Irving, John Winslow (1942- )

US novelist. His novels, usually set in the northeastern USA, incorporate themes of family, sexuality, alienation, and religion. His novels include The World According to Garp (1978, filmed 1982), a vivid comic tale about a novelist killed by a disappointed reader; The Cider House Rules (1985, filmed 1999), an epic tale of a Maine orphanage; and A Prayer for Owen Meany (1988), about the accidental killing by a young boy of his best friend's mother. Irving won an Academy Award for his film adaptation of Cider House Rules.

Irving was born in Exeter, New Hampshire. His other novels include Setting Free the Bears (1968), The Water-Method Man (1972), The 158-pound Marriage (1974), The Hotel New Hampshire (1981, filmed 1984); A Son of the Circus (1994), A Widow for One Year (1998; filmed as The Door in the Floor in 2004), The Fourth Hand (2001), and Until I Find You (2005).