BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Charles Gaines, the Alabama writer whose Birmingham-set novel Stay Hungry and bodybuilding chronicle Pumping Iron helped propel Arnold Schwarzenegger from the gym to the big screen, died July 21 at age 84. His death closes a long, varied career that tied together the worlds of literature, outdoor sport, bodybuilding and even the invention of paintball, while leaving Birmingham with a cult classic it has never fully embraced.
Born in Florida and raised in Birmingham, Gaines published 25 books across fiction and nonfiction, including the novels Stay Hungry, Dangler and Survival Games, the international bestseller Pumping Iron and the acclaimed memoir A Family Place. He studied at Birmingham-Southern College and the University of Iowa before teaching creative writing in New England, but he remained closely tied to Alabama’s literary community, eventually earning induction into the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame and the Truman Capote Prize for lifetime achievement in nonfiction.
Released by Doubleday in 1972, Stay Hungry was Gaines’ debut novel, set against the rough-edged bodybuilding culture of Birmingham and the city’s upper-crust business circles. The story follows a young real estate investor who becomes entangled with a local gym and its star bodybuilder, capturing a slice of Birmingham in the early 1970s with specificity that makes the city more than a backdrop. Though praised by critics and later recognized in Gaines’ Alabama honors, the book is out of print and now mostly available through libraries, used-book sellers and digital archives…