Elizabeth Gilbert

Last updated

Elizabeth Gilbert
Elizabeth Gilbert at TED.jpg
Gilbert in 2009
Born (1969-07-18) July 18, 1969 (age 55)
Waterbury, Connecticut, U.S.
Occupation
  • Journalist
  • novelist
  • memoirist
Alma mater New York University
Period1997–present
Genre
  • Fiction
  • memoir
Spouse
Michael Cooper
​
​
(m. 1994;div. 2002)​
José Nunes
​
​
(m. 2007;div. 2016)​
PartnerRayya Elias (2016–2018; her death)
Signature
Elizabeth Gilbert signature.svg
Website
elizabethgilbert.com

Elizabeth Gilbert (born July 18, 1969) is an American journalist and author. She is best known for her 2006 memoir Eat, Pray, Love , which has sold over 12 million copies and has been translated into over 30 languages. [1] The book was also made into a film of the same name in 2010. [2]

Contents

Early life, education, and career

Gilbert was born in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1969. [3] Her father, John Gilbert, was a chemical engineer at Uniroyal; her mother, Carole, was a nurse and established a Planned Parenthood clinic. [4] [3]

When Gilbert was four, her parents bought a Christmas tree farm in Litchfield, Connecticut. [4] The family lived in the country with no neighbors; they did not own a television or record player. Consequently, the family read a great deal, and Gilbert and her older sister Catherine Gilbert Murdock entertained themselves by writing books and plays. [4] [3] Gilbert has said that her parents were not hippies but modern pioneers, "My parents are the only people I've ever known who made their own goat's-milk yogurt and voted for Reagan twice. That's a Venn diagram that doesn't include anyone else." [4]

Gilbert attended New York University. [3] She resisted taking literature classes and writing workshops and stated in an interview, "I never thought that the best place for me to find my voice would be in a room filled with twenty other people trying to find their voices. I was a big moralist about it, actually. I felt that if I was writing on my own, I didn't need a class, and if I wasn't writing on my own, I didn't deserve one." Instead of attending graduate school, Gilbert decided to create her own education through work and travel. [3]

After college, Gilbert moved to Philadelphia and worked as a waitress or bartender to save up enough money to travel. She stated in a New York Times interview that she was influenced by Ernest Hemingway's early career, and his short story collection, In Our Time . Gilbert believed that writers find stories not in a seminar room but by investigating the world. [4] She held various jobs including a trail cook, bartender, and waitress while storing up experiences for her writing. [3]

Career

Journalism

Esquire published Gilbert's short story "Pilgrims" in 1993, under the headline "The Debut of an American Writer". She was the first unpublished short story writer to debut in Esquire since Norman Mailer. This led to steady work as a journalist for a variety of national magazines, including Spin , GQ , the New York Times Magazine , Allure , Real Simple , and Travel + Leisure . She stated in the memoir Eat, Pray, Love that she made a career as a highly-paid freelance writer.

Her 1997 GQ article "The Muse of the Coyote Ugly Saloon", a memoir of Gilbert's time as a bartender at the first Coyote Ugly table dancing bar, located in the East Village section of New York City, [5] was the basis for the feature film Coyote Ugly (2000).

She adapted her 1998 GQ article "The Last American Man" into a biography of the modern woodsman and naturalist Eustace Conway in The Last American Man. [6] "The Ghost", a profile of Hank Williams III published by GQ in 2000, was included in Best American Magazine Writing 2001.

Books

Gilbert's first book, Pilgrims (Houghton Mifflin 1997), a collection of short stories, received the Pushcart Prize and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. This was followed by her novel Stern Men (Houghton Mifflin 2000), selected by The New York Times as a "Notable Book". In 2002, she published The Last American Man (2002), which was nominated for National Book Award in non-fiction.

Eat, Pray, Love

In 2006, Gilbert published Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia (Viking, 2006), a chronicle of her year of "spiritual and personal exploration" spent traveling abroad. [7] She financed her world travel for the book with a $200,000 publisher's advance after pitching the concept in a book proposal. The best-seller has been critiqued by some writers as "priv-lit" ("a literature of privilege") [8] and a "calculated business decision". [9] The memoir appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list of nonfiction in the spring of 2006, and was still #2 on the list 88 weeks later, in October 2008. [10] It was optioned for a film by Columbia Pictures, which released Eat Pray Love , starring Julia Roberts as Gilbert, on August 13, 2010. [11] Gilbert appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2007, and has reappeared on the show to further discuss the book, her philosophy, and the film. [12] She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine, [13] and named to Oprah's SuperSoul 100 list of visionaries and influential leaders. [14]

Committed

Gilbert's fifth book, Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage , was released by Viking Press in January 2010. The book is somewhat of a sequel to Eat, Pray, Love in that it takes up Gilbert's life story where her bestseller left off. Committed also reveals Gilbert's decision to marry Jose Nunes (referred to in the book as Felipe), a Brazilian man she met in Manu, Indonesia. [15] The book is an examination of the institution of marriage from several historical and modern perspectives—including those of people, particularly women, reluctant to marry. In the book, Gilbert also includes perspectives on same-sex marriage and compares this to interracial marriage prior to the 1970s.

In 2012, she republished At Home on the Range, a 1947 cookbook written by her great-grandmother, food columnist Margaret Yardley Potter. [16] Gilbert published her second novel, The Signature of All Things , in 2013.

Big Magic

In 2015, Gilbert published Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, a self-help book that provides instructions on how to live a life as creative as hers. [17] [18] The book is broken down into six sections: Courage, Enchantment, Permission, Persistence, Trust, and Divinity. [19] Advice in Big Magic focuses on overcoming self-doubt, avoiding perfectionism, and agenda setting, among other topics. [20] Gilbert continued the work started in Big Magic with her Magic Lessons podcast in which she interviews famous creatives including Brené Brown and Sarah Jones.

A review of Big Magic in Slate stated that most of the advice in the book is matter-of-fact, but that, "Gilbert comes bearing reports from a new world where untold splendors lie waiting for those bold and hard-working enough to claim them. What's unclear is how many could successfully follow on her trail." [21] The Seattle Times described the book as, "funny, perceptive and full of down-to-earth advice." [22]

Recent works

Gilbert released City of Girls: A Novel  [ uk ] in 2019. The Guardian called it "a glorious, multilayered celebration of womanhood." [23]

Publication of her next work, The Snow Forest, was halted in June 2023, because of backlash against the book's setting, Russia. Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild, commented: "Gilbert heard and empathized with the pain of her readers in Ukraine, and we respect her decision that she does not want to bring more harm to her Ukrainian readers." [24] [25]

Literary influences

In an interview, Gilbert mentioned The Wizard of Oz with nostalgia, adding, "I am a writer today because I learned to love reading as a child—and mostly on account of the Oz books  ..." She has said she was particularly influenced by Charles Dickens, and has noted this in many interviews. She identifies Marcus Aurelius's Meditations as her favorite book on philosophy. [26] She also declared Jack Gilbert (no relation) as "the poet laureate of my life" when she succeeded him as a writer-in-residence at the University of Tennessee in 2006. [27]

Philanthropy

In 2015, Gilbert and several other authors including Cheryl Strayed participated in fundraising efforts for Syrian refugees which raised over $1 million in 31 hours. [28] In 2016, Gilbert shared a video of herself singing a karaoke version of Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" to raise money for BlinkNow Foundation, an organization inspired in part by Eat, Pray, Love . [29]

Personal life

In a 2015 article for The New York Times titled "Confessions of a Seduction Addict", Gilbert wrote that she "careened from one intimate entanglement to the next—dozens of them—without so much as a day off between romances." She acknowledged, "Seduction was never a casual sport for me; it was more like a heist, adrenalizing and urgent. I would plan the heist for months, scouting out the target, looking for unguarded entries. Then I would break into his deepest vault, steal all his emotional currency and spend it on myself." [30] She realised that, "I might indeed win the man eventually. But over time (and it wouldn't take long), his unquenchable infatuation for me would fade, as his attention returned to everyday matters. This always left me feeling abandoned and invisible; love that could be quenched was not nearly enough love for me". [30]

Gilbert was married to Michael Cooper, whom she met while working at the Coyote Ugly Saloon, from 1994 to 2002. [5] [31] The marriage ended when she left Cooper for another man. [30]

In 2007, Gilbert married José Nunes, whom she met in Bali while on the travels she describes in Eat, Pray, Love. They lived in Frenchtown, New Jersey; together they ran a large Asian import store called Two Buttons until they sold it in 2015. [32] [33] [34]

On July 1, 2016, Gilbert announced on her Facebook page that she and Nunes were separating, saying that the split was "very amicable" and that their reasons were "very personal". [35] On September 7, 2016, Gilbert published another Facebook post saying that she was in a relationship with her female best friend, writer Rayya Elias, and that this relationship was related to the breakup of her marriage. The relationship began because Gilbert realized her feelings for Elias, following the latter's terminal cancer diagnosis. [36] [37] On June 6, 2017, the two celebrated a commitment ceremony with close family and friends. The ceremony was not legally binding. [38] Elias died on January 4, 2018. [39]

On March 25, 2019, Gilbert posted on Instagram that she was in a relationship with United Kingdom-born photographer Simon MacArthur, who was also a close friend of Elias. [40] In an interview in February 2020, she shared that they were no longer together, calling the relationship "short lived". [41]

Works

Story collections

Novels

Biographies

Memoirs

Notable articles

As contributor

Related Research Articles

<i>The Oprah Winfrey Show</i> American television talk show

The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American first-run syndicated talk show that was hosted by Oprah Winfrey. The show ran for twenty-five seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in which it broadcast 4,561 episodes. The show was taped in Chicago and produced by Winfrey. It remains the highest-rated daytime talk show in American television history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tyra Banks</span> American television personality, producer, and former model

Tyra Lynne Banks, also known as BanX, is an American model, television personality, producer, writer, and actress. Born in Inglewood, California, she began her career as a model at the age of 15 and was the first Black American woman to be featured on the covers of GQ and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, on which she appeared three times. Banks was one of only a few Black models to achieve Supermodel status. She was a Victoria's Secret Angel from 1997 to 2005. By the early 2000s, Banks was one of the world's top-earning models.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piper Perabo</span> American actress (born 1976)

Piper Lisa Perabo is an American actress. Following her breakthrough in the comedy-drama film Coyote Ugly (2000), she starred in Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), its sequel Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005), The Prestige (2006), Angel Has Fallen (2019), and as CIA agent Annie Walker in the USA Network spy drama series Covert Affairs (2010–2014), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariel Hemingway</span> American actress (born 1961)

Mariel Hemingway is an American actress. She began acting at age 14 with a Golden Globe-nominated breakout role in Lipstick (1976), and she received Academy and BAFTA Award nominations for her performance in Woody Allen's Manhattan (1979).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Goudge</span> English novelist and childrens writer (1900–1984)

Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge FRSL was an English writer of fiction and children's books. She won the Carnegie Medal for British children's books in 1946 for The Little White Horse. Goudge was long a popular author in the UK and the US and regained attention decades later. In 1993 her book The Rosemary Tree was plagiarised by Indrani Aikath-Gyaltsen; the "new" novel set in India was warmly reviewed in The New York Times and The Washington Post before its source was discovered. In 2001 or 2002 J. K. Rowling identified The Little White Horse as one of her favourite books and one of few with a direct influence on the Harry Potter series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridget Moynahan</span> American actress and former model (born 1971)

Kathryn Bridget Moynahan is an American actress and former model. She graduated from Longmeadow High School in Massachusetts in 1989 and began pursuing a career in modeling. Moynahan appeared in department-store catalogs and magazines, and after doing television commercials, began taking acting lessons. She made her television debut in a guest appearance in the comedy series Sex and the City in 1999, where she later had a recurring role as Natasha.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Kerr</span> Irish-American author and playwright

Jean Kerr was an American author and playwright who authored the 1957 bestseller Please Don't Eat the Daisies and the plays King of Hearts in 1954 and Mary, Mary in 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mo'Nique</span> American comedian and actress (born 1967)

Monique Angela Hicks, known mononymously as Mo'Nique, is an American stand-up comedian and actress. She has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Grammy Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coyote Ugly Saloon</span> U.S.-based bar chain

The Coyote Ugly Saloon is an American drinking establishment and the namesake of an international chain of bars, known for its bartenders dancing on the bar. It served as the setting for the 2000 movie Coyote Ugly.

<i>Coyote Ugly</i> (film) 2000 film by David McNally

Coyote Ugly is a 2000 American comedy-drama film based on the Coyote Ugly Saloon chain. It was directed by David McNally, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Chad Oman, and written by Gina Wendkos. Set in New York City, the film stars Piper Perabo in her breakthrough role, Adam Garcia, Maria Bello, Melanie Lynskey, and John Goodman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iyanla Vanzant</span> American writer

Iyanla Vanzant is an American inspirational speaker, lawyer, New Thought spiritual teacher, author, life coach, and television personality. She is known primarily for her books, her eponymous talk show, and her appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show. From 2012 to 2021, she served as host of OWN's Iyanla: Fix My Life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Izabella Miko</span> Polish actress, dancer, producer, and environmental activist (born 1981)

Izabella Miko is a Polish actress, dancer, film producer, and environmental activist. She is best known for starring in the film Coyote Ugly and the music videos "Mr. Brightside" and "Miss Atomic Bomb" by The Killers. While a dance student in Poland, Miko was recruited to study at the New York City Ballet at age 15 and later studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute. She made her American film debut in Coyote Ugly (2000), followed by a starring part in the vampire thriller The Forsaken (2001).

Liliana Lovell is an entrepreneur who founded the Coyote Ugly Saloon and Ugly Inc. Lovell was the host of the reality TV show The Ultimate Coyote Ugly Search. In the 2000 movie Coyote Ugly, she was portrayed by Maria Bello.

<i>Eat, Pray, Love</i> 2006 book by Elizabeth Gilbert

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia is a 2006 memoir by American author Elizabeth Gilbert. The memoir chronicles the author's trip around the world after her divorce and what she discovered during her travels. She wrote and named the book while living at The Oliver Hotel on the downtown square in Knoxville, TN. The book remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for 187 weeks. The film version, which stars Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem, was released in theaters on August 13, 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oprah Winfrey</span> American talk show host, actress, producer, and author (born 1954)

Oprah Gail Winfrey, known mononymously as Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor. She is best known for her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, broadcast from Chicago, which ran in national syndication for 25 years, from 1986 to 2011. Dubbed the "Queen of All Media", she was the richest African-American of the 20th century and was once the world's only black billionaire. By 2007, she was often ranked as the most influential woman in the world.

<i>Eat Pray Love</i> 2010 film by Ryan Murphy

Eat Pray Love is a 2010 American biographical romantic drama film starring Julia Roberts as Elizabeth Gilbert, based on Gilbert's 2006 memoir of the same name. Ryan Murphy co-wrote and directed the film, which was released in the United States on August 13, 2010. It received mixed reviews from critics, but was a financial success, grossing $204.6 million worldwide against a $60 million budget.

<i>Wild</i> (memoir) Book by Cheryl Strayed

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail is the 2012 memoir by the American writer, author, and podcaster Cheryl Strayed. The memoir describes Strayed's 1,100-mile hike on the Pacific Crest Trail in 1995 as a journey of self-discovery. The book reached No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller list, and was the first selection for Oprah's Book Club 2.0.

<i>Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage</i> 2010 book by Elizabeth Gilbert

Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage is a 2010 book written by Elizabeth Gilbert as a follow-up book to her book Eat, Pray, Love. It was published on January 5, 2010, by Viking.

Elissa Altman is an American food writer and author. She has written three memoirs: Poor Man’s Feast: A Love Story of Comfort, Desire, and the Art of Simple Cooking, Treyf: My Life as an Unorthodox Outlaw, and Motherland: A Memoir of Love, Loathing, and Longing. Her blog "Poor Man's Feast" won a James Beard Foundation Award for Individual Food Blog in 2012.

References

  1. ↑ "Official Website for Best Selling Author Elizabeth Gilbert". Official Website for Best Selling Author Elizabeth Gilbert. Retrieved July 10, 2020.
  2. ↑ Eat Pray Love , retrieved July 10, 2020
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Elizabeth Gilbert, Zacharis Award". Archived from the original on January 3, 2008. Retrieved December 13, 2008.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Almond, Steve (September 18, 2013). "Eat, Pray, Love, Get Rich, Write a Novel No One Expects". The New York Times Magazine . Archived from the original on May 18, 2020. Retrieved July 18, 2020.
  5. 1 2 "The Muse of the Coyote Ugly Saloon". GQ. March 1997. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
  6. ↑ "The Last American Man". GQ. February 1998. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
  7. ↑ "Eat, Pray, Love (review)". Archived from the original on December 7, 2011. Retrieved October 24, 2011.
  8. ↑ Sanders, Joshunda & Barnes-Brown, Diana (May 14, 2010). "Eat, Pray, Spend". Bitch . Archived from the original on January 2, 2022. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  9. ↑ Levitt, Aimee (October 18, 2013). "The Elizabeth Gilbert problem".
  10. ↑ Paperback Nonfiction New York Times, October 3, 2008.
  11. ↑ Elizabeth Gilbert at IMDb
  12. ↑ Why We Can't Stop Talking About Eat, Pray, Love! The Oprah Winfrey Show.
  13. ↑ "The 2008 Time 100: Artists & Entertainers: Elizabeth Gilbert". Time . April 30, 2009. Archived from the original on May 5, 2008. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
  14. ↑ "Meet the SuperSoul100: The World's Biggest Trailblazers in One Room". O, The Oprah Magazine . August 1, 2016. Retrieved July 5, 2018.
  15. ↑ Ariel Levi (January 4, 2010). "Hitched: In her new memoir, Elizabeth Gilbert gets married". The New Yorker. Retrieved October 24, 2011.
  16. ↑ Michael Hainey (May 24, 2012). "Elizabeth Gilbert Serves Up a New Classic". GQ. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
  17. ↑ Paskin, Willa "Elizabeth Gilbert's 'Big Magic'". The New York Times. January 4, 2016
  18. ↑ O'Grady, Megan Elizabeth Gilbert on Big Magic and Why She Loves Social Media Archived October 1, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Vogue. January 4, 2016
  19. ↑ Williams, Zoe Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert review – lessons in life from the Eat, Pray, Love author Guardian. January 4, 2016
  20. ↑ Reese, Jennifer 'Big Magic': Elizabeth Gilbert's advice on how you, too, can eat, pray, love Washington Post. January 4, 2016
  21. ↑ Fischer, Molly Charm Machine Slate. January 4, 2016
  22. ↑ Gwinn, Mary Ann Elizabeth Gilbert discusses 'Big Magic' on Well Read The Seattle Times . January 4, 2016
  23. ↑ Baker, Sam (June 8, 2019). "City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert review – the glamour of New York". The Guardian. Retrieved June 14, 2023.
  24. ↑ Nguyen, Sophia (June 12, 2023). "Elizabeth Gilbert pulls new novel after outcry over Russian setting". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 14, 2023.
  25. ↑ Franklin, Jonathan (June 12, 2023). "Elizabeth Gilbert halts release of a new book after outcry over its Russian setting". NPR. Retrieved June 14, 2023.
  26. ↑ "Elizabeth Gilbert's literary influences", Infloox blog, February 23, 2010
  27. ↑ Fassler, Joe (November 6, 2012). "The 'Stubborn Gladness' of Elizabeth Gilbert's Favorite Poet". The Atlantic . Retrieved February 4, 2017.
  28. ↑ Schaub, Michael Cheryl Strayed and Elizabeth Gilbert help raise $1 million for Syrian refugees Los Angeles Times . January 4, 2016
  29. ↑ La Gorce, Tammy (June 3, 2016). "An 'Eat Pray Love' Story That Built a Children's Home in Nepal". The New York Times. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  30. 1 2 3 Gilbert, Elizabeth (June 24, 2015). "Confessions of a Seduction Addict". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  31. ↑ Kaylin, Lucy (January 2010). "What Comes After the Eating, the Praying and the Loving?". Oprah.com.
  32. ↑ "Official Website for Best Selling Author Elizabeth Gilbert". ElizabethGilbert.com.
  33. ↑ Patchett, Ann (January 2, 2010). "Eat, Pray, Love, Then Commit". The Wall Street Journal.
  34. ↑ Donahue, Deirdre (January 5, 2010). "Elizabeth Gilbert talks about life after 'Eat, Pray, Love'". USA Today.
  35. ↑ Gilbert, Elizabeth. "Elizabeth Gilbert's verified Facebook page". Facebook. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
  36. ↑ Landsbaum, Claire (September 7, 2016). "Eat, Pray, Love Author Elizabeth Gilbert Announces She's Dating Another Woman". New York . Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  37. ↑ "Eat, Pray, Love Author Elizabeth Gilbert 'In Love with' Female Best Friend Two Months After Leaving Husband".
  38. ↑ Wong, Brittany (June 7, 2017). "Elizabeth Gilbert And Girlfriend Rayya Elias Hold Commitment Ceremony". Huffington Post. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
  39. ↑ Ward, Mary (January 5, 2018). "Partner of Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert dies". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  40. ↑ Goldstein, Joelle. "Eat, Pray, Love Author Finds Love Again After Girlfriend's Death with Late Partner's Close Friend". Peoplemag. Meredith Corporation. Retrieved March 26, 2019.
  41. ↑ Tyman, Jacinta (February 8, 2020). "Eat, Pray, Love author on evolution of her 'most important' relationship". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
  42. ↑ Gilbert, Elizabeth (June 12, 2012). "The Muse of the Coyote Ugly Saloon". GQ . Retrieved July 18, 2020.
  43. ↑ Gilbert, Elizabeth (August 9, 2010). "The Last American Man". GQ. Archived from the original on April 3, 2020. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.