罗伯特·C·奥布莱恩

Robert C. O'Brien

生卒: 1918 – 1973
国籍: 美国
外文名: Robert C. O'Brien

生平与创作

罗伯特·莱斯利·卡罗尔·康利（英语：Robert Leslie Carroll Conly，1918年1月11日—1973年3月5日），美国作家、记者，以其笔名罗伯特·C·奥布莱恩（Robert C. O'Brien）闻名。

写作生涯

1951年，他开始担任《国家地理》杂志的编辑和作家。1960年代，他不幸患上了青光眼，但反而开起撰写儿童故事的契机。因眼疾之故他无法再开车去上班，1963年，他和家人从弗吉尼亚州搬到了离他在华盛顿特区的办公室更近的地方。由于此举节省了通勤的时间，使他有更多时间进行创作。康利使用笔名“罗伯特·C·奥布莱恩”，这个名字取自他母亲的婚前姓氏，之所以另取笔名是因为他与国家地理杂志的合约“禁止他与任何其他公司合作出版”。

他的第一部作品为1968年儿童故事《银王冠》，其次为1971年《实验鼠的秘密基地》（又译：尼姆的老鼠）；后者为其最著名的作品，1972年奥布莱恩以该作获得了纽伯瑞奖，之后于1982年被改编为动画电影《鼠谭秘奇》。

由于他与雇主国家地理杂志的特殊关系，他于创作时鲜少公开个人资讯，1972年纽伯瑞奖颁奖典礼亦由其编辑代为授奖。

逝世

1973年，他因心脏病去世，享年55岁，在逝世前他主要担任国家地理杂志的高级助理编辑。他的最后一部小说《末日寂境》（Z for Zachariah）生前尚未全部完成，他的妻子莎莉·M·康利（Sally M. Conly）和女儿简·莱斯利·康利（Jane Leslie Conly）借由他生前留下的笔记完成了这部作品，后于1974年出版。

以上文字摘自维基百科「羅伯特·C·奧布萊恩 (作家)」（去掉了参考文献等尾部小节），按 CC BY-SA 4.0 使用，作者为维基百科的各位编者。

中文维基百科的条目比较短，下面附上英文维基百科的内容（英文原文）：

Robert Leslie Carroll Conly (January 11, 1918 – March 5, 1973), better known by his pen name Robert C. O'Brien, was an American novelist and a journalist for National Geographic magazine. He is best known for his children's novel Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (1971), which won the Newbery Medal 1972. His novel was later adapted to Don Bluth's animated film The Secret of NIMH (1982).

Early life

Conly was born in Brooklyn, New York, the third of five children in a wealthy Irish Catholic family. With interests in music and literature, Conly entered Williams College in 1935 but left in his second year. He then went through a period that he referred to as his "breakdown", briefly working in Albany, New York, before going back to his family in disgrace. Although he later studied for a time at Juilliard, he went on to receive his Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of Rochester in 1940.

Writings

Journalism

After his university graduation, Conly had a brief stint in an advertising agency, and then began working for Newsweek. He was ineligible for conscription during World War II, as unfit due to physical and mental ailments (classification 4-F in later terms). He then covered national and city news for the Washington Times-Herald beginning in 1944 and later the Pathfinder, a news magazine. In 1951, he began working as an editor and writer for National Geographic, a job which was to take him around the world. From 1970 until his death he was a senior assistant editor there.

Fiction writer

In the 1960s Conly developed glaucoma. Because he could no longer drive to work, he and his family moved in 1963 from Virginia closer to his office in Washington, D.C. In the time he saved from not having to commute, he began to write children's stories. Conly is best known for writing novels under the name "Robert C. O'Brien", from his mother's maiden name, used because his National Geographic contract "forb[ade] him from publishing with any other company".

His first books were the children's stories The Silver Crown (1968) and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (1971). He won the 1972 Newbery Medal for the latter and his comments at the American Library Association annual conference were read by his editor Jean Karl to preserve his anonymity. According to Sally Conly, his last two novels, A Report from Group 17 (1972) and Z for Zachariah (1974), were intended for adults. After his death in 1973, Sally and their daughter Jane finished the latter novel using his notes so it could be published posthumously. Z for Zachariah received a 1976 Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery from the Mystery Writers of America.

His daughter Jane Leslie Conly later published two sequels to Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH: Racso and the Rats of NIMH (1986) and R-T, Margaret, and the Rats of NIMH (1990).

Personal life

Robert Conly married Sally McCaslin in 1943. The couple had four children, three daughters and a son. The marriage lasted until his death from a heart attack thirty years later in 1973. Mrs. Conly has written about her husband under the name Sally O'Brien.