“I wouldn’t consider them really very difficult years for me.
McGory, who teaches and studies within the Linguistics Department at Ohio State University, reflected on the years her family spent in Athens while her father taught at Ohio University. So I think Beth’s braininess comes from my father being a really intelligent person, but also his sister who was a really smart person.” “And he said that character is modeled after his sister, who was his brilliant woman. And so creating a character who was smart and strong and representing femininity in a really positive way is great, right? I mean, he knew what he was doing,” said McGory. My father was alive and around for the women’s liberation movement, and I don’t know how involved he was in it, but he certainly knew that I was involved. “He chose underdogs to write about, and her being female is just wonderful. Julie McGory, said her father was very intentional in his crafting of Beth Harmon. In Harmon, Tevis renders a character that is not only a troubled genius, but a troubled genius who is also a woman – femininity and genius being two characteristics whose association has, sadly, historically been rare. Tevis also faced alcoholism, personal traumas, and the intimidating heights of his own skill. In The Queen’s Gambit, the enormously skilled Beth Harmon wrestles with the traumas she experienced as a child while struggling with alcoholism and drug abuse, all while grappling with her overwhelming potential and her deep-set fear that she might never live up to it. ET and on Saturday, September 18 at 9 p.m. Register for the event at this link.Īdditionally, WOUB-TV will broadcast A Writer’s Gambit on Sunday, September 12 at 7 p.m. Julie McGory and Will Tevis, will follow the screening.
A panel discussion moderated by WOUB’s Community Engagement Manager Cheri Russo with Ohio University archivist Bill Kimok Sam Crowl, a former Ohio University faculty colleague and Tevis’ children, Dr. WOUB, in partnership with the Ohio University Libraries and the Ohio University Alumni Association, will virtually present a Zoom screening of KET’s Walter Tevis: A Writer’s Gambit, a documentary chronicling Tevis’ life and legacy on Thursday, September 9 at 6:30 p.m. The Queen’s Gambit is not Tevis’ only written work to be adapted into another media – he also wrote The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Hustler, and The Color of Money, each of which were made into major motion films. Tevis, who passed in 1984, taught English literature and creative writing at Ohio University from 1965 to 1978. The 1983 novel, which was adapted into the wildly successful 2020 Netflix miniseries of the same name, focuses on Beth Harmon, a spectacularly skilled chess prodigy whose raw skill and intellect rocket her to the heights of international chess competition, where she finds that her own self sabotaging tendencies are her most formidable opponent of all.Īs it turns out, Harmon’s story bears a striking resemblance to the story of the man who wrote her into existence: the brilliant and complex Walter Tevis. The Queen’s Gambit, like most of Walter Tevis’ works, tells the story of an exceptional underdog. Julie McGory Reflects On Legacy of Father Walter Tevis