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'''Below you'll find the Donald Murray page that was not created by me but had minimal information. I've added the section on voice and I plan to add more based on his Crafting a Life and other articles about or written by Murray. The article is a little messy in the reference section, so I plan on cleaning that up as well.'''


 * For other persons named Don Murray, see Don Murray.

Donald Morrison Murray (1923 – December 30, 2006) was a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, and long-time teacher (eventually Professor Emeritus of English at the University of New Hampshire. He wrote for many journals, authored several books on the art of writing and teaching, and served as writing coach for several national newspapers. Writing for the Boston Herald, he won the 1954 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing, "for a series of editorials on the "New Look" in National Defense which won wide attention for their analysis of changes in American military policy." For twenty years, he wrote the Boston Globe 's "Over 60" column, eventually renamed "Now And Then."

On Writing
Murray chronicled his relationship with writing until the day he died. In a column published just before his death, he wrote, "Each time I sit down to write I don't know if I can do it. The flow of writing is always a surprise and a challenge. Click the computer on and I am 17 again, wanting to write and not knowing if I can." His final column was published in the Boston Globe five days before his death.

On Voice
Murray compared a writer's voice in language to music and deemed its significance as the key factor in capturing an audience. In addressing the complexities of voice in writing, Murray noted the following elements as important to developing a writer's voice: revealing specifics, the word, the phrase, the beat, and the point of view.

Books

 * Man Against Earth: The story of Tunnels and Tunnel Builders (J.B. Lippincott. Philadelphia, 1961).
 * The Man Who Had Everything (novel) (New American Library, 1964).
 * A writer teaches writing: a practical method of teaching composition (Houghton Mifflin, 1968).
 * Learning by Teaching (Heinemann, 1982).
 * Expecting the Unexpected (Heinemann, 1989).
 * Crafting a Life in Essay, Story, Poem (Boynton/Cook, 1996).
 * Write to Learn (Harcourt Brace, 1998).
 * The Craft of Revision (Harcourt Brace, 1998).
 * A Writer Teaches Writing (Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1990).
 * The Literature of Tomorrow: an anthology of student fiction, poetry, and drama (1990).
 * My Twice-Lived Life: A Memoir (Ballatine Books, 2001).
 * The Lively Shadow: Living with the Death of a Child (Ballantine, 2003).