William Hjortsberg Books in Order

William Hjortsberg is a celebrated American author and screenwriter, known for his eclectic and genre-bending works. Born in New York City, he honed his craft at Dartmouth and the Yale School of Drama before embracing a life of travel and writing in the Caribbean and Europe. His early years were marked by rejections and self-doubt, but he persevered, fueled by a passion for storytelling. The publication of Alp (1969) marked a turning point in his career, earning him critical acclaim and cementing his status as a master of the absurd. Throughout the 1970s, Hjortsberg explored science fiction with Gray Matters (1971) and Symbiography (1973), and later found success with Toro! Toro! Toro! (1974) and the cult classic Falling Angel (1978), adapted into the film Angel Heart (1987).