Tyler, Anne (1941-…), is an American author whose novels reveal sensitive truths about the contemporary family. Many of Tyler’s novels center on a woman character, but that woman is of most interest because of her role within a family unit. Few of Tyler’s women determine their own destiny, free from the responsibilities of child rearing or family participation. Tyler’s novel Breathing Lessons (1988) received the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
In 1964 and 1965, Tyler wrote her first novels, If Morning Ever Comes and The Tin Can Tree. Her other novels include A Slipping-Down Life (1970), The Clock Winder (1972), Celestial Navigation (1974), Searching for Caleb (1976), Earthly Possessions (1977), Morgan’s Passing (1980), Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1982), The Accidental Tourist (1985), Saint Maybe (1991), Ladder of Years (1995), A Patchwork Planet (1998), Back When We Were Grownups (2001), The Amateur Marriage (2004), and Digging to America (2006).
Tyler’s later novels include Noah’s Compass (2010), The Beginner’s Goodbye (2012), A Spool of Blue Thread (2015), Clock Dance (2018), Redhead by the Side of the Road (2020), and French Braid (2022). In Vinegar Girl (2016), Tyler retold William Shakespeare’s comedy The Taming of the Shrew. Tyler has also written many short stories and book reviews.
Tyler was born on Oct. 25, 1941, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland, the setting for much of her fiction.
