David Remnick
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person David J. Remnick (born October 29, 1958) is an American journalist, writer, and editor. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his book Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire, and is also the author of Resurrection and King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero. Remnick has been editor of The New Yorker magazine since 1998. He was named "Editor of the Year" by Advertising Age in 2000. Before joining The New Yorker, Remnick was a reporter and the Moscow correspondent for The Washington Post. In 2010, he published his sixth book, The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama.
Background
Remnick was born to a Jewish family<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> in Hackensack, New Jersey, the son of Barbara (Seigel), an art teacher, and Edward C. Remnick, a dentist.Template:Cn He was raised in Hillsdale, New Jersey, in a Jewish home with, he has said, "a lot of books around".<ref name="wood">Wood, Gaby (September 10, 2006). "The quiet American". The Observer. Retrieved April 10, 2011. "David Remnick was born in 1958 and grew up in Hillsdale, New Jersey, where his father was a dentist and his mother an art teacher."</ref> He attended Yavneh Academy in Paramus.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Remnick was a childhood friend of comedian Bill Maher.<ref name="Nymag1">Template:Cite web</ref> He attended Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale,<ref name="Independent1">Template:Cite web</ref> where he studied Russian and was thereby inspired to also study the politics and culture of the USSR.
Remnick graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1981 with an A.B. in comparative literature; there he met writer John McPhee, was a member of the University Press Club, and helped found The Nassau Weekly.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His senior thesis was titled "The Sympathetic Thread: 'Leaves of Grass' 1855-1865."<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref> Remnick has implied that after college he wanted to write novels, but due to his parents' illnesses, he needed to get a job. Wanting to write, he took a job at The Washington Post.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Career
The Washington Post
Remnick began his reporting career at The Washington Post in 1982.<ref name="NYSWI">Template:Cite web</ref> His first assignment was to cover the United States Football League.<ref>The Tony Kornheiser Show, WTEM, April 13, 2010.</ref> In 1988, he became the newspaper's Moscow correspondent, which gave him the material for Lenin's Tomb. He received the George Polk Award for excellence in journalism in 1993.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The New Yorker
In 1992, Remnick became a staff writer at The New Yorker.<ref name="NYSWI" />
Remnick's 1997 New Yorker article "Kid Dynamite Blows Up", about boxer Mike Tyson, was nominated for a National Magazine Award.<ref name="NYSWI" /> In July 1998, he became editor, succeeding Tina Brown.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Remnick promoted Hendrik Hertzberg, a former Jimmy Carter speechwriter and former editor of The New Republic, to write the lead pieces in "Talk of the Town", the magazine's opening section. In 2005, Remnick earned $1 million for his work as the magazine's editor.<ref>"Salary Guide: Who Makes How Much", New York magazine (2005).</ref>
In 2003, Remnick wrote an editorial in The New Yorker in the lead-up to the Iraq War saying "the United States has been wrong, politically and morally, about Iraq more than once in the past... but... a return to a hollow pursuit of containment will be the most dangerous option of all."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In the months leading up to the war, the magazine also published several articles connecting Saddam Hussein to al-Qaeda that relied on unnamed sources or the claims of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as evidence. The magazine received some criticism for its journalism during this period.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The claims that Hussein and al-Qaeda had a close relationship were false, as confirmed by numerous sources, including a 2008 U.S. military study.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2004, for the first time in its 80-year history, The New Yorker endorsed a presidential candidate, John Kerry.<ref name="endorse">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
In 2009, Remnick was the subject of an extended Twitter thread by former New Yorker staff writer Dan Baum, whose contract with the magazine was not renewed by Remnick. The tweets, written over the course of a week, described the difficult relationship between Baum and Remnick.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Remnick's biography of President Barack Obama, The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama, was released in 2010. It features hundreds of interviews with friends, colleagues, and other witnesses to Obama's rise to the presidency.
In 2010, Remnick lent his support to the campaign urging the release of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of adultery and ordering the murder of her husband by her lover.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Remnick provided guest commentary and contributed to NBC coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, including the opening ceremony and commentary for NBC News.Template:Citation needed
Remnick hosts The New Yorker Radio Hour, produced by WNYC and The New Yorker.
In 2014, Remnick served as the commencement speaker at the 160th commencement of Syracuse University.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Personal life
In 1987, Remnick married reporter Esther Fein at the Lincoln Square Synagogue.<ref name="NYTWedFein">Template:Cite web</ref> Fein has worked as a reporter for The New York Times and The Washington Post.<ref name=NYTWedFein /> The couple has three children.<ref name="wood"/>
Remnick is fluent in Russian.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Works
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | The Other Dream Team | Himself | Documentary about the Lithuania men's national basketball team at the 1992 Summer Olympics. | <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
See also
References
External links
- David Remnick at The New Yorker
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- Interview list
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- Interview in British magazine New Statesman
- "Big Think Interview with David Remnick". Transcript and audio-video recording (36:23) with index. Big Think. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
- Interview in Spanish magazine Jot down, August 2013
- Covering Trump: what happens when journalism, politics, and fake news collide, a discussion during a live chat at the Columbia Journalism Review with the Guardian and Reuters discussing the dangers of normalizing a Donald Trump presidency, March 2017
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Template:S-start Template:Succession box Template:S-end
Template:PulitzerPrize GeneralNon-Fiction 1976–2000 Template:LivingstonAward International Reporting
- 1958 births
- Living people
- American male journalists
- American male non-fiction writers
- American magazine editors
- Jewish American journalists
- Jewish American non-fiction writers
- Writers from Hackensack, New Jersey
- Pascack Valley High School alumni
- People from Hillsdale, New Jersey
- Princeton University alumni
- Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction winners
- The New Yorker people
- The New Yorker editors
- The New Yorker staff writers
- The Washington Post people
- Writers about the Soviet Union
- American people of Russian descent
- 20th-century American non-fiction writers
- 21st-century American non-fiction writers
- 20th-century American male writers
- CNN people
- 21st-century American male writers
- Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
- Members of the American Philosophical Society