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Don Carpenter (March 16, 1931 — July 28, 1995) was an American writer, best known as the author of Hard Rain Falling. He wrote numerous novels, novellas, short stories and screenplays over the course of a 22-year career that took him from a childhood in Berkeley, California and the Pacific Northwest to the corridors of power and ego in Hollywood. A close observer of human frailty, his writing depicted marginal characters like pool sharks, prisoners and drug dealers, as well as movie mogul and struggling actors. Although lauded by critics and fellow writers alike, Carpenter's novels and stories never reached a mass audience and he supported himself with extensive work for Hollywood. Facing a mounting series of debilitating illnesses, Don Carpenter committed suicide in 1995.

Carpenter was born in Berkeley, California, and lived in Lafayette during the early years of his childhood. When Carpenter was 16, he and his family moved to Portland, Oregon where he attended Woodrow Wilson High School. In 1951, Carpenter enlisted in the Air Force and was stationed in Kyoto, Japan. During his time in the service, Carpenter was a writer for the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, where he met a struggling cartoonist named Shel Silverstein who would gain fame as a beloved author of children's books.

When Carpenter was discharged from service in 1955 he returned to Portland where he eloped with Martha Ryherd. They had two daughters – Bonnie and Leha, and settled in San Francisco in the late 1950s. In 1957, Carpenter enrolled in San Francisco State College and received an M.A. when he graduated in 1961. Four years later (1965), the Carpenters settled in Mill Valley, California. Carpenter taught English for two years before publishing his first novel Hard Rain Falling (1966).

• Hard Rain Falling (1966, novel)

• Blade of Light (1967, novel)

• The Murder of the Frogs and Other Stories (1969, short stories)

• Getting Off (1971, novel)

• Payday (1972, screenplay)

• The True Life Story of Jody McKeegan (1975, novel)

• Charles Bukowski's Post Office (1977, screenplay)

• A Couple of Comedians (1979, novel)

• Snyder, Whalen and Welch, Together (1981, magazine article)

• Turnaround (1981, novel)

• The Class of '49 (1985, novel and three stories)

• The Dispossessed (1986, novel)

• From A Distant Place (1988, novel)

• Fridays at Enrico's (1993-1994, unpublished novel)

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Don Carpenter", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0