His stories, some of which could only be described as Oklahoma Kafkaesque, were not like the stories in the journals and magazines he submitted to however, that is not why the stories were rejected. When he finally began to submit short stories for publication, he received what all writers must consider as badges of honor-rejection letters. Instead, he kept a tall cardboard box by the side of his typewriter and discarded each page into it as soon as he was finished. He did not intend to submit these experiments for publication. During this time, he also experimented with a variety of styles and genres of writing. However, he now found college life too restricting, and after a misfire semester, he left school for five years, taking the time to read novels, history, psychology, and philosophy while working first in a rubber hose factory, then at a record store. Settling in after life on the road, Tharp worked the nightshift at a mental hospital before returning to school. This was enough money, and more, for a trip back to Oklahoma. Unable to locate jobs in Miami, the pair found shelter and earned three-hundred dollars each by taking part in a testing laboratory’s study of an aspirin substitute. Still thirsty for new experiences, he then set out for Florida in an aged and weathered pickup truck with a college friend. First, he hitchhiked to Chicago to visit a friend and then to California and back to Oklahoma. After two years, his thirst for adventure lured him to the open road. Upon graduating from high school, he attended Oklahoma State University, his father’s alma mater, majoring first in journalism and then psychology. In addition to writing for the school paper, he also began to write short stories modeled after his favorite writers at the time-Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Charles Dickens, and Kurt Vonnegut. He was editor of the school newspaper for which he wrote a regular column and a serialized mystery story entitled Nehi Bolt after the main character, a wise and rugged small-town Oklahoma sheriff.
Writing, however, was still close to his heart. In fifth grade, he fell in love with fiction writing, and vowed that one day, in addition to becoming the greatest professional football player to ever play the game, he would be a writer.īy high school, his professional sports ambitions had dwindled, though he continued playing football on Sunday afternoons on the lawn of the local YMCA. While in grade school, he created two comic strips, Monster Mag and Bush Miller, the latter being the continuing saga of a hapless bush-league baseball player.
At seven, when his father landed a job as associate editor of a big city newspaper, he moved to Midwest City, a suburb of Oklahoma City. Tim Tharp was born in Henryetta, Oklahoma, a small town in the eastern part of the state.
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