Literary Birthday – 29 June – Breece D’J Pancake

Breece D’J Pancake was born 29 June 1952 and died 8 April 1979.

Quotes

But if life has any definition at all, it is the things that happen to us while we are making plans.
I stop in front of the bus station, look in on the waiting people, and think about all the places they are going. But I know they can’t run away from it or drink their way out of it or die to get rid of it. It’s always there, you just look at somebody and they give you a look like the Wrath of God.
Well, when everybody’s going this way, it’s time to turn around and go that way, you know?

Breece D’J Pancake was an American short story writer. Pancake was a native of West Virginia. Several of his short stories were published in The Atlantic Monthly and other periodicals during his lifetime. His works are available in The Stories of Breece D’J Pancake. His collected stories were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and named an American Library Association Notable Book for 1983. He died at the age of 26, apparently of suicide.