Robert Coover - Author of "The End of Books"

Robert Coover was born on February 4, 1932. He has written theatrical plays and published some 15 books of fiction. They include Pricksongs & Descants, The Public Burning, and Ghost Town.

Robert Coover has been called one of America's most influential living authors.

He has received many literary prizes, including the William Faulkner Award of the PEN American Center and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award. He has also won the Rea Award for short story and the Lannan Literary Award for fiction.

In addition, Coover has won fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

In 1992 he published a groundbreaking essay on hypertext called "The End of Books". It first appeared in the New York Times Book Review and electrified internet and literature fans around the world. Since then, it has been reprinted many times and appears on many internet websites.

Today, Robert Coover teaches experimental courses in hypertext and multimedia narrative at Brown University.