Nick Tosches

Nick Tosches (born 1949) is an American journalist, novelist, biographer, and poet of Albanian and Italian descent.

Life

After different odd-jobs, Tosches started writing with poetry and rock-'n'-roll magazines, including Creem, Fusion, and Rolling Stone.

Tosches' second book, a biography of Jerry Lee Lewis named Hellfire was published in 1982. Subsequent biographies have covered the lives of Dean Martin, Michele Sindona, Sonny Liston, Emmett Miller, and Arnold Rothstein.

Tosches has also published a collection of poetry, and three novels. He has been published in Vanity Fair, Esquire and Open City. The Nick Tosches Reader collects writings from over the course of his career.

Tosches was featured on the popular Travel Channel show Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations in the episode "Disappearing Manhattan". He and Bourdain shared a drink at Sophie's in the East Village, a Manhattan dive bar, and they discussed the changing nature of the city.

Bibliography

Biographies

• Hellfire, 1982 (first edition), Grove Press, USA, ISBN 0-8021-3566-8
• Dangerous Dances: The Authorized Biography with Daryl Hall and John Oates, 1984, St. Martin's Press, USA, ISBN 0312357168
• Power on Earth, 1986
• Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams, 1992
• The Devil and Sonny Liston, 2000
• Where Dead Voices Gather, 2001
• King of the Jews, 2005

Fiction and Poetry

• Cut Numbers, 1988
• Trinities, 1994, St Martins Mass Market Paper, USA, ISBN 0-312-95689-4
• Chaldea and I Dig Girls, 1999
• In The Hand Of Dante, 2002

Journalism

• Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock 'n' Roll, 1977, Da Capo Press, USA, ISBN 0-306-80713-0
• Unsung Heroes of Rock N' Roll: The Birth of Rock in the Wild Years Before Elvis, 1984 (first edition), Da Capo Press, USA, ISBN 0-306-80891-9
• The Last Opium Den, 2002
• Never Trust a Loving God, Art Stock Books Ltd. (to be published 25 October 2009)

Collections

• The Nick Tosches Reader, 2000, Da Capo Press, USA, ISBN 0-306-80969-9

Discography

• Blue Eyes And Exit Wounds, with Hubert Selby Jr., 1998
• Nick & Homer, with Homer Henderson, 1998
• Fuckthelivingfuckthedead, 2001
• For the taking: Vol. I from CHALDEA with Rick Whitehurst 2006

Film and television

• Louis Prima: The Wildest!,1999
• Hubert Selby Jr: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow, 2005
• Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: Hunter S. Thompson on Film, 2006
• Mobsters, in the episode Tommy Lucchese, 2008
• Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations in the episode "Disappearing Manhattan", 2009
• Johnny Depp has purchased the film rights to Tosches' novel In The Hand Of Dante. It is in development and set for release some time in 2011 (as of October 2009). Depp will play Tosches in the film.^[1]

Quotes

On People Take Warning! Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs, 1913-1938:

I’ve been sitting here watching the remains of this short-lived country go down the drain, and there is no better soundtrack to this than People Take Warning, a grand and beautiful set—in every sense, from the remastered recordings to the notes to the extraordinary design work—that gives perspective both to these days and those of the past. This is white-hot history, a danse macabre, and, above all, a wealth of great old and timeless music.

References

External links

• brief bio
• Vanity Fair contributing editor profile
• www.exitwounds.com with the late Hubert Selby, Jr.
• "Saint Nick" by Mike Miliard, The Boston Phoenix, September 26, 2002
• Tony and Friends Podcast Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations deleted scene. Tony and Nick discuss Southeast Asia and "The Last Opium Den."