Carl Frederick Buechner ( / ˈ b iː k n ər / BEEK -nər ; July 11, 1926 – August 15, 2022) was an American writer, Presbyterian minister, preacher, and theologian. He wrote 39 published books. His career lasted more than 60 years and included many different types of writing. He wrote novels, such as Godric (a 1981 Pulitzer Prize finalist), A Long Day's Dying, and The Book of Bebb. He also wrote memoirs, including The Sacred Journey, and theological works, such as Secrets in the Dark, The Magnificent Defeat, and Telling the Truth.
Buechner was called "without question one of the truly great writers of the 20th century" by viaLibri, "a major talent" by The New York Times, and "one of our most original storytellers" by USA Today. Annie Dillard, the author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (a Pulitzer Prize-winning book), said he was "one of our finest writers." His works have been compared to those of C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton. His books have been translated into 27 languages.
Buechner was a finalist for the National Book Award, given by the National Book Foundation. He received eight honorary degrees from institutions such as Yale University and the Virginia Theological Seminary. He also placed third in the O. Henry Award, the Rosenthal Award, the Christianity and Literature Belles Lettres Prize, and was recognized by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
Life and career
Carl Frederick Buechner was born on July 11, 1926, in New York City. He was the oldest child of Katherine Golay (Kuhn) and Carl Frederick Buechner Sr. During his early years, his family moved often because his father was looking for work. In The Sacred Journey, Buechner wrote, "Every year until I was fourteen, I lived in a different place, had different people care for me, and went to a different school. The only home that stayed the same was my maternal grandparents’ house in East Liberty, a suburb of Pittsburgh. For me, home was not a place—it was people." In 1936, Buechner’s father died by suicide after he believed he had failed in life.
After his father’s death, the family moved to Bermuda, where they stayed until World War II forced Americans to leave the island. In Bermuda, Buechner felt a sense of peace and happiness after escaping the sadness of his father’s life and death. For him, Bermuda became a place he considered home.
Bermuda left a lasting impression on Buechner. The British culture of pre-World War II Bermuda helped him develop a lifelong appreciation for English traditions, which later influenced his books Godric and Brendan. He often wrote about Bermuda in his memoirs, including Telling Secrets and The Sacred Journey.
Buechner attended the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey and graduated in 1943. At Lawrenceville, he met James Merrill, a future Pulitzer Prize-winning poet. Their friendship and competition encouraged both to pursue writing. Buechner then went to Princeton University. His studies were interrupted by two years of military service during World War II, from 1944 to 1946. He worked in various places in the United States, including as a statistician at Camp Pickett, Virginia. After the war, he returned to Princeton, graduated with a degree in English in 1948, and completed a 77-page thesis titled Notes on the Function of Metaphor in English Poetry. He remained associated with his original class of 1947.
During his senior year at Princeton, Buechner won the Irene Glascock Prize for poetry and began writing his first novel, A Long Day’s Dying, published in 1950. His second novel, The Seasons’ Difference (1952), was not as successful. This difference in success led him to leave his teaching job at Lawrenceville and move to New York City to focus on writing. In 1952, he started teaching at New York University and gained praise for his short story The Tiger, which won the O. Henry Award Third Prize in 1955. He also began attending the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, where the pastor, George Buttrick, inspired Buechner to pursue a religious calling. Buttrick’s words about the "inward coronation of Christ" deeply affected Buechner, leading him to attend the Union Theological Seminary of Columbia University in 1954 on a Rockefeller Brothers Theological Fellowship.
At Union, Buechner studied with theologians like Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, and James Muilenburg, who helped him explore religious ideas. His decision to enter the seminary surprised many, including Buttrick, who said, "It would be a shame to lose a good novelist for a mediocre preacher." However, Buechner’s writing and ministry continued to influence each other.
After his first year at Union, Buechner took a break from school to focus on writing. In 1955, he met his future wife, Judith, at a family dance. They married in 1956 and spent four months traveling in Europe. During this time, he completed his third novel, The Return of Ansel Gibbs.
After his break, Buechner returned to Union to finish his studies and received a Bachelor of Divinity. He was ordained as an evangelist on June 1, 1958, at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church. Shortly before graduation, he received a job offer from Robert Russell Wicks, who had previously worked at Princeton. Wicks asked Buechner to start a new religion department at Phillips Exeter Academy. Buechner accepted and moved to Exeter in 1958.
At Exeter, Buechner faced the challenge of creating a religion program that would challenge students’ skeptical views of faith. He taught religion and English courses, served as a chaplain, and worked with students. The Buechner family had three daughters during his time at Exeter. In 1963–64, the family took a sabbatical on a farm in Vermont, where Buechner wrote his fourth book, The Final Beast, published in 1965. This book marked a new style in his writing, blending his roles as a minister and author.
Buechner later recalled that during his nine years at Exeter, the religion department grew from one teacher and about 20 students to four teachers and over 300 students. One of his students was John Irving, who included a quote from Buechner in his book A Prayer for Owen Meany. A biographer, Marjorie Casebier McCoy, noted that Buechner’s time at Exeter helped him improve his preaching and writing to better share the Christian faith with students who were initially skeptical.
In the summer of 1967, after nine years at Exeter, Buechner began a new chapter in his life.
Writing
The publication of A Long Day's Dying helped Buechner become famous quickly. He said the book was not as successful as people thought. Conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein commented on the novel.
A Long Day's Dying remains one of Buechner's most successful works, both in terms of praise and sales (it was reissued in 2003). However, his second novel, The Season's Difference, published in 1952, did not receive much attention, as Buechner said.
The publication of Buechner's third novel, The Return of Ansel Gibbs (written during a break from his job at Union Theological Seminary), happened at the same time as his ordination and move to Exeter, where he began writing non-fiction.
Buechner's non-fiction works, which include sermons, daily reflections, and memoirs, are more numerous than his fiction books. His first non-fiction book, The Magnificent Defeat, is a collection of sermons, showing his growth as a minister at Exeter. Over his career, he published many more volumes of sermons, including Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons, which includes a selection of his sermons in roughly chronological order, along with some new, previously unpublished ones.
To date, Buechner has written four memoirs: The Sacred Journey (1982), Now and Then (1983), Telling Secrets (1991), and The Eyes of the Heart (1999). Of all his books, The Sacred Journey and Telling Secrets are among his best-selling works. Buechner wrote in the introduction to The Sacred Journey about his interest in writing memoirs.
Buechner's most recent books include Buechner 101: Essays and Sermons by Frederick Buechner (2014), The Remarkable Ordinary: How to Stop, Look, and Listen to Life (2017), and A Crazy, Holy Grace: The Healing Power of Pain and Memory (2017).
While delivering the Noble Lectures, Buechner created the most important character of his later career, Leo Bebb.
The Book of Bebb series, which includes four books published between 1972 and 1977, became one of Buechner's most well-known works. It brought him to a larger audience and received positive reviews (Lion Country, the first book in the series, was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1971). Buechner said about writing the series: "I had never known a man like Leo Bebb, and I was quite unlike him myself. But I did not have to imagine him much. He came from a part of myself as mysterious as where dreams come from. With him came a whole world of people and places that I had never known before." In this series, Buechner tried writing in the first person for the first time, which opened new creative possibilities. His next work, Godric (1980), was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. The novel, a historical fiction, is written in the first person from the perspective of Saint Godric of Finchale, a 12th-century English hermit.
Brendan (1987), like Godric, is a work of historical fiction based on the life of Saint Brendan the Navigator, a 6th-century Irish monk. Buechner used the same narrative style as in Godric to blend history and legend in a vivid portrayal of Saint Brendan as seen through the eyes of Finn, his childhood friend and loyal follower. Buechner's detailed description of the ancient Celtic world earned him the Christianity and Literature Belles Lettres Prize in 1987.
Tributes and legacy
In 2001, the Californian rock band Daniel Amos released a double album called Mr. Buechner's Dream. The album has more than thirty songs and honors Frederick Buechner, who has been a big influence on the band's lyrics for many years.
The Reverend Samuel Lloyd, a former dean of Washington National Cathedral, said Buechner's writing has helped many people understand their lives better. He described Buechner's ability to see the meaning in everyday events.
Buechner combined strong literary skills with topics that are easy to understand, which has influenced modern Christian writing. His biographer, Marjorie McCoy, wrote that Buechner creates novels that are interesting from a religious perspective without being overly persuasive. His early works, written before he joined Union Theological Seminary, were praised for their detailed and descriptive style. David Daiches, a literary critic, called Buechner's first novel, A Long Day's Dying, a work showing great talent and a deep understanding of human experiences.
Buechner's focus on finding spiritual meaning in daily life has been a key part of his writing. Reverend Samuel Lloyd noted Buechner's ability to see the importance of everyday events. Barbara Brown Taylor, a preacher, said Buechner taught her that the only limit to seeing spiritual truths around her is her willingness to notice them.
Princeton Theological Seminary hosts an annual Buechner Writing Workshop. The workshop helps writers express their Christian faith clearly and powerfully, following Buechner's example. Past speakers have included authors like Barbara Brown Taylor, Rachel Held Evans, Philip Gulley, M. Craig Barnes, Philip Yancey, and Kathleen Norris.
The Buechner Institute was started in 2008 at King University. It focuses on exploring how faith and culture connect. The institute was founded by Dale Brown, who also wrote a book called The Book of Buechner: A Journey Through His Writings.
The institute held weekly events at King University's Memorial Chapel, where speakers from different backgrounds discussed how faith influences art, public life, and topics like books, politics, and the arts. It also organized the Annual Buechner Lecture, with speakers such as:
- 2008: Frederick Buechner (first lecture)
- 2009: Barbara Brown Taylor
- 2010: Ron Hansen
- 2011: Katherine Paterson
- 2012: Marilynne Robinson
- 2013: Kathleen Norris (poet)
- 2013: Doug Worgul
A summer event called Buechnerfest, which included readings and entertainment, took place in 2010 and 2012 near Virginia and Tennessee.
The institute was guided by local and national advisory boards. National members included writers and theologians such as Doris Betts, Walter Brueggemann, Scott Cairns, Michael Card, Elizabeth Dewberry, Tim Gautreaux, Philip Gulley, Ron Hansen, Roy Herron, Silas House, Richard Hughes, Thomas G. Long, Tom Lynch, Brian McLaren, Carrie Newcomer, Kathleen Norris, Katherine Paterson, Eugene H. Peterson, Charles Pollard, Barbara Brown Taylor, Will Willimon, John Wilson, Philip Yancey, and Doug Worgul.
In 2015, after Dale Brown's death, the Buechner Institute became the King Institute for Faith and Culture. This new name continues the work of connecting faith, art, and culture that the Buechner Institute started.
In the media
Frederick Buechner’s books have received strong praise from many critics, except for his second novel, The Season's Difference, which was widely criticized and remains his least successful book commercially. His later works, such as the Book of Bebb series and Godric, were well-received. In a 1980 review of Godric, Benjamin DeMott noted that Buechner had successfully brought themes of self-improvement and faith into modern fiction, creating five distinct books within a decade that are both unique and well-written. In 1982, author Reynolds Price described The Sacred Journey as a new kind of work for Buechner, calling it "a kind of detective autobiography" and stating it was "a short but fascinating and, in its own terms, beautifully successful experiment."
Some critics have occasionally criticized Buechner for being too "preachy." A 1984 review by Anna Shapiro in the New York Times mentioned that while the writing style was casual, the book felt overly focused on promoting faith, with ideas repeated in a way that might feel heavy-handed. Cecelia Holland’s 1987 Washington Post review of Buechner’s novel Brendan was more typical of the praise he received. She wrote that in a time when religion is often treated lightly, Buechner’s book shows the strength of faith in helping people grow and find purpose.
In 2008, Rich Barlowe of The Boston Globe wrote that Buechner often repeats the phrase "Who knows?" as a way to express his thoughts on faith and doubt. He explained that while some might see this as a sign of uncertainty, Buechner believes that doubt and struggle are natural parts of being human. This idea connects to his view of faith, inspired by Socrates: "The unexamined human life is a lost chance to behold the divine." In 2002, Richard Kauffman interviewed Buechner for The Christian Century about his book Speak What We Feel (Not What We Ought to Say). Buechner said he hopes to reach people who avoid religion, but he also noted that many of his readers are ministers who feel his work helps them reconnect with their faith and open new ways to share it with others.