David Michaelis
{{Short description|American writer}}
David Tead Michaelis (born October 3, 1957) is an American writer since the late 1970s. As a biographer, Michaelis wrote about N.C. Wyeth, Charles Schulz and Eleanor Roosevelt. He won the 1999 Ambassador Book Award in the Autobiography and Biography category with N.C. Wyeth: A Biography and was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography in 2021 with Eleanor. With his non-fiction works, Michaelis also co-wrote John Aristotle Phillips's biography and wrote about male friendship.
Outside of non-fiction, Michaelis wrote the 1989 fiction book titled Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl. Apart from literature, Michaelis edited The Paris Review in the 1970s. The following decade, he wrote for Manhattan, inc. and volunteered with the New York City Police Department.
Early life and education
Michaelis was born in Boston, Massachusetts on October 3, 1957.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Michaelis, David (Tead) 1957- |encyclopedia=Contemporary Authors |year=2000 |publisher=Gale Group |location=Detroit and Woodbridge, Connecticut |url=https://archive.org/details/contemporaryauth88peac/page/292/mode/2up |access-date=February 18, 2023 |editor-last=Peacock |editor-first=Scot |series=New Revision |volume=88 |page=293 |isbn=0787632112 |lccn=62-52046}} During the 1960s, Michaelis enjoyed The Beatles and archery.{{cite magazine |last1=Michaelis |first1=David |title=Sgt. Pepper's Words |magazine=The American Scholar |date=Autumn 2002 |volume=71 |issue=4 |page=130 |issn=0003-0937}} For his post-secondary education, Michaelis attended Princeton University and lived with John Aristotle Phillips.{{cite news |last1=Korones |first1=Susan |title=Princeton student shuns bomb publicity fall-out |work=The Central New Jersey Home News |date=October 24, 1976 |page=A14}}
In 1976, Michaelis and Phillips were co-authors of an unreleased theatrical production while at Princeton.{{cite news |last1=Pudlow |first1=J. M. |title=A-bomb builder jokes too much |work=Tallahassee Democrat |date=October 14, 1979 |page=15G}} During the 1970s, they created the Aristotle Pizza Delivery Agency for the university. Their company also sold popcorn and frozen yogurt at Princeton.{{cite news |last1=Peterson |first1=Charles |title=John Aristotle Phillips: The A-Bomb Kid |work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |date=May 8, 1977 |page=sec. Parade p. 10}} By the late 1970s, Michaelis was a short story author before he became interested in nonfiction.{{cite news |last1=Merritt |first1=Robert |title=Friendships may lead to rivalries |work=Richmond Times-Dispatch |date=May 3, 1983 |page=B-7}}
Career
=Literature=
In 1977, Michaelis and Phillips wrote about "their experiences with the atomic bomb and growing up in the 70s" with a book scheduled to be released as Falling Upward the following year.{{cite news |last1=Livingston |first1=Debra |title=Student's life 'mushrooms' at Princeton |work=Courier-Post |date=February 9, 1978 |page=2 |edition=Home}} With Mushroom: The Story of the A-Bomb Kid, their 1978 book was about Phillips and the atomic bomb blueprint he created while at Princeton.{{cite news |last1=Van Siceln |first1=Clinton |title=A junior year of nukes and hype |work=The Baltimore Sun |date=October 8, 1978 |page=D 5}} While reviewing the book for The Central New Jersey Home News, Lawrence Ausubel believed that fictional newspapers were included in Mushroom.{{cite news |last1=Ausubel |first1=Lawrence |title='A-bomb kid' tells of explosive feat |work=The Central New Jersey Home News |date=October 8, 1978 |page=B21}} In 2017, a planned movie based on the book was announced by Deadline.{{cite web |last1=N'Duka |first1=Amanda |title=Jason Ludman & Adam Gibbs Team On Film About 'The A-Bomb Kid |url=https://deadline.com/2017/07/jason-ludman-adam-gibbs-mushroom-the-true-story-of-the-a-bomb-kid-film-1202136573/ |website=Deadline |access-date=February 18, 2023 |date=July 26, 2017 |archive-date=February 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230219033219/https://deadline.com/2017/07/jason-ludman-adam-gibbs-mushroom-the-true-story-of-the-a-bomb-kid-film-1202136573/ |url-status=live }}
In 1983, Michaelis published The Best of Friends: Profiles of Extraordinary Friendships.{{cite news |last1=Cryer |first1=Dan |title=Man's desire for friendship examined |work=The Arizona Republic |agency=Newsday |date=August 1, 1983 |page=D1}} For The Best of Friends, Michaelis mainly wrote about males who were not famous.{{cite news |last1=Carter |first1=Ron |title=Profiles show friendship elusive |work=Richmond Times-Dispatch |date=May 1, 1983 |page=G-5}} Of the fourteen people in the book, some people Michaelis discussed included John F. Kennedy and Isamu Noguchi.{{cite news |last1=Boyd |first1=Malcolm |title=Title Page |work=The Los Angeles Times |date=May 29, 1983 |page=Eight}} With his 1989 fictional book titled Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl, Michaelis wrote about a man remembering his time at Miss Little's School for Girls when he was a teenager.{{cite news |last1=Perry |first1=Dudley |title=Michaelis's Novel Is Story of Obsession |work=The Atlanta Journal and Constitution |date=November 24, 1989 |page=C-3}}
By the early 1990s, Michaelis had begun writing about perfectionism for a fictional book. He then changed his focus to a N.C. Wyeth biography after his spouse gave him the idea during 1991.{{cite news |last1=Sutherland |first1=Amy |title=N.C. |work=Portland Press Herald |date=January 3, 1999 |page=2E}} Michaelis's work, N.C. Wyeth: A Biography was released in 1998.{{cite news |last1=Mullinax |first1=Gary |title=Inside N.C. Wyeth |work=The News Journal |date=October 9, 1998 |location=Wilmington, Delaware |page=D1}} He co-authored the 2000 book One Nation: Patriots and Pirates Portrayed by N.C. Wyeth and James Wyeth alongside Lauren Raye Smith and Tom Brokaw.{{cite news |last1=O'Briant |first1=Don |title=The Big Books |work=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |date=November 26, 2000 |page=G5}}
In 2001, Michaelis was selected to write a biography on Charles Schulz.{{cite news |last1=Paddock |first1=Polly |title=Michaelis signs to do Charles Schulz bio |work=The Charlotte Observer |date=March 4, 2001 |page=6F}} As a contributor, Michaelis wrote about Schulz in the 2004 publication of The Complete Peanuts: 1950-1952.{{cite news |last1=Lalumière |first1=Claude |title=Comics as social commentary |work=The Gazette |date=May 22, 2004 |at=sec. Weekend Arts & Books p. 5}} His biography on Schulz was released in 2007 titled Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography.{{cite news |last1=Hibblen |first1=Michael |title=50 years of 'Peanuts' |work=The Bradenton Herald |publisher=McClatchy Newspapers |date=October 21, 2007 |page=2E}} Before the Schulz biography was set to be published that year, Schulz's family said there were mistakes and missing information in the book by Michaelis. While talking about the book, Michaelis said there was nothing incorrect in his biography on Schulz.{{cite news |last1=Cohen |first1=Patricia |title=Biography of 'Peanuts' Creator Stirs Family |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/books/08schu.html |access-date=February 24, 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=October 8, 2007 |archive-date=February 25, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230225011225/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/books/08schu.html |url-status=live }}
Michaelis began his book on Eleanor Roosevelt in 2009.{{cite book |last1=Michaelis |first1=David |title=Eleanor |date=2020 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |isbn=9781439192047 |page=547 |edition=First paperback |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mebNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA547 |access-date=February 28, 2023 |archive-date=March 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230301023428/https://books.google.ca/books?id=mebNDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA547 |url-status=live }} During 2020, he released his Roosevelt biography titled Eleanor.{{cite news |last1=Brinkley |first1=Douglas |title=A modest rebel: The paradoxical personality of Eleanor Roosevelt |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/a-modest-rebel-the-paradoxical-personality-of-eleanor-roosevelt/2020/11/05/a4af1ea0-131a-11eb-bc10-40b25382f1be_story.html |access-date=February 24, 2023 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=November 6, 2020 |archive-date=November 13, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201113074421/https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/a-modest-rebel-the-paradoxical-personality-of-eleanor-roosevelt/2020/11/05/a4af1ea0-131a-11eb-bc10-40b25382f1be_story.html |url-status=live }} In her review of the book, Gail Collins of The New York Times said it was "the first major single-volume biography [of Eleanor Roosevelt] in more than half a century".{{cite news |last1=Collins |first1=Gail |title=Eleanor Roosevelt, First Among First Ladies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/books/review/eleanor-david-michaelis.html |access-date=February 26, 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=October 6, 2020 |archive-date=February 26, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230226232126/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/books/review/eleanor-david-michaelis.html |url-status=live }}
=Additional positions=
In the late 1970s, he held an editing position with The Paris Review. He then wrote for Manhattan, inc. the following decade.Sutherland 1999, p. 1E By the 2000s, some magazines his contributions appeared in were The New Republic and The American Scholar.{{cite magazine |last1=Michaelis |first1=David |title=Staples |magazine=The New Republic |date=November 9, 1992 |volume=207 |issue=20 |pages=12–13 |issn=0028-6583}}{{cite magazine |last1=Michaelis |first1=David |title=The Class Egotist |magazine=The American Scholar |date=Autumn 2004 |volume=73 |issue=4 |pages=79–81 |issn=0003-0937}} Apart from literature, Michaelis worked for the New York City Police Department as a volunteer during the early 1980s. He had been consulted as part of the November 2007 television special titled "Good Ol' Charles Schulz" for American Masters.{{cite news |last1=Kiesewetter |first1=John |title=Lucy's namesake a former resident |work=The Cincinnati Enquirer |date=November 15, 2007 |page=10}}
Writing process and themes
In the early 1980s, Michaelis conducted personal interviews about male friendships for The Best of Friends.{{cite book |last1=Michaelis |first1=David |title=The Best of Friends: Profiles of Extraordinary Friendships |date=1983 |publisher=William Morrow and Company, Inc. |location=New York |isbn=0688015581 |page=7 |url=https://archive.org/details/bestoffriendspro00mich/page/n9/mode/2up |edition=First |access-date=February 19, 2023}} While Michaelis was creating The Best of Friends, James Stewart declined to appear in the book. When the death of John Belushi occurred before The Best of Friends was completed, Michaelis included Belushi's friendship with Dan Aykroyd in his book.{{cite news |last1=Levey |first1=Robert |title=Best friends |work=The Boston Globe |date=July 18, 1983 |page=11}} Michaelis read personal correspondence that were owned by Houghton Mifflin, the Archives of American Art and the Wyeth family for his biography on N.C. Wyeth. Upon completing his 4,000 page book, Michaelis reduced the length of his biography by over 80 percent before publication.
To create his biography on Schulz, Michaelis examined documents owned by the Schulzes and United Media as part of his research.{{cite book |last1=Michaelis |first1=David |title=Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography |date=2007 |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers |location=New York |isbn=9780066213934 |page=573 |edition=First |url=https://archive.org/details/schulzpeanutsbio00mich/page/573/mode/2up |access-date=February 26, 2023}} He also read Peanuts and conducted over 200 interviews.Michaelis 2007, pp. 574, 576-78 Schulz and Peanuts was revised multiple times before it was ready for publication. Details that were included in the Roosevelt biography by Michaelis were "topography, wardrobe, weather conditions and societal moods".
Awards and personal life
Michaelis won the 1999 Ambassador Book Award in the Autobiography and Biography category with N.C. Wyeth.{{cite news |title=The Collected Poems of Robert Penn Warren among winners of Ambassador Book Award |work=The Town Talk |date=May 27, 1999 |page=D-3}} In 2021, he was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography nominee with Eleanor.{{cite news |last1=Pineda |first1=Dorany |title=Isabel Wilkerson, Jacob Soboroff, Akwaeke Emezi among L.A. Times Book Prize finalists |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2021-03-02/lat-book-prizes-finalists-2020-wilkerson-emezi-et-al |access-date=February 28, 2023 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=March 2, 2021 |archive-date=May 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522030735/https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2021-03-02/lat-book-prizes-finalists-2020-wilkerson-emezi-et-al |url-status=live }} Michaelis had two children during his marriage.{{cite news |last1=Brady |first1=Thomas J. |title=The first portrait of the Wyeth patriarch |work=The Philadelphia Inquirer |date=October 4, 1998 |page=Q2}}
In 2024, Michaelis and his wife, Nancy Steiner, testified in connection with a lawsuit brought against political candidate and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. over Kennedy's fraudulent claim of New York State residency in campaign filings with the New York State Board of Elections. Michaelis and Steiner's Westchester home was cited by Kennedy, a one-time friend, as one of two residences he had claimed to maintain in the state in recent years.{{cite web |url=https://www.edithwharton.org/event/david-michaelis/|title=David Michaelis in Conversation with André Bernard|date=July 28, 2023|website=The Mount: Edith Wharton's home|access-date=August 6, 2024}}{{cite news |last=Clark |first=Dan |date= August 5, 2024|title= Couple who RFK Jr. said were his N.Y. landlords denies claim|url= https://www.timesunion.com/capitol/article/rfk-jr-albany-hearing-case-challenging-ny-19620372.php|publisher=Albany Times Union|location=Albany, N.Y.|access-date=August 6, 2024}}