Patricia Morrisroe

Patricia Morrisroe was born in Andover, Massachusetts.{{Cite web|last=Date|first=Terry|date=August 6, 2015|title=Author recalls life, fashion and shoes while growing up in the Merrimack Valley|url=https://www.eagletribune.com/lifestyle/author-recalls-life-fashion-and-shoes-while-growing-up-in/article_de06ed5b-f13b-5040-bc15-af9e3be99096.html|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=}} Her father, Lawrence P. Morrisroe, was a banker,{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Obituary: Mr. Lawrence P|url=https://obituaries.eagletribune.com/obituary/mr-lawrence-771088741|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=}} and her mother was Eileen Flynn. She graduated from Tufts University, earning a B.A. in English.

She received an M.A. in Cinema Studies from New York University.

After graduating, Morrisroe worked for a year as a reporter and film critic at the Eagle-Tribune, a daily newspaper covering Massachusetts and New Hampshire.{{Cite web|title=About Us|url=https://www.eagletribune.com/site/about-us.html|access-date=2021-03-08|website=Eagle-Tribune|language=en}} During the 1980s, she was a contributing editor at New York Magazine, writing over 50 features{{Cite web|title=The Exodus of Creative Young People Out of Manhattan |url=https://nymag.com/arts/all/features/48233/|access-date=2021-03-03|website=New York Magazine|date=25 June 2008 |language=en-us}} including several dozen cover stories.{{Cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s8EBAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA22|magazine=New York Magazine|title=Mommy Only|author=Morrisroe, Patricia|date=1983-06-06|language=en}} Among the most notable were "The Death and Life of Perry Ellis," about the fashion designer's secret battle with AIDS,{{Cite web|date=1986-09-03|title=Journalistic Ethics : AIDS Rumors--Do They Belong in News Stories?|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-09-03-mn-13135-story.html|access-date=2021-03-08|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}} and "Bess and the Mess," about the political misfortunes of former Miss America Bess Myerson.{{Cite web|date=2015-01-05|title=Bess Myerson, Miss America who rose in politics and fell in scandal, dies at 90|url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-bess-myerson-20150105-story.html|access-date=2021-03-08|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}}

Morrisroe has also written profiles for London's Sunday Times Magazine, including an interview with writer Raymond Carver which was included in the book Conversations With Raymond Carver.{{Cite book|last=Carver|first=Raymond|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/21561470|title=Conversations with Raymond Carver|date=1990|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|others=Marshall Bruce Gentry, William L. Stull|isbn=0-87805-448-0|location=Jackson|oclc=21561470}} Her journalism and essays have been published in Vogue,{{Cite web|last=Morrisroe|first=Patricia|title=The Good Life: Pleasure Principle {{!}} Vogue {{!}} FEBRUARY 2013|url=https://archive.vogue.com/article/2013/2/the-good-life-pleasure-principle|access-date=2021-03-03|website=Vogue {{!}} The Complete Archive|language=en-US}} Vanity Fair,{{Cite web|title=VANITY FAIR {{!}} Vanity Fair {{!}} July 1995|url=https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/1995/7/vanity-fair-2|access-date=2021-03-03|website=Vanity Fair {{!}} The Complete Archive|language=en-US}} the New York Times,{{Cite news|last=Morrisroe|first=Patricia|date=2020-05-27|title=The Woman at the Heart of Beethoven's 'Moonlight' Sonata|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/arts/music/beethoven-moonlight-sonata.html|access-date=2021-03-03|issn=0362-4331}} Elle Décor, Departures,{{Cite web|title=The Changing of the Fashion Guard|url=https://www.departures.com/fashion/changing-of-the-fashion-guard-the-future-of-fashion-designers|access-date=2021-03-16|website=Departures|language=en}} and Travel & Leisure.{{Cite web|title=Grandmother's Travel Memories|url=https://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/grandmothers-travel-memories|access-date=2021-03-03|website=Travel + Leisure|language=en}} Her essay "Swept Away" was included in Nostalgia in Vogue, a 2011 compilation of coming-of-age essays from the Vogue Nostalgia column, alongside other contributions by Joan Didion, Karl Lagerfeld, Nora Ephron, Patti Smith, and others.{{Cite book|last=MacSweeney|first=Eve|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S2UoY2A1ZVQC|title=Nostalgia in Vogue: 2000-2010|date=2011|publisher=Random House Incorporated|isbn=978-0-8478-3681-9|language=en}}

In 1988, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe selected Morrisroe to write his biography. She interviewed 300 people for the book and spent six months with Mapplethorpe before he died of HIV/AIDS.{{Cite news|last=Weinreich|first=Regina|date=1995-10-08|title=Mapplethorpe's Biographer Draws Fire (Published 1995)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/08/nyregion/mapplethorpes-biographer-draws-fire.html|access-date=2021-02-23|issn=0362-4331}} Mapplethorpe: A Biography was published by Random House in 1995.{{Cite news|last=Tanabe|first=Kunio Frances|date=May 28, 1995|title=IN THE DARKROOM OF THE SOUL|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1995/05/28/in-the-darkroom-of-the-soul/68209f7f-0504-4df6-a110-6d1ff20b4ff4/|newspaper=The Washington Post}} Foreign editions were published in the UK, Spain, Germany, The Netherlands, Japan, and Brazil. Art critic Arthur C. Danto, writing in The Nation, praised it as "utterly admirable ... The clarity and honesty of Morrisroe's portrait are worthy of its subject."{{Cite news|last=Danto|first=Arthur|date=June 12, 1995|title=The Unretouched Life|work=The Nation}}

Morrisroe's other non-fiction books include Wide Awake: A Memoir of Insomnia (2010) and 9 1/2 Narrow: My Life in Shoes (2015). Her debut novel, The Woman in the Moonlight, was published in 2020. The book centers on the imagined relationship between Beethoven and Countess Julie Guicciardi,{{Cite web|last=Vanamee|first=Norman|date=2020-09-01|title=Author Patricia Morrisroe on Beethoven and the Bored Housewives of 1800s Vienna|url=https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a33865688/beethoven-secret-love-moonlight-sonata-book-patricia-morrisroe/|access-date=2021-03-03|website=Town & Country|language=en-US}} to whom Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (Piano Sonata No. 14) was dedicated. As part of the 250th Anniversary of Beethoven's birth in 2020, Morrisroe wrote articles for the New York Times exploring lesser-known figures in the composer's life.

Morrisroe is married to Lee D. Stern. She lives in New York City and Westchester.{{Cite web|title=Patricia Morrisroe Books|url=https://www.hachette.com.au/patricia-morrisroe/|website=www.hachette.com.au}}

• {{cite book

| year = 1995

| title = Mapplethorpe: A Biography

| publisher = Random House

| isbn = 0306807661

}}

• {{cite book

| year = 2010

| title = Wide Awake: A Memoir of Insomnia

| publisher = Spiegel & Grau

| isbn = 9780385522243

}}

• 9 1/2 Narrow: My Life in Shoes. Penguin Random House. {{ISBN|9780399589447}}
• {{cite book

| year = 2020

| title = The Woman in the Moonlight: A Novel

| publisher = Little A

| isbn =9781503903753

}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a33865688/beethoven-secret-love-moonlight-sonata-book-patricia-morrisroe/|title=Author Patricia Morrisroe on Beethoven and the Bored Housewives of 1800s Vienna|first=Norman|last=Vanamee|date=September 1, 2020|website=Town & Country}}

• [https://nymag.com/relationships/features/48477/ "Forever Single."] New York Magazine. August 20, 1984.
• [https://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/features/n_10106/ "The Punk Glamour God."] New York Magazine. March 26, 2004.
• [https://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/grandmothers-travel-memories "Grandmother's Travel Memories."] Travel + Leisure. April 1, 2009.
• "[https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/fashion/competing-with-another-woman-or-at-least-a-voice.html Another Voice Had Come Between Us]" Modern Love. The New York Times. September 28, 2012.
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/26/style/modern-love-uniting-a-mysterious-diamond-ring-with-its-rightful-owner.html "Uniting a Mysterious Ring With Its Rightful Owner."] Modern Love. The New York Times. July 23, 2015.
• [https://www.departures.com/fashion/chateau-dior-restoration-tour “Château Dior.”] Departures. September 12, 2016.
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/04/arts/music/george-bridgetower-violin.html "The Black Violinist Who Inspired Beethoven."] The New York Times. September 4, 2020.
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/arts/music/beethoven-piano.html “The Woman Who Built Beethoven’s Pianos.”] The New York Times. November 6, 2020.
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/08/arts/music/beethoven-ninth-symphony-classical-music.html “The Behind-the-Scenes Assist That Made Beethoven’s Ninth Happen.”] The New York Times. December 8, 2020
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/arts/music/five-minutes-classical-music-beethoven.html "5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Beethoven."] The New York Times. December 20, 2020.

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Category:1951 births

Category:Living people

Category:American women journalists

Category:American biographers

Category:Tufts University School of Arts and Sciences alumni

Category:New York University alumni

Category:21st-century American women