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Tom Noyes

Goodreads Author

Born

in Norristown, PA, The United States

Website

http://www.tomnoyes.org

Twitter

TomNoyesWriter

Genre

Fiction, Contemporary, Historical Fiction

Member Since

March 2020

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Tom Noyes's newest book is The Substance of Things Hoped For: A Novel (Slant, 2021). He has also published three collections of short fiction: Come by Here: A Novella and Stories (Autumn House, 2014), Spooky Action at a Distance and Other Stories (Dufour, 2008), and Behold Faith and Other Stories (Dufour, 2003). He directs the BFA in Creative Writing Program at Penn State Behrend in Erie, PA, where he also serves as Consulting Editor for the literary journal Lake Effect. ...more

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Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Tom Noyes As is readily apparent, the 19th century writer, preacher, and Oneida Commune leader John Humphrey Noyes and I share a surname, and I was always aware…moreAs is readily apparent, the 19th century writer, preacher, and Oneida Commune leader John Humphrey Noyes and I share a surname, and I was always aware of him and his story lurking there, seemingly waiting for me. I think I knew, ever since I started to write seriously, that I was on a collision course with this novel. John Humphrey's views on communal marriage and Perfectionism, along with his belief that he was divinely chosen to usher in God's kingdom in rural Central New York State, fascinated me.

My fascination with John Humphrey deepened after I started reading his substantial publications and private correspondence. He was such a conflicted personality, a man of such extremes, that I soon realized that I would need help in figuring him out, and that’s when I started meeting the other citizens of his community. In discovering them through their diaries and memoirs, as well as in my own pages as I watched them begin to connect and conflict with John Humphrey and each other, I thought I might be onto something.

Also, I visited the Oneida Mansion House and Museum on a couple occasions. I spent a few nights in one of the mansion house rooms, worked on the novel for a few days in the restored mansion house library, roamed around the grounds, hiked around the lake, was stung by a bee outside John Humphrey's bedroom, even dozed off for a few minutes in this gazebo-like structure Oneidans called the Summer House. I don’t consider myself a superstitious writer, but I can’t deny these visits helped prepare me, in a kind of spiritual, uncanny way, for the writing I had to do, the voices I needed to access.

And then the character of Charles Guiteau showed up and transformed the project completely. The more I read about him before, during, and after his stint with the Oneidans—his arc from would-be Perfectionist to presidential assassin—the more I realized this wasn’t only John Humphrey Noyes’s book, this was going to have to be Charles Guiteau’s book, too.(less)

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Tom Noyes’s books

Average rating: 4.07 · 61 ratings · 17 reviews · 6 distinct works

	Spooky Action at a Distance and Other Stories 3.59 avg rating — 27 ratings — published 2008 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Behold Faith and Other Stories 4.40 avg rating — 15 ratings — published 2002 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Come By Here 4.58 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 2014 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Substance of Things Hoped For: A Novel 4.29 avg rating — 7 ratings — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Quarter After Eight : A Journal of Prose and Commentary : Volume 6 by Tom Noyes (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Imad Rashman (Editor), Andrew Touhy (Editor) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	THE SUBSTANCE OF THINGS HOPED FOR by Tom Noyes (Goodreads Author), Unknown Author 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Tom Noyes…

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Tom Noyes's Blog

The Minors Are Major

This post appeared on Slant Books' blog "Close Reading." (5/17/21)

The Minors Are Major

My love for major league baseball, specifically the Philadelphia Phillies, is old and deep, but when it comes to taking in a live contest, I’ll opt for a minor league game any day of the week.

Where I live in northwest Pennsylvania, for twenty-five bucks I can park on the street behind the cozy stadium, get a seat Read more of this blog post »

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