Hilary Masters is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 writer.

He was born in Kansas City

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

, Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

, the son of Edgar Lee Masters

Edgar Lee Masters

Edgar Lee Masters was an American poet, biographer, and dramatist...

, a writer, and Ellen Frances Coyne Masters. He attended Davidson College

Davidson College

Davidson College is a private liberal arts college in Davidson, North Carolina. The college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently ranked in the top ten liberal arts colleges in the country by U.S. News and World Report magazine, although it has recently dropped to 11th in U.S. News...

 from 1944–1946, then served in the U.S. Navy from 1946 to 1947 as a naval correspondent. He completed his BA

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 at Brown University

Brown University

Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

 in 1952.

Masters began his writing career after graduation in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 with Bennett & Pleasant, press agents for concert and dance artists. Next he worked independently as a theatrical press agent for Off Broadway and summer theaters from 1953 to 1956. He then moved into journalism with the Hyde Park Record, in Hyde Park, New York

Hyde Park, New York

Hyde Park is a town located in the northwest part of Dutchess County, New York, United States, just north of the city of Poughkeepsie. The town is most famous for being the hometown of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt....

 from 1956 to 1959. In the 1960s he was a Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 candidate for New York's 100th Assembly District. He also worked as a freelance photographer for Image Bank and exhibits.

He has taught writing at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro , also known as UNC Greensboro, is a public university in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States and is a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina system. The university offers more than 100 undergraduate, 61 master's and 26...

, Drake University

Drake University

Drake University is a private, co-educational university located in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. The institution offers a number of undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and pharmacy. Today, Drake is one of the twenty-five oldest law schools in the country....

, Clark University

Clark University

Clark University is a private research university and liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts.Founded in 1887, it is the oldest educational institution founded as an all-graduate university. Clark now also educates undergraduates...

, Ohio University

Ohio University

Ohio University is a public university located in the Midwestern United States in Athens, Ohio, situated on an campus...

 and the University of Denver

University of Denver

The University of Denver is currently ranked 82nd among all public and private "National Universities" by U.S. News & World Report in the 2012 rankings....

. Since 1983 he has served as Professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....

, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

.

Masters married Polly Jo McCulloch in 1955 (divorced, 1986); they had three children. In 1994 he married the writer Kathleen George

Kathleen George

Kathleen Elizabeth George is an American professor and writer best known for her series of crime novels set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania....

. They reside in Pittsburgh.

Works

• The Common Pasture, novel (New York: Macmillan, 1967)
• An American Marriage, novel (New York: Macmillan, 1969)
• Palace of Strangers, novel (New York: World Publishing, 1971)
• Last Stands: Notes from Memory , biography (Boston: David Godine, 1982)
• Clemmons, novel (Boston: David Godine, 1985)
• Hammertown Tales , short stories (Winston-Salem: Wright, 1986)
• Cooper, novel (New York: St. Martin's, 1987)
• Manuscript for Murder, novel under pseudonym P. J. Coyne (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1987)
• Strickland, novel (New York: St. Martin's, 1989)
• Success: New and Selected Short Stories, short stories (New York: St. Martin's, 1992)
• Home Is the Exile
  Home Is the Exile
  Home Is the Exile is a novel by the American writer Hilary Masters set in 1990s Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.The novel weaves the stories of two military men of two eras: aviator Roy Armstrong is a veteran of the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War, while Walt Hardy, a player in the Iran-Contra...
  
  , novel (Sag Harbor: Permanent Press, 1996)
• In Montaigne's Tower, essays (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2000)
• Shadows On a Wall: Juan O'Gorman and the Mural in Patzcuaro, nonfiction (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005)
• Elegy for Sam Emerson
  Elegy for Sam Emerson
  Elegy for Sam Emerson is a novel by the American writer Hilary Masters set in pre-9/11 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.The novel tells the story of Sam Emerson, proprietor of an upscale Mount Washington restaurant with stunning views of the three rivers below...
  
  , novel (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 2006)

Sources

Contemporary Authors Online. The Gale Group, 2004. PEN (Permanent Entry Number): 0000065011.

Kelsey, Sigrid. "Hilary Masters." Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 244: American Short-Story Writers Since World War II, Fourth Series. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by Patrick Meanor Joseph McNicholas. The Gale Group, 2001. pp. 239–245.