leavitt, n.d.) It was in Palo Alto where David spent most of his childhood. …show more content…

In 1986 “The Lost Language of Cranes” was published, this was his first novel and would later go on to become a successful BBC film. “The Lost Language of Cranes is a novel about an upper-middle class family living in New York City in which the son’s acknowledgment of his sexual preference changes his parents’ marriage in unplanned ways (The Lost Language of Cranes Summary, n.d.). This story reflects some of the feelings that David must have felt growing up and realizing his sexual identity. This first piece of work was successfully followed with “Equal Affections” and “A Place I've Never Been” (Keehnen, 1993). At 32 David Leavitt released another novel, “While England Sleeps”. This novel takes place in 1930s Britain against a backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. It tells the story of a love affair between Brian Botsford, a young English writer, and Edward Phelan, who’s an employee of the London Underground, and member of the Communist

More about David Leavitt's The Lost Language Of Cranes

Open Document