Stacy Schiff
Stacy Madeleine Schiff (born October 26, 1961)[1] is an American former editor, essayist, and author of five biographies. Her biography of Vera Nabokov won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in biography. Schiff has also written biographies of French aviator and author of The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, colonial American-era polymath and prime mover of America's founding, Benjamin Franklin, Franklin's fellow Founding Father Samuel Adams, ancient Egyptian queen Cleopatra, and the important figures and events of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692–93 in colonial Massachusetts.
Stacy Schiff | |
|---|---|
Schiff in 2016 | |
| Born | Stacy Madeleine Schiff October 26, 1961 Adams, Massachusetts |
| Occupation | Writer and editor |
| Education | Phillips Academy (Andover) |
| Alma mater | Williams College |
| Genre | Biography, Essay, Nonfiction |
| Notable awards | Pulitzer Prize |
| Website | |
| stacyschiff | |
Early life and career
Schiff was born in Adams, Massachusetts, to Morton Schiff, the president of Schiff Clothing, a store founded by Schiff's great-grandfather in 1897, and Ellen, a professor of French literature at North Adams State college (now called Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts).[2] Schiff graduated from Phillips Academy (Andover) preparatory school, and subsequently earned her B.A. degree from Williams College in 1982. She was a senior editor at Simon & Schuster until 1990.
Career as author
Schiff won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for Vera, a biography of Vera Nabokov, the wife and muse of the Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. She was also a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for Saint-Exupéry: A Biography of Antoine de Saint Exupéry.[1]
Schiff's A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America (2005) won the George Washington Book Prize.[3] It is being made into Franklin, an upcoming miniseries starring Michael Douglas.
Her fourth book, Cleopatra: A Life, was published in 2010. As the Wall Street Journal's reviewer put it, "Schiff does a rare thing: She gives us a book we'd miss if it didn't exist."[4] The New Yorker termed the book "a work of literature;"[5] Simon Winchester predicted "it will become a classic."[6] Cleopatra appeared on The New York Times's Top Ten Books of 2010,[7] and won the 2011 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for biography.[8]
Schiff's The Witches: Salem, 1692 was published in 2015. The New York Times described it as "an almost novelistic, thriller-like narrative."[9] David McCullough declared the book "brilliant from start to finish."[10]
Her essays and articles have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, and The Washington Post.[11][12][13] A former guest columnist at The New York Times, Schiff resides in New York City and is a trustee of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.[14]
Awards and honors
- National Endowment for the Humanities, fellowship[15]
- 1996 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, fellowship[15][16]
- 2000 Pulitzer Prize, Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)[17]
- 2006 George Washington Book Prize, "A Great Improvisation"[18]
- 2015 Lapham's Quarterly Janus Prize[19]
- 2017 New England Historic Genealogical Society Lifetime Achievement Award in History and Biography[20]
- 2018 French Ministry of Culture, Chevalier des Arts et Lettres[21]
- 2019 American Academy of Arts and Letters[22]
Works
Books
- Schiff, Stacy (1994). Saint-Exupéry: A Biography. New York: A.A. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-40310-8.
- (Nominated for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize)[23]
- Schiff, Stacy (1999). Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov). Pan Books Ltd. ISBN 0-330-37674-8.
- (Winner of 2000 Pulitzer Prize)[24]
- Schiff, Stacy (2005). A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 0-8050-6633-0. (Published in the UK as Dr Franklin Goes to France)
- Schiff, Stacy (2010). Cleopatra: A Life. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-00192-2.
- Schiff, Stacy (2015). The Witches: Salem, 1692. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-20061-5.
- Schiff, Stacy (2022). The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams. Little, Brown & Co. ISBN 9780316441117.
Columns and Reviews
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- Schiff, Stacy (July 24, 2006). "Know It All". The New Yorker. Retrieved April 14, 2022.
See also
References
- ^ a b . Archived from the original on February 2, 2007.
- ^ "Stacy M. Schiff, An Editor, Weds". New York Times. May 14, 1989.
- ^ Thompson, Bob (May 24, 2006). "Schiff Wins Washington Book Prize For Work On Franklin". The Washington Post.
- ^ Ruden, Sarah (November 2010). "Book Review: Cleopatra – WSJ". The Wall Street Journal.
- ^ Thurman, Judith. "The Cleopatriad". The New Yorker. Retrieved March 1, 2020.
- ^ "Cleopatra - Stacy Schiff - Author Biography". www.litlovers.com. Retrieved March 1, 2020.
- ^ "The 10 Best Books of 2010". The New York Times. December 1, 2010. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
- ^ "2011 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award". PEN America. November 15, 2012. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
- ^ Alter, Alexandra (October 25, 2015). "Stacy Schiff's 'The Witches' Shines a Torch on Salem Trials". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 22, 2017.
- ^ "Amazon Book Review". www.amazonbookreview.com. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
- ^ Suellen Stringer-Hye (1999). "An interview with Stacy Schiff". The Pennsylvania State University.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ "Book reviews by Stacy Schiff in the New York Review of Books". The New York Review of Books., The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post, among many other publications.
- ^ "Stacy Schiff details biographer's triumphs, tribulations, obsessions". iBerkshires. June 13, 2001.
- ^ "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Board of Trustees". Retrieved March 19, 2020.
- ^ a b . Los Angeles Central Library. Archived from the original on December 27, 2005.
- ^ "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Stacy Schiff". Retrieved February 20, 2020.
- ^ "Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), by Stacy Schiff (Random House)". The Pulitzer Prizes — Columbia University. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
- ^ "George Washington Book Prize Past Winners". Retrieved May 31, 2019.
- ^ "The Decades Ball - June 1, 2015". Lapham’s Quarterly. Retrieved April 7, 2019.
- ^ "2017 Annual Dinner". www.americanancestors.org. Retrieved April 7, 2019.
- ^ "Nomination dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres - été 2018". www.culture.gouv.fr/.
- ^ Fedor, Ashley. "2019 Newly Elected Members". American Academy of Arts and Letters. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
- ^ "1995 Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes – Columbia University.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ "2000 Winners". The Pulitzer Prizes – Columbia University.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help)
External links
- "An Interview with Stacy Schiff" by Suellen Stringer-Hye, published in April 1999 by Random House.
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Q&A interview with Schiff, November 6, 2011
- with Schiff on "New Books in Biography"
- Stacy Schiff, The Art of Biography No. 6 Paris Review, Winter 2017