Kai Bird
Kai Bird | |
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Biographer, columnist | |
Alma mater | |
Spouse | Susan Goldmark |
Children | 1 |
Website | |
kaibird |
Kai Bird (born September 2, 1951) is an American author and columnist, best known for his works on the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, United States-Middle East political relations, and his biographies of political figures. He won a Pulitzer Prize for American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Biography
Bird was born in 1951 in Eugene, Oregon. His father was a U.S. Foreign Service officer, and Bird spent his childhood in Jerusalem, Beirut, Dhahran, Cairo, and Mumbai. His father named him after Kai-Yu Hsu, a refugee from China he met at the University of Oregon.[1]
Bird finished high school in 1969 at
In January 2017, Bird was appointed Executive Director and Distinguished Lecturer at CUNY Graduate Center's Leon Levy Center for Biography in New York City.[3]
Literary career
After graduating from Carleton, Bird received a
Published works
Bird's biographical works include The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy, Brothers in Arms (Touchstone, 1998); The Chairman: John J. McCloy and the Making of the American Establishment (Random House, 1992); and Hiroshima's Shadow: Writings on the Denial of History and the Smithsonian Controversy (1998), which he co-edited with Lawrence Lifschultz.[2]
In April 2010 his book Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956–1978 was released by Scribner. It is a meld of memoir and history, fusing his early life in the Arab world with an account of the American experience in the Middle East.
The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames (Crown, 2014) is a biography of CIA officer
In 2021, he published a biography of Jimmy Carter entitled The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter.[7]
Awards
Bird is a recipient of a
Crossing Mandelbaum Gate was a finalist for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in the "Autobiography" category.[12][13]
In September 2016, he was the featured speaker at Carleton College's opening convocation in Northfield, Minnesota.[13]
References
- ISBN 9781439171608.
- ^ a b Hiar, Corbin (April 24, 2009). "Kai Bird: The Nation's Foreign Editor". Hiar learning. Wordpress. Retrieved April 24, 2010.
- ^ "Detail".
- ^ "Slow Dog Studios". Archived from the original on June 9, 2007. Retrieved May 31, 2009.
- ISBN 978-0-307-88975-1, p.2
- ^ Drogin, Bob (May 16, 2014). "Review: 'Good Spy' scrutinizes Middle East CIA officer Robert Ames". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 17, 2014. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
- ^ Naftali, Timothy (June 15, 2021). "The Many Successes of Jimmy Carter — and His Ultimate Failure". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 15, 2021. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
- ^ "Kal Bird".
- ^ "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation - Kai Bird".
- ^ Thompson, Bob (April 18, 2006). "Arts Pulitzers Make History the Big Winner". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 24, 2011.
- ^ Press, Orphans. "Past Winners of The Duff Cooper Prize". The Duff Cooper Prize.
- ^ "National Book Critics Circle". Archived from the original on January 26, 2011.
- ^ a b "Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and journalist Kai Bird '73 to present opening convocation".