Annie Proulx
A writer of immense, weathered landscapes and the hardscrabble lives within them, who crafts sentences with the density of history.
Born 1935 (age 91)·American novelist, short story and non-fiction author·Birthday: August 22·The Silent Generation
Biography
Annie Proulx came to fiction late, after a life of moving, raising children, and working as a journalist and writer of 'how-to' books. When she finally turned to stories in her fifties, she brought a reporter's eye for detail and a historian's sense of place. Her fiction is rooted in specific, often harsh geographies—the Newfoundland of 'The Shipping News,' the Wyoming ranchland of 'Brokeback Mountain,' the Dakota badlands of 'That Old Ace in the Hole.' She researches meticulously, embedding the geology, weather, and economic forces that shape her characters' destinies into the very grain of her prose. Her sentences are muscular and distinctive, often laced with a dark, dry humor. While 'Brokeback Mountain' brought her widespread fame for its tragic love story, her broader project is an excavation of disappearing rural Americas, documenting the clash between traditional ways of life and relentless, often destructive, modernization.
The Silent Generation
1928–1945
Born between the Depression and the end of WWII. Too young to fight, old enough to remember. They became the conformist middle managers of the 1950s — and the civil rights leaders who quietly dismantled Jim Crow.
Annie was born in 1935, placing them squarely in The Silent Generation. The events that shaped this generation — world wars, depression, and rapid industrialization — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Annie Was Born
The biggest hits of 1935
#1 Movie
Mutiny on the Bounty
Best Picture
Mutiny on the Bounty
Annie's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1935Born
Social Security Act signed into law
Gas: $0.19/galHome: $3,450President: Franklin D. Roosevelt"Cheek to Cheek" — Fred AstaireBest Picture: Mutiny on the Bounty
1940Started school
The Blitz: Germany bombs London
Gas: $0.18/galHome: $2,938Min wage: $0.30/hrPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"I'll Never Smile Again" — Tommy DorseyBest Picture: Rebecca
1948Became a teenager
Israel declares independence; Berlin Blockade begins
Gas: $0.26/galHome: $7,450Min wage: $0.40/hrPresident: Harry S. Truman"Twelfth Street Rag" — Pee Wee HuntBest Picture: Hamlet
1951Could drive
First color TV broadcast in the US
Gas: $0.27/galHome: $7,925Min wage: $0.75/hrPresident: Harry S. Truman"Too Young" — Nat King ColeBest Picture: An American in Paris
1953Could vote
DNA structure discovered by Watson and Crick
Gas: $0.27/galHome: $8,750Min wage: $0.75/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Song from Moulin Rouge" — Percy FaithBest Picture: From Here to Eternity
1956Turned 21
Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show
Gas: $0.30/galHome: $10,050Min wage: $1.00/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Heartbreak Hotel" — Elvis PresleyBest Picture: Around the World in 80 Days
1965Turned 30
US sends combat troops to Vietnam
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $13,600Min wage: $1.25/hrPresident: Lyndon B. Johnson"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" — The Rolling StonesBest Picture: The Sound of Music
1975Turned 40
Fall of Saigon ends the Vietnam War
Gas: $0.57/galHome: $27,600Min wage: $2.10/hrPresident: Gerald Ford"Love Will Keep Us Together" — Captain & TennilleBest Picture: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1985Turned 50
Live Aid concerts raise money for Ethiopian famine
Gas: $1.12/galHome: $62,900Min wage: $3.35/hrPresident: Ronald Reagan"Careless Whisper" — Wham!Best Picture: Out of Africa
1995Turned 60
Oklahoma City bombing; Windows 95 released
Gas: $1.15/galHome: $96,500Min wage: $4.25/hrPresident: Bill Clinton"Gangsta's Paradise" — CoolioBest Picture: Braveheart
2005Turned 70
Hurricane Katrina devastates New Orleans; YouTube launches
Gas: $2.30/galHome: $167,500Min wage: $5.15/hrPresident: George W. Bush"We Belong Together" — Mariah CareyBest Picture: Crash
2015Turned 80
Paris climate agreement; same-sex marriage legalized in the US
Gas: $2.43/galHome: $171,900Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Barack Obama"Uptown Funk" — Mark Ronson ft. Bruno MarsBest Picture: Spotlight
2026Age 91 today
Gas: $3.91/galPresident: Donald Trump
Key Achievements
- Won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for her novel 'The Shipping News' (1993).
- Her short story 'Brokeback Mountain' won the O. Henry Prize and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film.
- Received the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for her first novel, 'Postcards' (1992).
- Awarded a lifetime achievement award from the National Book Foundation in 2017.
Did You Know?
She earned a master's degree in history from Sir George Williams University (now Concordia University) in Montreal.
Proulx once owned and operated a small newspaper in Vermont called 'The Behind Times.'
She is an avid outdoorswoman and has built several of her own homes.
She has stated that she writes her first drafts in longhand, using a fountain pen.
“You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page.”
