Pulitzer Prize for Fiction · person-scope · birth-card coordinate
Robert Olen Butler's Birth Card: The 7 of Diamonds
The Skeptical Investor
A birth card is a calendar coordinate for the month and day. It is not fortune-telling and does not predict a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
In the record
Robert Olen Butler (born January 20, 1945) is an American fiction writer. The birth-card coordinate for January 20 is the 7 of Diamonds — a calendar position, not a forecast of Robert Olen Butler's 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction — A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain.
Pulitzer Fiction record
- 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction — A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
Robert Olen Butler is on the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction list for A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain (https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/1993). Robert Olen Butler (Q503497, Wikipedia “Robert Olen Butler”) appears here as a person-scope Fiction winner. Robert Olen Butler is listed as the sole Fiction recipient for each year in this pack. Works in this pack for Robert Olen Butler: 1993 A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain. Robert Olen Butler's English Wikipedia title is the same string as the harvested name. Birth date 1945-01-20 is the Wikipedia infobox day for Robert Olen Butler, verified against Wikidata P569 1945-01-20 (match). Pulitzer.org bio date status for Robert Olen Butler is unavailable. The harvested card symbol for January 20 is 7♦. No day-precision Wikidata P570 death date is stored on this page for Robert Olen Butler. Source URL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Olen_Butler is the Wikipedia article used for Robert Olen Butler. This page does not invent a childhood or a private address for Robert Olen Butler. It only names the calendar coordinate for January 20 and the Fiction titles already listed for Robert Olen Butler.
The 7 of Diamonds coordinate
Robert Olen Butler was born January 20, 1945 (1945-01-20). Month 1 and day 20 give solar value 33, which is the 7 of Diamonds (The Skeptical Investor). Card Blueprints treats that as a 365-day coordinate: solar value = 55 − (2 × month + day). The year 1945 is unused, so Robert Olen Butler's 1945 birth year does not move the card. The 7 of Diamonds does not predict a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and is not a verdict on Robert Olen Butler. Quoted system copy for the 7 of Diamonds, not a biography of Robert Olen Butler: You look at worth without reducing it to the account balance. You question everything about money—where it comes from, where it goes, whether it's worth it. You're analytical about resources. You think deeply about material choices. Harvested gifts listed for the 7 of Diamonds: Analytical thinking about financial decisions; Ability to identify financial risks; Deep skepticism that prevents poor choices; Natural caution and thoroughness. Harvested life-direction line for the 7 of Diamonds: Your curriculum is learning that no investment is risk-free. You're learning to act despite uncertainty, to trust intuition alongside analysis.
Wikipedia summary used as source_text
Robert Olen Butler is an American fiction writer. His short-story collection A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1993.
Robert Olen Butler in the public record
His short-story collection A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1993. Butler was born in Granite City, Illinois, to Robert Olen Butler Sr., an actor and theater professor who became the chairman of the theater department of Saint Louis University, and his wife, the former Lucille Frances Hall, an executive secretary. Butler attended Northwestern University as a theater major (BS, 1967) and switched to playwriting at the University of Iowa (MA, 1969). Butler served in Vietnam from 1969 to 1971, first as a counter-intelligence special agent for the Army and later as a translator. He rose to the rank of sergeant in the Army Military Intelligence Corps. His experiences during that period have informed his writings, and as a result, in 1987 Butler received the Tu Do Chinh Kien Award from the Vietnam Veterans of America for outstanding contributions to American culture by a veteran. "My greatest pleasure in life was at 2 in the morning to wander out into the steamy back alleys of Saigon, where nobody ever seemed to sleep, and just walk the alleys and crouch in the doorways with the people," Butler told The New York Times in 1993. "The Vietnamese were the warmest, most open and welcoming people I've ever met, and they just invited me into their homes and into their culture and into their lives." After working as a steel mill laborer, a taxi driver, and a substitute teacher in high schools in the years following his tour of duty in Vietnam, Butler joined Fairchild Publications, where he worked on the staffs of trade publications such as Electronic News.
Summarised from the lead section of the Wikipedia article Robert Olen Butler (CC BY-SA 4.0). No biographical facts were written for this page beyond that article.
Where the record meets the 7 of Diamonds
A card is a calendar coordinate, not a cause. What follows sets one line of the card's own published language beside one sentence of the sourced record, paired by a documented rule. It is a resemblance offered for the reader to weigh — not a claim about Robert Olen Butler, and not a forecast of a Pulitzer.
Cards in Robert Olen Butler's fixed path
Birth card and karma
Life Spread (Mercury → Result / Cosmic Reward)
- 5♠ — Life Spread — Mercury
- J♥ — Life Spread — Venus
- 9♣ — Life Spread — Mars
- 9♠ — Life Spread — Jupiter
- K♥ — Life Spread — Uranus
- K♦ — Life Spread — Neptune
- 6♥ — Life Spread — Pluto
- 4♣ — Life Spread — Result / Cosmic Reward
Planetary ruling card, karma and Life Spread
- 2♥ — Planetary Ruling Card: The Loving Partner
- A♣ — PRC Karma — Environment: The Creative Pioneer
- 2♦ — PRC Life Spread — Saturn: The Financial Partner
- J♠ — PRC Life Spread — Uranus: The Messenger of Truth
- 8♣ — PRC Life Spread — Neptune: The Ambitious Builder
- 6♦ — PRC Life Spread — Pluto: The Generous Provider
- 4♠ — PRC Life Spread — Result / Cosmic Reward: The Rigid Truth
Birth card from the month and day. Karma cards are fixed to the birth card. The planetary ruling card comes from the sun sign's ruling planet — the signs with two rulers carry two. The Life Spread is the birth card's fixed row of nine in the Life Spread — the cards that colour each 52-day period for life. Planetary period and long-range cards move year by year and are not shown on a static page.
Analytical thinking about financial decisions
Butler was born in Granite City, Illinois, to Robert Olen Butler Sr., an actor and theater professor who became the chairman of the theater department of Saint Louis University, and his wife, the former Lucille Frances Hall, an executive secretary.
Paired on value and commerce — the domain ♦ governs in this system. Markers in the record: executive.
Also on the record
- From 1975 until 1985, he was the editor-in-chief of Fairchild's Energy User News (now Energy & Power Management).
- Robert Olen Butler is the author of 12 novels and six short story collections, including A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, which won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
- In a review for the Guardian newspaper, renowned author Claire Messud wrote, "The book has attracted such acclaim not simply because it is beautifully and powerfully written, but because it convincingly pulls off an immense imaginative risk. . . .
- Butler has not entered the significant and ever-growing canon of Vietnam-related fiction (he has long been a member)—he has changed its composition forever." Butler began writing novels on the Long Island Rail Road while working as a publicist for Fairchild Publications.
Other Fiction winners with this card
- Saul Bellow — 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction — Humboldt's Gift
- Shirley Ann Grau — 1965 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction — The Keepers of the House
- Toni Morrison — 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction — Beloved
- Wallace Stegner — 1972 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction — Angle of Repose
FAQ
- What is Robert Olen Butler's birth card?
- The 7 of Diamonds. January 20 maps to that card through the public Card Blueprints formula. Robert Olen Butler's year of birth is not used.
- Does a birth card predict a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction?
- No. These pages are coordinates, not fortune-telling. A birth card names a calendar day in a 52-card year. It does not forecast awards, novels, character, or fate.
- Where do Robert Olen Butler's dates and Fiction credits come from?
- Birth date 1945-01-20 is the day-precision Wikipedia infobox date for Robert Olen Butler, verified against Wikidata P569 (CC0, day precision, Gregorian preferred). The two sources match. Year-only infoboxes and Wikipedia↔Wikidata conflicts are dropped, not guessed. Winner identity comes from the Wikipedia Pulitzer Prize for Fiction list, which cites Pulitzer.org year pages. The Fiction line is 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction — A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain. Pulitzer.org bio date status is unavailable. Page hooks and evidence come from the Wikipedia REST summary (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Get the $9 Deep Dive
The Deep Dive is a written card report for your own birthday — not a Pulitzer reading.
Sources: Pulitzer.org (year record, pulitzer.org) + Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0 (Fiction winners list, Robert Olen Butler) + Wikidata CC0 (Q503497). Birth date 1945-01-20 is the Wikipedia infobox day, verified against Wikidata P569 (match).