R. M. Koster

Carmichael's Dog (1992), takes place in a parallel universe wherein the United States is a kingdom, the Army's service pistol is an "Ingersol," and characters quote the poet-playwright Robin Speckshaft, whose works include Launcelot and Guinevere, Ornella Whore of Tunis, and Malaspina Duke of Ancona (the latter’s protagonist has his dwarf strangled for making him smile). Carmichael, a best-selling science fiction writer, is unknowingly possessed by demons representing all Seven Deadly Sins (the novel is narrated by the first demon to possess him, who causes him to be slothful). The ultimate battle for possession of his soul ensues when he acquires an unlikely champion: a faithful Pomeranian dog, who instinctively knows something is up, and what to do about it.

Koster has had parallel careers in politics and journalism. He was a member of the Democratic National Committee from 1967 to 1996, served on many Democratic panels, and wrote presidential debate copy for Senator John Kerry in 2004. During the 1960s and '70s he reported from Panama for the Copely News Service and Newsweek magazine. He has reported more recently for the New York Times and has contributed prolifically to the Spanish language press in Panama. He was interviewed on National Public Radio about his book, In the Time of the Tyrants

Koster was born in Brooklyn, New York, attended Poly Prep, and has degrees from both Yale and New York University. He taught English at the National University of Panama, and from 1964 to 2001 was a member of the faculty of the Florida State University, serving at its Panama branch. He has lectured in English and Spanish at universities in the United States and Latin America. In 2003 he was a visiting professor at Southern Methodist University.

The Dissertation presents itself as a doctoral thesis with contrapuntal stories in the text and notes. A biography of the only honest President of Tineiblas, Leon Fuertes (assassinated 1964), written by his son, Camilo, the notes (in the manner of Nabokov's "Pale Fire") advance Camilo's story of academic and political intrigue and marital difficulty, while the body of the narrative relates the ancestry and history of his father. Cammilo's research methods are unique: he interviews spirits of the dead for information before resorting to libraries and published sources.

Koster went to Panama as a soldier in the late 1950s and has lived there since. His wife, Otilia Tejeira, was a soloist with Panama’s National Ballet and has had a subsequent career as a human rights monitor. They have two children and three grandchildren.

Richard Morton Koster (1934) is an American novelist best known for the Tinieblas trilogy—The Prince (1972), The Dissertation (1975), Mandragon (1979)—set in an imaginary Central American republic much like Panama, the author's home for many years. He is the author, besides, of two other novels, Carmichael's Dog (1992) and Glass Mountain (2001), and (with Panamanian man of letters Guillermo Sánchez Borbón), of In the Time of the Tyrants (1990), a history of the Torrijos-Noriega dictatorship in Panama.