David Remnick (born October 29, 1958 in Hackensack, New Jersey) is an American journalist, writer, and magazine editor. As a reporter for the Washington Post, he also served as the paper's Moscow correspondent. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his book Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire. He has been editor of The New Yorker magazine since 1998. He has edited several collections of writings from The New Yorker and in 1999, he was named "Editor of the Year" by Advertising Age.
Early life and family
Remnick is the son of a dentist and an art teacher. [1]He was raised in Hillsdale, New Jersey in a secular Jewish home with, he has said, "a lot of books around." He graduated from Princeton University with a B.A in comparative literature in 1981; there, he met writer John McPhee and helped found The Nassau Weekly. He is married to New York Times reporter Esther Fein and has three children, Alex, Noah, and Natasha. He enjoys jazz music and classic cinema and is fluent in Russian.
Career at The Washington Post
He began at The Washington Post in 1982[1] shortly after his graduation from Princeton. After six years, in 1988, he became the newspaper's Moscow correspondent, which provided him with the material for his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Lenin's Tomb. He also received the George Polk Award for excellence in journalism.
Career at The New Yorker
Remnick became a staff writer at The New Yorker in September, 1992, after ten years at The Washington Post.[1]
Remnick's 1997 New Yorker article "Kid Dynamite Blows Up," about boxer Mike Tyson, won a National Magazine Award.[1]
In 1998, he became editor. Remnick promoted Hendrik Hertzberg, a former Jimmy Carter speechwriter and former editor of The New Republic, to write the lead pieces in “Talk of the Town,” the magazine’s opening section. In 2005, Remnick earned a salary of $1 million per year for his work as editor. [2]
In 2004, for the first time in its 80-year history, The New Yorker endorsed a presidential candidate, John Kerry. [2]
On May 8, 2006, David Remnick gave an interview on The Daily Show to promote his book Reporting: Writings from The New Yorker.
In May 2009, Remnick featured in a long-form Twitter account of Dan Baum's career as a New Yorker staff writer. The tweets, written over the course of a week, described the difficult relationship between Baum and Remnick, his editor.
References
Works
- Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire New York: Random House, 1993.
- The Devil Problem: And Other True Stories. New York: Random House, 1996.
- Resurrection: The Struggle for a New Russia. New York: Random House, 1997.
- King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero. New York: Random House, 1998.
- Reporting: Writings from The New Yorker. New York: Knopf, 2006.
Books Edited
- Wonderful Town: New York Stories from the New Yorker (with Susan Choi, eds.), 2000.
- The New Gilded Age: The New Yorker Looks at the Culture of Affluence. New York: Random House, 2000.
- Life Stories: Profiles from the New Yorker. New York: Random House, 2000.
- Fierce Pajamas: An Anthology of Humor Writing from the New Yorker (with Henry Finder, eds.). New York: Random House, 2001.
Articles
External links
