 |
James McGrath Morris | |
|---|---|
 Morris at the 2015 Texas Book Festival | |
| Born | 1954 |
| Occupation | Biographer |
| Nationality | American |
| Website | |
| jamesmcgrathmorris | |
James McGrath Morris (born 1954) is an American biographer.
|
James McGrath Morris | |
|---|---|
| Morris at the 2015 Texas Book Festival | |
| Born | 1954 |
| Occupation | Biographer |
| Nationality | American |
| Website | |
| jamesmcgrathmorris | |
James McGrath Morris (born 1954) is an American biographer.
Morris was raised in Paris, France; Brussels, Belgium; and Washington, DC. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree at American University and a master's degree at George Washington University. He is married, with three children, and makes his home with his wife, Patty Morris, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. [1]
Morris has worked as a journalist, book publisher, high school teacher, and independent writer. [2] He began his professional career as a radio news broadcaster in New Mexico in 1978. He then spent a decade working for radio networks, newspapers, and magazines in Jefferson City, Missouri; Washington, DC; and Ithaca, New York.
In 1987, Morris began a nine-year stint working in publishing, running Seven Locks Press, a publisher of public affairs books in Washington, DC, and Public Interest Publications, a distributor of books and publications produced by Washington think-tanks and interest groups.
In 1996, Morris became a high school teacher and spent nine years working for Fairfax County Schools. During this time he wrote and published Jailhouse Journalism: The Fourth Estate Behind Bars and The Rose Man of Sing Sing: A True Tale of Life, Murder and Redemption in the Age of Yellow Journalism. [3] The Rose Man of Sing Sing was selected as one of the best non-fiction books of 2004 by the Washington Post , optioned as a movie, and released as an audio book by Random House. Its critical and commercial success prompted Morris to leave teaching and work full-time as an independent writer.
In 2010, Morris published Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power. [4] The Wall Street Journal deemed was one of the five best books on American moguls and one of the five best books on American newspaper publishers [5] while Booklist placed on its 2010 list of the ten best biographies of the year. [6]
In 2009, with fellow biographers, Morris co-founded Biographers International Organization (BIO), a non-profit organization founded to promote the art and craft of biography, and to further the professional interests of its practitioners. [7] In 2012, he was elected as its president. [8]
In 2014 he published Revolution by Murder: Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and the Plot to Kill Henry Clay Frick," a Kindle Single. [9]
Morris's following book, Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, The First Lady of the Black Press, was published in 2015 and widely reviewed and became a New York Times Bestseller [10] [11]
The Ambulance Drivers: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and a Friendship Made and Lost in War was published in 2017 by Da Capo Press. [12] He is currently writing a biography of Tony Hillerman.
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Best known for an economical, understated style that significantly influenced later 20th-century writers, he is often romanticized for his adventurous lifestyle, and outspoken and blunt public image. Most of Hemingway's works were published between the mid-1920s and mid-1950s, including seven novels, six short-story collections and two non-fiction works. His writings have become classics of American literature; he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature, while three of his novels, four short-story collections and three nonfiction works were published posthumously.
Emma Goldman was a Lithuanian-born anarchist revolutionary, political activist, and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the 20th century.
The Pulitzer Prizes are two-dozen annual awards given by Columbia University in New York for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters." They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fortune as a newspaper publisher.
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during the preceding calendar year.
John Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist, most notable for his U.S.A. trilogy.
Alexander Berkman was a Russian-American anarchist and author. He was a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century, famous for both his political activism and his writing.
Henry Clay Frick was an American industrialist, financier, and art patron. He founded the H. C. Frick & Company coke manufacturing company, was chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company and played a major role in the formation of the giant U.S. Steel manufacturing concern. He had extensive real estate holdings in Pittsburgh and throughout the state of Pennsylvania. He later built the Neoclassical Frick Mansion in Manhattan, and upon his death donated his extensive collection of old master paintings and fine furniture to create the celebrated Frick Collection and art museum. However, as a founding member of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, he was also in large part responsible for the alterations to the South Fork Dam that caused its failure, leading to the catastrophic Johnstown Flood. His vehement opposition to unions also caused violent conflict, most notably in the Homestead Strike.
Johann Joseph "Hans" Most was a German-American Social Democratic and then anarchist politician, newspaper editor, and orator. He is credited with popularizing the concept of "propaganda of the deed".
Mother Earth was an American anarchist journal that described itself as "A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Social Science and Literature". Founded in early 1906 and initially edited by Emma Goldman, an activist in the United States, it published articles by contemporary activists and writers in Europe as well as the US, in addition to essays by historic figures.
Anarchism in the United States began in the mid-19th century and started to grow in influence as it entered the American labor movements, growing an anarcho-communist current as well as gaining notoriety for violent propaganda of the deed and campaigning for diverse social reforms in the early 20th century. By around the start of the 20th century, the heyday of individualist anarchism had passed and anarcho-communism and other social anarchist currents emerged as the dominant anarchist tendency.
Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist is Alexander Berkman's account of his experience in prison in Western Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, in Pittsburgh, from 1892 to 1906. First published in 1912 by Emma Goldman's Mother Earth press, it has become a classic in autobiographical literature. The book touches on themes of political violence and incarceration, as well as develops Berkman's theory of anarchist politics.
Living My Life is the autobiography of Lithuanian-born anarchist Emma Goldman, who became internationally renowned as an activist based in the United States. It was published in two volumes in 1931 and 1934. Goldman wrote it while living in Saint-Tropez, France, following her disillusionment with the Bolshevik role in the Russian Revolution.
Charles E. Chapin was an American editor of Joseph Pulitzer’s Evening World. He was convicted of the murder of his wife and sentenced to a 20-year-to-life term in Sing Sing prison.
Francisco Goldman is an American novelist, journalist, and Allen K. Smith Professor of Literature and Creative Writing, Trinity College. His most recent novel, Monkey Boy (2021), was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
The Blast was a semi-monthly anarchist periodical published by Alexander Berkman in San Francisco, California, USA from 1916 through 1917. The publication had roots in Emma Goldman's magazine Mother Earth, having been launched when her former consort Berkman left his editorial position at that publication.
John George Alexander Leishman was an American businessman and diplomat. He worked in various executive positions at Carnegie Steel Company, rising to President, and later served as an ambassador for the United States to Switzerland, the Ottoman Empire, Italy, and Germany.
Freiheit was a long-running anarchist journal established by Johann Most in 1879. It was known for advocacy of attentat, or propaganda of the deed—revolutionary violence that could inspire people to revolution.
The Bolshevik Myth is a book by Alexander Berkman describing his experiences in RSFSR from 1920 to 1922, when he saw the aftermath of the October Revolution. Written in the form of a diary, The Bolshevik Myth describes how Berkman's initial enthusiasm for the revolution faded as he became disillusioned with the Bolsheviks and their suppression of all political dissent.
Denis Brian was a Welsh journalist and writer, notable for writing the 1996 biography Einstein: A Life.
Modest Stein (1871–1958), born Modest Aronstam, was a Lithuanian Jewish and American illustrator and close associate of the anarchists Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman. He was Berkman's cousin and intended replacement in the attempted assassination of Henry Clay Frick, an industrialist and union buster, in 1892. Later Stein abandoned active anarchism and became a successful newspaper, pulp magazine, and book illustrator, while continuing to support Berkman and Goldman financially.