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John Nichols (writer)
Overview
John Treadwell Nichols (born 1940) is an American novelist and Hamilton College alumnus, Class of 1962. He is best known for The Milagro Beanfield War (1974), the first novel in the New Mexico Trilogy, and for The Sterile Cuckoo (1965), his debut novel written largely from the experiences of his Hamilton years. During his time on the Hill he was an active contributor to the Hamilton Spectator, a member of the Pentagon senior honorary society, a hockey and cross-country runner, and a prize-winning fiction writer.
Relevance to Research
Nichols appears in 88 corpus files, concentrated in the Spectator years 1958–1962, when he was an undergraduate, with scattered later references as a famous alumnus. The Spectator documented his campus life in great detail: he competed in hockey and cross-country, served on the Honor Court as a junior-class representative (May 1960), was tapped for Pentagon (the senior honorary society, May 1961), and won first prize (tied) in the Alpha Delta Phi Essay Contest in spring 1962 for a short story titled “A Season of Dying.” He also wrote a recurring humor column in the Spectator called “Just No Stories,” which the paper reprinted in January 1965 alongside an early review of The Sterile Cuckoo noting the New York Times Book Review had called him “a master of the pun.” By 1972, the Spectator was referring to him as a “famous author and alumnus” who returned for informal hockey (“Jungle Hockey”) during Winter Study period.
Notes
Role: Hamilton College alumnus (Class of 1962); novelist; campus journalist and athlete Key events:
- Born 1940
- Enrolled Hamilton College fall 1958; member Theta Delta Chi fraternity
- Active on Spectator staff: wrote humor column “Just No Stories” and contributed student analysis pieces
- Competed in cross-country and track (hurdles), and played hockey for the Continentals
- Elected representative to the Honor Court from the junior class, May 1960
- Tapped for Pentagon, the senior honorary society, May 1961
- Won first prize (tied) in the Alpha Delta Phi Essay Contest, spring 1962, for the short story “A Season of Dying” — praised in the Spectator for combining “descriptive narration and emotional dialogue”
- Graduated Hamilton College, Class of 1962
- Published debut novel The Sterile Cuckoo (1965); the Sunday New York Times Book Review reviewed it in January 1965
- Published The Milagro Beanfield War (1974), later adapted as a film directed by Robert Redford (1988)
- Returned to campus during Winter Study period c. 1972 for informal (“Jungle”) hockey; described by Spectator as “famous author and alumnus, one-time captain of the Hamilton Continentals”