Editing John Irving (section)

==Early life==
Irving was born John Wallace Blunt Jr. in [[Exeter, New Hampshire]], the son of Helen Frances ([[née]] Winslow) and John Wallace Blunt Sr., a writer and executive recruiter;<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Irving__John.html |title=Pabook.libraries.psu.edu |access-date=May 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130517001444/http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Irving__John.html |archive-date=May 17, 2013 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.maryellenmark.com/text/magazines/london%20sunday%20times/904G-000-014.html |title=Maryellenmark.com |access-date=May 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105040747/http://www.maryellenmark.com/text/magazines/london%20sunday%20times/904G-000-014.html |archive-date=November 5, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> the couple separated during pregnancy.<ref name="AS-ARTE">{{cite journal|last1=Schäfer|first1=André|date=2012|title=Le Monde selon John Irving|url=http://www.arte.tv/guide/fr/043508-000/le-monde-selon-john-irving|journal=[[Arte]]|access-date=April 9, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150409075309/http://www.arte.tv/guide/fr/043508-000/le-monde-selon-john-irving|archive-date=April 9, 2015|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref> Irving was raised by his mother and stepfather, Colin Franklin Newell Irving, who was a [[Phillips Exeter Academy]] faculty member. His uncle [[H. Hamilton "Hammy" Bissell|Hammy Bissell]] was also part of the faculty. John Irving was in the Phillips Exeter wrestling program as a [[student athlete]] and as an [[assistant coach]], and wrestling features prominently in his books, stories, and life. While a student at Exeter, Irving was taught by author and Christian theologian [[Frederick Buechner]], whom he quoted in an epigraph in ''[[A Prayer for Owen Meany]]''. Irving has dyslexia.<ref>{{Cite web|title=John Irving, Award-Winning Author & Screenwriter|url=http://dyslexia.yale.edu/story/john-irving/|access-date=2021-09-21|website=Yale Dyslexia|language=en-US|archive-date=September 20, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210920231605/http://dyslexia.yale.edu/story/john-irving/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="saltz2139">{{cite book |last1=Saltz |first1=Gail |authorlink=Gail Saltz |title=The Power of Different: The Link Between Disorder and Genius |date=2024 |publisher=Little, Brown Book Group |location=London |isbn=9781472139948 |oclc=1419992815 |pages=21; 39}}</ref>

Irving never met his biological father, who was a pilot in the [[United States Army Air Forces|Army Air Forces]] during World War II. In July 1943,<ref>{{cite web |author=Klaus Brinkbäumer |date=May 21, 2010 |title=Zehn Wahrheiten von ... John Irving; "Ich bin gerannt und hab mir den Block gegriffen" |url=http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/literatur/0,1518,695785,00.html |work=Spiegel Online |access-date=September 24, 2010 |archive-date=May 24, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100524103409/http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/literatur/0,1518,695785,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> John Blunt Sr. was shot down over Burma but survived. The incident was incorporated into ''The Cider House Rules''. Irving did not find out about his father's heroism until 1981, when he was almost 40 years old.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/28/books/novelist-builds-fact-reach-truth-john-irving-begins-with-his-memories.html |author=Mel Gussow |title=A Novelist Builds Out From Fact to Reach the Truth; John Irving Begins With His Memories |date=April 28, 1998 |work=The New York Times |access-date=November 7, 2009 |archive-date=July 10, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100710071349/http://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/28/books/novelist-builds-fact-reach-truth-john-irving-begins-with-his-memories.html |url-status=live }}</ref>