David Remnick

{{short description|American journalist, writer and editor (born 1958)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = David Remnick

| image = David Remnick in 2008.jpg

| caption = Remnick at a New Yorker conference in 2008

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1958|10|29}}

| birth_place = Hackensack, New Jersey, U.S.

| death_date =

| death_place =

| education = Princeton University (BA)

| occupation = Magazine editor, journalist, writer

| title = Editor of The New Yorker

| spouse = {{marriage|Esther Fein|1987}}

| children = 3

}}

David J. Remnick (born October 29, 1958) is an American journalist, writer, and editor. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his book Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire, and is also the author of Resurrection and King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero. Remnick has been editor of The New Yorker magazine since 1998. He was named "Editor of the Year" by Advertising Age in 2000. Before joining The New Yorker, Remnick was a reporter and the Moscow correspondent for The Washington Post. He also has served on the New York Public Library board of trustees and is a member of the American Philosophical Society.{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=David+Remnick&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-04-28|website=search.amphilsoc.org}} In 2010, he published his sixth book, The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama.

Background

Remnick was born to a Jewish family{{Cite web|last= Rosenberg |first=MJ |title= Israel: The Ground Shifts |publisher=Huffington Post|date=May 25, 2011 |url= https://www.huffingtonpost.com/mj-rosenberg/david-remnick-israel_b_836800.html }} in Hackensack, New Jersey, the son of Barbara (Seigel), an art teacher, and Edward C. Remnick, a dentist.{{cn|date=February 2025}} He was raised in Hillsdale, New Jersey, in a Jewish home with, he has said, "a lot of books around."Wood, Gaby (September 10, 2006). [https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2006/sep/10/observermagazine "The quiet American"]. The Observer. Retrieved April 10, 2011. "David Remnick was born in 1958 and grew up in Hillsdale, New Jersey, where his father was a dentist and his mother an art teacher." He attended Yavneh Academy in Paramus.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/10/18/paul-mccartney-doesnt-really-want-to-stop-the-show|title=Paul McCartney Doesn't Really Want to Stop the Show|magazine=The New Yorker |date=October 8, 2021}} Remnick was also a childhood friend of comedian Bill Maher.{{cite web|last1=Hagan|first1=Joe|title="It Won't Hurt You. It's Vapor."|date=April 6, 2012 |url=http://nymag.com/news/features/bill-maher-2012-4/index3.html|access-date=November 22, 2016}} He attended Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale.{{cite web|last1=Sale|first1=Jonathan|title=Passed/Failed: An education in the life of David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/passedfailed-an-education-in-the-life-of-david-remnick-editor-of-the-new-yorker-420607.html|website=The Independent|date=October 23, 2011|access-date=November 22, 2016}} At Pascack Valley High School he studied Russian and was thereby inspired to also study the politics and culture of the USSR.

He was graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1981 with an A.B. in comparative literature; there he met writer John McPhee, was a member of the University Press Club, and helped found The Nassau Weekly.{{Cite web|url=https://www.princeton.edu/news/2013/04/04/david-remnick-selected-class-day-speaker|title=David Remnick selected as Class Day speaker|website=Princeton University|language=en|access-date=August 10, 2019}} Remnick completed a 122-page-long senior thesis titled "The Sympathetic Thread: 'Leaves of Grass' 1855-1865."{{cite thesis |last=Remnick|first=David J.|date=1981 |title=The Sympathetic Thread: 'Leaves of Grass' 1855-1865 |url=http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp012j62s683d |work=Princeton University Senior Theses |degree=Comparative Literature |location=Princeton, New Jersey |publisher=Princeton University |access-date=23 February 2025}} Remnick has implied that after college he wanted to write novels, but due to the illnesses of his parents, he needed to get a job. Wanting to be a writer, he took a job at The Washington Post.{{Cite web|url=http://politi.co/21raXZ8|title=David Remnick laments the 'cultural serfdom' of young writers on the web|last=Levy|first=Nicole|website=POLITICO Media|date=November 13, 2013 |language=en|access-date=August 10, 2019}}

Career

=''The Washington Post''=

Remnick began his reporting career at The Washington Post in 1982 shortly after his graduation from Princeton.{{cite web|title=David Remnick|url=http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/remnickdavid.html|work=State University of New York: New York State Writers Institute}} His first assignment was to cover the United States Football League.The Tony Kornheiser Show, WTEM, April 13, 2010. After six years, in 1988 he became the newspaper's Moscow correspondent, which provided him with the material for Lenin's Tomb. He also received the George Polk Award for excellence in journalism in 1993.{{cite web|title=1993 George Polk Award Winners|url=https://liu.edu/polk-awards/past-winners#1993|website=LIU|access-date=April 9, 2023}}

=''The New Yorker''=

Remnick became a staff writer at The New Yorker in September 1992, after ten years at The Washington Post.

Remnick's 1997 New Yorker article "Kid Dynamite Blows Up", about boxer Mike Tyson, was nominated for a National Magazine Award. In July 1998, he became editor, succeeding Tina Brown.{{Cite news |last=Harper |first=Jennifer |date=July 13, 1998 |title=New Yorker Magazine Names New Editor |url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-20900047.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010075840/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-20900047.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 10, 2017 |newspaper=The Washington Times |agency=Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News |access-date=December 22, 2016|via=HighBeam Research}} 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 $1 million for his work as the magazine's editor.[http://nymag.com/guides/salary/14497/index3.html "Salary Guide: Who Makes How Much"], New York magazine (2005).

In 2003, Remnick penned an editorial in The New Yorker in the lead-up to the Iraq War saying "the United States has been wrong, politically and morally, about Iraq more than once in the past... but... a return to a hollow pursuit of containment will be the most dangerous option of all."{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/02/03/making-a-case|title=Making a Case|last=Remnick|first=David|date=February 3, 2003|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=January 16, 2011}} In the months leading up to the war, the magazine also published several articles connecting Saddam Hussein to al-Qaida, often relying on unnamed sources, or simply the claims of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, as evidence. The magazine received some criticism for their journalism during this period.{{cite news |last=Lazare |first=Daniel |date=May 15, 2003 |title=The New Yorker goes to war |work=The Nation |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/new-yorker-goes-war/ |access-date=Mar 17, 2023}} The claims that Hussein and al-Qaida had a close operational relationship were false, as confirmed by numerous sources including a U.S military study in 2008.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/mar/13/iraq.usa|title=Saddam Hussein had no direct ties to al-Qaida, says Pentagon study|work=The Guardian|first=Elena|last=Schor|date=March 13, 2008|access-date=September 1, 2019}}

In 2004, for the first time in its 80-year history, The New Yorker endorsed a presidential candidate, John Kerry.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/?041101ta_talk_editors|title=New Yorker magazine endorsement of John Kerry|magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=May 9, 2006}}

In May 2009, Remnick was the subject of an extended Twitter thread by former New Yorker staff writer Dan Baum, whose contract with the magazine was not renewed by Remnick. The tweets, written over the course of a week, described the difficult relationship between Baum and Remnick, his editor.{{cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/08/dan-baum-fired-by-inew-yo_n_200457.html|title=Dan Baum, Fired By New Yorker, Recounting His Story On Twitter|last=Linkins|first=Jason|date=August 5, 2009|work=The Huffington Post|access-date=April 22, 2011}}

Remnick's biography of President Barack Obama, The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama, was released on April 6, 2010. It features hundreds of interviews with friends, colleagues, and other witnesses to Obama's rise to the presidency of the United States.

In 2010, Remnick lent his support to the campaign urging the release of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of adultery and ordering the murder of her husband by her lover.{{cite news |author=Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/22/iran-stoning-woman-campaigners |title=Iran stoning case woman ordered to name campaigners |location=London |work=The Guardian |date=July 22, 2010}}

Remnick provided guest commentary and contributed to NBC coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, including the opening ceremony and commentary for NBC News.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}}

Remnick is also the host of The New Yorker Radio Hour, produced by WNYC and The New Yorker.

In May 2014, Remnick served as the commencement speaker at the 160th commencement of Syracuse University.{{Cite web|url=https://news.syr.edu/blog/2014/05/11/commencement-speech-by-new-yorker-editor-david-remnick-52411/|title=Commencement Speech by New Yorker Editor David Remnick|website=SU News|date=May 11, 2014|language=en-US|access-date=May 14, 2019}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.syracuse.com/opinion/2014/05/david_remnick_syracuse_commencement_speech_opinion.html|title=David Remnick at SU: If commencement isn't the right forum for a socially charged speech, what is?|

last=Baker|first=Chris|date=May 12, 2014|website=syracuse.com|language=en-US|access-date=May 14, 2019 }}

Personal life

In 1987, Remnick married reporter Esther Fein in a Jewish ceremony at the Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan.{{Cite web|title=Esther B. Fein Is Wed To David Jay Remnick |work=The New York Times|date=October 26, 1987 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/26/style/esther-b-fein-is-wed-to-david-jay-remnick.html }} Fein has worked as a reporter for The New York Times and The Washington Post. The couple has three children, Alex, Noah, and Natasha. Remnick is fluent in Russian.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/books/review/14hamill.html|title=A Ringside Seat|last=Hamill|first=Pete|date=May 14, 2006|work=The New York Times|access-date=April 22, 2011}}

Works

References

External links

[http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/david_remnick/search?contributorName=david%20remnick David Remnick] at The New Yorker
{{LCAuth|n92115613|David Remnick||}}
{{IMDb name|0719001}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20060524074526/http://www.lib.uci.edu/online/fellows/remnick.html#interviews Interview list]
{{C-SPAN|31530}}
[http://www.newstatesman.com/magazines/2010/06/obama-interview-yorker-editor Interview in British magazine New Statesman]
[http://bigthink.com/videos/big-think-interview-with-david-remnick "Big Think Interview with David Remnick"]. Transcript and audio-video recording (36:23) with [http://bigthink.com/davidremnick index]. Big Think. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
[http://www.jotdown.es/2013/08/david-remnick-lets-not-to-be-romantic-about-the-uniformed-brilliant-quality-of-all-journalism-in-the-pre-internet-age-there-was-a-lot-of-crap/ Interview in Spanish magazine Jot down], August 2013
[https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2017/mar/04/the-new-yorkers-david-remnick-on-the-dangers-of-normalizing-donald-trump-video/ Covering Trump: what happens when journalism, politics, and fake news collide], a discussion during a live chat at the Columbia Journalism Review with the Guardian and Reuters discussing the dangers of normalizing a Donald Trump presidency, March 2017
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