Tom Reiss
Tom Reiss | |
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Born | New York City, New York, USA | May 5, 1964
Occupation |
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Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Harvard College University of Houston |
Genre | Historical biography |
Notable works | Führer-Ex The Orientalist The Black Count |
Notable awards | Pulitzer Prize 2013 |
Children | 2 |
Website | |
tomreiss |
Tom Reiss (born May 5, 1964) is an
Early life and education
Reiss was born on May 5, 1964, in New York City, to Jewish parents.[1] He spent his first years of his life in Washington Heights in Manhattan and then in San Antonio and Dallas, Texas, where his father worked as an Air Force neurosurgeon. After that, his family moved to western Massachusetts, and he spent the rest of his childhood and adolescence in New England. He attended the Hotchkiss School and then Harvard College, where he joined the writing and editing staffs of The Harvard Crimson newspaper and The Harvard Advocate magazine, graduating in 1987.[2] In 1989, Reiss returned to Texas to study creative writing at the University of Houston, under the guidance of professor Donald Barthelme.
Career
When Barthelme died in summer 1989, Reiss left Texas and traveled to Germany in order to begin researching his family history, and became fascinated by the rapidly changing political and social context in East Germany after the Berlin Wall fell. In order to effectively search documents and communicate with German citizens, he taught himself the German language.[2] Reiss used his German to better understand members of his family, who had escaped Nazi Europe in the 1930s. His maternal grandparents had been murdered by the Nazis, after being deported from Paris to Auschwitz, but his mother survived as a hidden child in France during World War II.[3] While in Germany, he also interviewed East German neo-Nazi youth, in an attempt to learn why they were embracing the political and sociological ideals of their ancestors.[2]
Reiss was influenced by various jobs he held, such as hospital orderly, bartender, small business entrepreneur, teacher, and, in Japan, rock band member and actor in television commercials and gangster films.[2]
Books
Führer-Ex
Reiss co-wrote the English version of
The Orientalist
In 2005, Reiss published The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life. In the book Reiss details and analyzes the life of Russian Jewish-born
Reiss traveled to ten countries to research the book, which details not only Nussimbaum's life, but also extensive local and historical background of the times, and also Reiss's search to find and piece together Nussimbaum's biographical details. The Orientalist appeared on many "top ten" lists in 2005, and was shortlisted for the 2006
The Black Count
Reiss's 2012 book, The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo, won the 2013
The
The Black Count appeared on multiple "best of" lists since its publication in September 2012.
References
- ^ Mesa, Emillio."Q&A with Pulitzer Winner Tom Reiss." New York Press. April 16, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e "The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life by Tom Reiss | 9780812972764 | Paperback | Barnes & Noble". Barnesandnoble.com. Retrieved 2013-05-18.
- ^ "The Rumpus Interview With Tom Reiss". The Rumpus.net. 28 February 2013. Retrieved 2013-05-18.
- Internet Movie Database
- ^ Kinzer, Stephen (February 4, 1996). "The Blond Beast". The New York Times. Retrieved May 17, 2013.
- ^ Brennan, Christine. "Picks and Pans: Pages – The Practical Guide to Practically Everything". People. February 26, 1996; Vol. 45 No. 8.
- ^ Hasselbach, Ingo; Tom Reiss (January 8, 1996). "How Nazis Are Made". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 17, 2013.
- ^ Horwell, Veronica "Back to Baku: Tom Reiss tells an extraordinary tale of reinvention in his biography of Lev Nussimbaum, The Orientalist". The Guardian. 17 June 2005.
- ^ Strauss, Darin. "The story of a writer who rewrote his own identity". Chicago Tribune. February 13, 2005.
- ^ Theroux, Paul. In: Said, Kurban. Ali and Nino: A Love Story. Vintage Books, 2000. Introduction, pp. 5–6.
- Telegraph. 11 July 2005.
- Sunday Times. 26 June 2005.
- ^ Ellis, Samantha. "Radical reinventions". Jewish Quarterly. Autumn 2005; Number 199.
- ^ "Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction shortlist | Awards". LibraryThing. Retrieved 2013-05-18.
- ^ "The 2013 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Biography or Autobiography". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-05-18. With biographical blurb and publisher description.
- ^ "2013 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography | Citation". pen.org. 25 July 2013. Retrieved 2013-08-16.
- ^ David Holahan (2012-11-21). "The Black Count". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2013-05-18.
- ^ Madison Smartt Bell (2012-10-06). "'The Black Count' by Tom Reiss - Books". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2013-05-18.
- ^ "100 Notable Books of 2012". The New York Times. November 27, 2012.
- ^ Grossman, Lev (December 4, 2012). "The Black Count, Tom Reiss". TIME. Retrieved May 13, 2013.
- ^ "Biographies & Memoirs: Books". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2013-05-18.
- ^ "BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, The Black Count, Episode 3". BBC. 2012-11-29. Retrieved 2013-05-18.
- ^ Schaub, Michael (December 28, 2012). "Best Biographies of 2012 : NPR". NPR. Retrieved May 13, 2013.
- ^ Williams, John (January 14, 2013). "National Book Critics Circle Names 2012 Award Finalists". Arts Beat: The Culture at Large. The New York Times. Retrieved January 15, 2013.
- ^ Sandell, Scott (December 11, 2012). "NAACP Image Awards: The complete nominations list". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 13, 2013.
External links
- Official website
- "The Vanishing Fascination of Truly Anonymous Authors" in The Guardian
- Tom Reiss at Library of Congress, with 3 library catalog records