Benita Eisler (born July 24, 1937, in New York City) [1] is an American writer and educator. She is best known for her biographies of historic figures, including Lord Byron, Georgia O'Keeffe, and George Catlin.
Eisler was born July 24, 1937, in New York City to Morris Aaron and Frances Blitzer. [1] She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Smith College in 1958 and a Master of Arts degree from Harvard University in 1961. [1] On June 23, 1961, she married Colin Eisler , and together, they have one daughter. [1]
Eisler presently lives in Manhattan. [2]
She is Jewish. [1]
From 1975 to 1978, Eisler served as producer to WNET-TV, a public television station in New York City. [1] She has also "worked as an art editor, reporter, on-camera correspondent, and producer of arts programming for [public] television." [3]
Eisler edited The Lowell Offering, which was released in 1977. She published her first book, Class ACT, in 1983.
She has also taught nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature at Princeton University. [3]
Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame received a starred review from Booklist. [4] Naked in the Marketplace received starred reviews from Booklist [5] and Kirkus Reviews , who highlighted the way "Eisler skillfully incorporates much correspondence within a frame of lively writing." [6]
Year | Title | Award | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1991 | O’Keeffe and Stieglitz: An American Romance | Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography | Finalist | [7] |
1999 | Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame | Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography | Finalist | [8] |
2013 | The Red Man’s Bones: George Catlin, Artist and Showman | Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography | Finalist | [9] [10] |
George Catlin was an American lawyer, painter, author, and traveler, who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the American frontier. Traveling to the American West five times during the 1830s, Catlin wrote about and painted portraits that depicted the life of the Plains Indians. His early work included engravings, drawn from nature, of sites along the route of the Erie Canal in New York State. Several of his renderings were published in one of the first printed books to use lithography, Cadwallader D. Colden's Memoir, Prepared at the Request of a Committee of the Common Council of the City of New York, and Presented to the Mayor of the City, at the Celebration of the Completion of the New York Canals, published in 1825, with early images of the City of Buffalo.
John Murray is a Scottish publisher, known for the authors it has published in its long history including Jane Austen, Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Byron, Charles Lyell, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Herman Melville, Edward Whymper, Thomas Robert Malthus, David Ricardo, and Charles Darwin. Since 2004, it has been owned by conglomerate Lagardère under the Hachette UK brand.
Clara Allegra Byron was the illegitimate daughter of the poet George Gordon, Lord Byron, and Claire Clairmont.
Sonya Sones is an American poet and author. She has written seven young adult novels in verse and one novel in verse for adults. The American Library Association (ALA) has named her one of the most frequently challenged authors of the 21st century.
Captain John Byron was a British Army officer and letter writer, best known as the father of the poet Lord Byron. In 1824, an obituary of his son gave him the nickname "Mad Jack Byron", and though there is no evidence for this in his own lifetime, it has since stuck – certainly he was called "Jack" by his family members and referred to himself as such.
Joan Silber is an American novelist and short story writer. She won the 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction and the 2018 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for her novel Improvement.
Candace Groth Fleming is an American writer of children's books, both fiction and non-fiction. She is the author of more than twenty books for children and young adults, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize-honored The Family Romanov and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award-winning biography, The Lincolns, among others.
Lady Charlotte Mary Bacon, née Harley, was the second daughter of Edward Harley, 5th Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer. Her beauty as a child prompted Lord Byron to dedicate the first two cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage to her, under the name "Ianthe". Lord Byron had been one of the many lovers of her mother, Jane Elizabeth Scott. Lady Charlotte was also the subject of the painting Lady Charlotte Harley as Hebe by Richard Westall.
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Kwame Alexander is American poet, educator, publisher, Emmy® Award-winning producer, and #1 New York Times bestselling author of 40 books, including poetry, memoir, and children's fiction. His mission is to change the world, one word at a time.
Martha Brockenbrough is an American author of fiction and nonfiction for children and adults. Her first book, It Could Happen To You: Diary Of A Pregnancy and Beyond, was published by Andrews McMeel Publishing in 2002. She is the founder of The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG) and of National Grammar Day.
Angie Thomas is an American young adult author, best known for writing The Hate U Give (2017). Her second young adult novel, On the Come Up, was released on February 25, 2019.
Julie Berry is an American author of children's and young adults books and winner of several national book awards.
Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction is a graphic memoir by Jarrett J. Krosoczka, published October 9, 2018 by Graphix. The book tells the story of Krosoczka's childhood living with his grandparents while his mother lived with a substance use disorder.
The Great Believers is a historical fiction novel by Rebecca Makkai, published June 4, 2018 by Penguin Books.
Ask the Passengers is a young adult novel by A. S. King, published October 23, 2012 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. In 2012, the book won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature.
Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography, established in 1981, is a category of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Works are eligible during the year of their first US publication in English, though they may be written originally in languages other than English.
Light From Uncommon Stars is a science fiction and fantasy novel by American author and poet Ryka Aoki. The novel won the 2021 Otherwise Award, 2022 Alex Award, and 2022 Stonewall Book Award, and was nominated for multiple other awards.
The Turnout is a mystery novel by Megan Abbott published August 3, 2021 by G. P. Putnam's Sons. That year, it won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller.
Kirstin Downey is an American journalist and author. She was a staff writer for The Washington Post from 1988 to 2008.