David Lipsky | |
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Born | New York City | July 20, 1965
Occupation |
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Period | 1985– |
Notable works | Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself (2010) Absolutely American (2003) The Art Fair (1996) |
David Lipsky (born July 20, 1965) is an American author. His works have been New York Times bestsellers, New York Times Notable Books, Time , Amazon, The New Yorker , Publishers Weekly , and NPR Best Books of the Year, and have been included in The Best American Magazine Writing and The Best American Short Stories collections.
Lipsky received the National Magazine Award in 2009. He was portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg in the 2015 feature film The End of the Tour , an adaptation of his memoir Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself . He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone . [1] He currently lives in New York City.
David Lipsky was born in New York City, and is the son of the painter Pat Lipsky. [2] He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1983 and matriculated at Bennington College. [3] Lipsky transferred in his sophomore year to Brown University, where he graduated magna cum laude and studied with the writer John Hawkes. [4] He received his M.A. from Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with the novelist John Barth. Lipsky currently teaches creative writing at the M.F.A. program at New York University.
As an undergraduate, Lipsky published his story "Three Thousand Dollars" in The New Yorker . [5] It was selected by Raymond Carver as one of the Best American Short Stories of 1986. Carver was surprised by the author's youth, noting in his introduction,
I confess to not having read David Lipsky before this. Have I been asleep and missed some stories of his, or maybe even a novel or two? I don't know. I do know I intend to pay attention from now on. [6]
As a graduate student, Lipsky wrote the stories that would become his first book, Three Thousand Dollars (1989). The novelist John Gregory Brown explained, "It was kind of apparent that Lipsky might have the brightest future of anyone [here]." [7] The book was well received upon publication, with the trade publication Booklist summarizing, "Critics loved Lipsky's short story collection"; [8] the author was seen to possess "unlimited depth and range of vision," [9] and the stories were compared to the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald. [10] The Los Angeles Times , while noting the book's "astonishing insights into the New York art world," concluded, "Lipsky has given his contemporaries a general autobiography, one that will fit the majority with only minor adjustments."
His novel The Art Fair (1996), a bildungsroman composed of a number of autobiographical elements, tells the story of Richard and Joan Freely—a New York artist and her precocious son. The novel won rave reviews and was named a Time Best Book of the Year. The work earned Lipsky comparisons to writers Michael Chabon and Harold Brodkey. [11] The New York Times called the novel "riveting," [12] The New Yorker described it "a darkly comic love story," [13] People noted, "Lipsky's portrayal of the art world is unblinking, his portrayal of the ties between parent and child deeply affecting"; [14] the critic Francine Prose called the book's "Darwinian" milieu a "testament to Lipsky's skill" [15] and James Atlas wrote "the novel perfectly captures artists and dealers, the tiny gestures of cruelty that confirm or withhold status." [2] The trade publication Library Journal summarized, "The praise has poured as thick as impasto." [16]
External videos | |
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Booknotes interview with Lipsky on Absolutely American, August 17, 2003, C-SPAN |
Lipsky's non-fiction book Absolutely American (2003) was written after the author spent four years living at West Point. The book's genesis was a piece Lipsky wrote for Rolling Stone —the longest article published in that magazine since Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . As Newsweek noted, composition of the book required "14,000 pages of interview transcripts, 60 notebooks and four pairs of boots"; [17] the magazine called the book "addictive," and Lev Grossman in Time wrote that it was "fascinating, funny, and tremendously well-written. Take a good look: this is the face America turns to most of the world, and until now it's one that most of us have never seen." [18] In The New York Times Book Review , David Brooks called the book "wonderfully told," praising it as both "a superb description of modern military culture, and one of the most gripping accounts of university life I have read." [1] Within a few weeks of publication, the work had sold out of most American distributors. As Sara Nelson reported in the New York Observer ,
It's every author's dream: You write a book that everybody loves. It gets fabulous reviews—one of them on the front page of The New York Times Book Review . You appear on the Today show and on C-Span and you tape Charlie Rose. There's even interest from Hollywood—and you fly out to take some meetings. There's only one problem: There are precious few copies of your book to be found in the bookstores—and if someone wants one, they're going to have to wait, sometimes as long as three weeks. That's exactly the situation author David Lipsky found himself in last week. [19]
The work was a New York Times best-seller, [20] Amazon Best Book of the Year, [21] New York Times Notable Book, [22] and a Time magazine Best Book of the Year. [23] Lipsky optioned the motion picture and television rights to the story to Disney. [24]
In April 2010, Lipsky published Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself , about a five-day road trip with the writer David Foster Wallace. In Time Magazine, Lev Grossman wrote, "The transcript of their brilliant conversations reads like a two-man Tom Stoppard play or a four-handed duet scored for typewriter." [25] The Atlantic Monthly called the work, "far-reaching, insightful, very funny, profound, surprising, and awfully human"; [26] at National Public Radio, Michael Schaub described the book as "a startlingly sad yet deeply funny postscript to the career of one of the most interesting American writers of all time." [27] Newsweek noted, "For readers unfamiliar with the sometimes intimidating Wallace oeuvre, Lipsky has provided a conversational entry point into the writer's thought process. It's odd to think that a book about Wallace could serve both the newbies and the hard-cores, but here it is." [28] Publishers Weekly , in a starred review, described the book as "rollicking" and "compellingly real," [29] The Wall Street Journal as "lovely," [30] and Laura Miller in Salon called it "exhilarating." [31] The book was a New York Times best-seller and an NPR Best Book of the Year. [32]
A feature film adaptation of Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, The End of the Tour , was released in July 2015, with Academy Award-nominated actor Jesse Eisenberg portraying Lipsky and Jason Segel portraying Wallace. In his review for The New York Times , critic A.O. Scott wrote, "I love it," adding, "You hang on its every word and revel in its rough, vernacular beauty . . . There will always be films about writers and writing, and this one is just about as good as it gets." [33]
The film received a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 159 reviews, with an average rating of 8.02/10. The site's critical consensus states: "Brilliantly performed and smartly unconventional, The End of the Tour pays fitting tribute to a singular talent while offering profoundly poignant observations on the human condition." [34] The film also holds a score of 82 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 35 reviews. [35] At Rogerebert.com, critic Brian Tallerico called the film a "joy," and "stunning . . .a gift of highly intellectual discussion between two brilliant people at turning points in their lives," while also praising Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg. [36]
The Washington Post 's Ann Hornaday gave the film four out of four stars and called it, "A five-day conversation you won't want to end ... Part love story, part road trip, part elegy to a bygone, pre-9/11 age, 'The End of the Tour' brims with compassion and sharply honed insight" about "what it means to be human." [37] In his review for Vanity Fair , Richard Lawson called it a "wise, humbly sublime film ... a profound, and profoundly affecting, movie, one that had me blubbering with happy-sad tears. What a pleasure to spend two hours in its company." [38]
In his review for the New York Daily News , Joe Neumaier awarded the film five out of five stars, calling it "one of the best movies of the year . . . Director James Ponsoldt's smart, incisive and extraordinary drama is the kind of film that burrows into your head and leaves you illuminated about life and how to live it." [39] In her review for The Los Angeles Times , Sheri Linden wrote "James Ponsoldt's magnificent The End of the Tour gives us two guys talking, and the effect is breathtaking ... They're played with a wrought and wary chemistry, synapses blazing, by Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg." [40]
In his review for Cut Print Film, Josh Oakley awarded the film a perfect "10/10", calling it "one of the best films of the year", and stating "The End of the Tour presents, with ample evidence, Wallace as a figure who could never fill the holes of loneliness with the spackle of acclaim." [41] In his review for the Chicago Sun-Times , Richard Roeper awarded the film four out of four stars, calling it "brilliant. . .this is one of the best movies of the year." [42] In his review for the Minnesota Star Tribune Colin Covert gave the film four out of four stars, writing, "Simply put, it is a masterwork." [43]
The film featured in numerous "Best of 2015" lists, including The New York Times , [44] Vanity Fair , [45] Vogue , [46] The Guardian , [47] Entertainment Weekly , [48] USA Today , [49] Variety , [50] The Washington Post , [51] Huffington Post [52] Wired , [53] The New Republic . [54]
In 2023 Norton published Lipsky's The Parrot and the Igloo—a narrative history of climate and the science denial movement. In a starred pre-publication review, Kirkus called the work "simultaneously captivating and disturbing . . . An important book that will leave your head shaking." [55] Booklist wrote, "with the amount of research that went into the book, this can be considered the historical record to date." [56] In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called the work "revelatory . . . With dry wit and novelistic flair, National Magazine Award winner Lipsky chronicles how harnessing electricity changed the world. Buoyed by thorough historical research, this is a first-rate entry," adding "Humor accompanies horrific truths in this vital look at the rise of climate change denial." [57] USA Today explained, "Lipsky offers a history of climate science―and with it, climate denial―starring a large cast of swindlers, zealots, politicians and hucksters to get to the heart of virulent anti-science ideologies in America." [58]
The book featured in numerous "Best of 2023" lists, including Amazon, Publishers Weekly , The New Yorker , The Chicago Tribune .
Lipsky's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Harper's Magazine , The New Yorker,The New York Times, Details , This American Life , and All Things Considered . He received a GLAAD Media Award for journalism in 1999. In 2009, he received the National Magazine Award. [59]
David Foster Wallace was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and university professor of English and creative writing. Wallace's 1996 novel Infinite Jest was cited by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. His posthumous novel, The Pale King (2011), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2012. The Los Angeles Times's David Ulin called Wallace "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last twenty years".
Dave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He wrote the 2000 best-selling memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Eggers is also the founder of Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, a literary journal; a co-founder of the literacy project 826 Valencia, co-founder of The Hawkins Project, and the human rights nonprofit Voice of Witness; and the founder of ScholarMatch, a program that matches donors with students needing funds for college tuition. His writing has appeared in several magazines, including The New Yorker, Esquire, and The New York Times Magazine.
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Paul Stephen Rudd is an American actor and comedian. He studied theater at the University of Kansas and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before making his acting debut in 1991. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in July 2015, and was included on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list in 2019. In 2021, he was named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive".
Infinite Jest is a 1996 novel by American writer David Foster Wallace. Categorized as an encyclopedic novel, Infinite Jest is featured in Time magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005.
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men is a short story collection by the late American writer David Foster Wallace, first published in 1999 by Little, Brown. According to the papers in the David Foster Wallace Archive at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, the book had an estimated gross sales of 28,000 hardcover copies during the first year of its publication.
Consider the Lobster and Other Essays (2005) is a collection of essays by novelist David Foster Wallace. It is also the title of one of the essays, which was published in Gourmet magazine in 2004. The title alludes to Consider the Oyster by M. F. K. Fisher.
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Stephen Michael Erickson is an American novelist. The author of influential works such as Days Between Stations, Tours of the Black Clock and Zeroville, he is the recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters award, the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award and a Guggenheim fellowship.
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Diary of a Wimpy Kid is an American children's book series and media franchise created by American author and cartoonist Jeff Kinney. The series follows Greg Heffley, a middle-schooler who illustrates his daily life in a diary.
James Ponsoldt is an American film director, actor and screenwriter. He directed the drama films Off the Black (2006) and Smashed (2012), the romantic comedy-drama The Spectacular Now (2013), and the dramas The End of the Tour (2015) and The Circle (2017).
Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace is a 2010 memoir by David Lipsky, about a five-day road trip with the author David Foster Wallace. It is based upon a Rolling Stone magazine story that received the National Magazine Award.
David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) was an American author of novels, essays, and short stories. In addition to writing, Wallace was employed as a professor at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois, and Pomona College in Claremont, California.
Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point is a 2003 book by American author David Lipsky. It was placed on several top book lists, including Amazon's Best Books of the Year (2003). The work became a New York Times Notable Book and a New York Times bestseller.
The End of the Tour is a 2015 American drama film about writer David Foster Wallace. The film stars Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg, was written by Donald Margulies, and was directed by James Ponsoldt. Based on David Lipsky's best-selling memoir Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, screenwriter Margulies first read the book in 2011, and sent it to Ponsoldt, a former student of his, who took on the job of director. Filming took place in early 2014 in Michigan, with scenes also shot at the Mall of America. Danny Elfman provided the score, with the soundtrack featuring songs by musicians like R.E.M. and Brian Eno, whose inclusion was based on the kind of music Wallace and Lipsky listened to.
The Art Fair is a 1996 novel by American author David Lipsky. It revolves around the New York City Art world, and a painter and her son making their way through that world.
Three Thousand Dollars is a 1989 short story collection by American author David Lipsky. It revolves around the New York City Art world, university life, and issues of growing up. Individual chapters were published in The New Yorker, Mississippi Review, The Henfeild Prize Stories, and The Best American Short Stories, among others.
The Parrot and the Igloo: Climate and the Science of Denial is the third nonfiction book by National Magazine Award-winning American writer David Lipsky. The book tells the story of two parallel histories: the development of climate science and its dangerous inversion by climate deniers. It was published on July 11, 2023 by Norton. The book is a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2023, an Amazon Best Book of 2023, a New Yorker Best Book of 2023, and a New York Times Editors' Choice.