Mark Helprin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mark Helprin (born on June 28, 1947) is a contemporary award-winning American Jewish novelist and journalist, best known for his novel Winter’s Tale and his writing for The New Yorker.
Contents |
[edit] Background
Helprin was raised on the Hudson River and in the British West Indies, and holds degrees from Harvard College and Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. His postgraduate work was done at the University of Oxford. He served in the British Merchant Navy, the Israeli infantry, and the Israeli Air Force.
[edit] Novels and short stories
His first novel, published in 1977, was Refiner’s Fire: The Life and Adventures of Marshall Pearl, a Foundling. Winter’s Tale, published in 1983, is a sometimes fantastic tale of early 20th century life in New York City that is regarded critically as his best novel. In 1991, he published A Soldier of the Great War. Memoir from Antproof Case, published in 1995, includes a long comic diatribe against the effects of coffee. After more than a decade's pause since his last novel, although with one collection of short stories and two children's books during the interim, Helprin came out with Freddy and Fredericka, a critically acclaimed satire, in July of 2005.
He has also published three books of short stories. A Dove of the East & Other Stories was published in 1975. Ellis Island & Other Stories was published in 1981, and The Pacific And Other Stories in October of 2004. He has also written three children’s books, all of which are illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg: Swan Lake, The Veil of Snows, and A City in Winter. His works have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
[edit] Periodicals
Helprin's writing has appeared in The New Yorker for two decades. He has written on politics and aesthetics for the Claremont Review of Books (for which he is a columnist), The Atlantic Monthly Journal, The New Criterion, National Review, The American Heritage, The Wall Street Journal (for which he is a contributing editor until 2006), The New York Times, and other publications.
[edit] Honors and Accomplishments
A Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and a former Guggenheim Fellow, Helprin has been awarded the National Jewish Book Award and the Prix de Rome from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
He is also a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy. In 1996 he served as a foreign policy advisor and speechwriter to presidential candidate Bob Dole. Unique among novelists, Helprin has written widely on matters of U.S. strategy and foreign policy. These have earned him acclaim and respect in Washington, D.C., and beyond; he has served as a consultant to Congress and U.S. intelligence agencies.
In May 2006, the New York Times Book Review published a list of American novels, compiled from the responses to "a short letter [from the review] to a couple of hundred prominent writers, critics, editors and other literary sages, asking them to please identify 'the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years.'" Among the twenty-two books to have received multiple votes was Helprin's Winter's Tale.
On December 1, Helprin will be awarded the Tulsa Library Trust's 2006 Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award.
[edit] Complete bibliography
- A Dove of the East and Other Stories (1975)
- Refiner's Fire (1977)
- Ellis Island and Other Stories (1981)
- Winter's Tale (1983)
- Swan Lake (1989)
- A Soldier of the Great War (1991)
- Memoir From Antproof Case (1995)
- A City In Winter (1996)
- The Veil of Snows (1997)
- The Pacific and Other Stories (2004)
- Freddy and Fredericka (2005)