Tom Reiss

Reiss was born on May 5, 1964, in New York City, to Jewish parents.{{cite web|last=Mesa|first= Emillio|url=http://www.nypress.com/qa-with-pulitzer-winner-tom-reiss/ |title=Q&A with Pulitzer Winner Tom Reiss|work=New York Press|date= April 16, 2013}} He spent his first years of his life in Washington Heights in Manhattan and then in San Antonio and Dallas, Texas, where his father worked as an Air Force neurosurgeon. After that, his family moved to western Massachusetts, and he spent the rest of his childhood and adolescence in New England. He attended the Hotchkiss School and then Harvard College, where he joined the writing and editing staffs of The Harvard Crimson newspaper and The Harvard Advocate magazine, graduating in 1987. In 1989, Reiss returned to Texas to study creative writing at the University of Houston, under the guidance of professor Donald Barthelme.

When Barthelme died in summer 1989, Reiss left Texas and traveled to Germany in order to begin researching his family history, and became fascinated by the rapidly changing political and social context in East Germany after the Berlin Wall fell. In order to effectively search documents and communicate with German citizens, he taught himself the German language. Reiss used his German to better understand members of his family, who had escaped Nazi Europe in the 1930s. His maternal grandparents had been murdered by the Nazis, after being deported from Paris to Auschwitz, but his mother survived as a hidden child in France during World War II.{{cite web|url=http://therumpus.net/2013/02/the-rumpus-interview-with-tom-reiss/ |title=The Rumpus Interview With Tom Reiss |date=28 February 2013 |publisher=The Rumpus.net |access-date=2013-05-18}} While in Germany, he also interviewed East German neo-Nazi youth, in an attempt to learn why they were embracing the political and sociological ideals of their ancestors.

Reiss was influenced by various jobs he held, such as hospital orderly, bartender, small business entrepreneur, teacher, and, in Japan, rock band member and actor in television commercials and gangster films.{{cite web|url=http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-orientalist-tom-reiss/1006616404?ean=9780812972764&itm=1&usri=tom%2breiss |title=The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life by Tom Reiss | 9780812972764 | Paperback | Barnes & Noble |publisher=Barnesandnoble.com |access-date=2013-05-18}}

Reiss co-wrote the English version of Ingo Hasselbach's memoir Führer-Ex: Memoirs of a Former Neo-Nazi, published in 1996 by Random House. The German-language version, titled Die Abrechnung: ein Neonazi steigt aus, had been published in 1993 by Aufbau-Verlag and co-written with Winfried Bonengel, who subsequently co-wrote and directed the 2002 German film adaptation of the story, titled Führer Ex.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0329106 Führer Ex] at the Internet Movie Database The memoir was the first inside exposé of the European neo-Nazi movement, told from the perspective of a young East German coming of age in the extremist youth subcultures of the late 1980s and early 1990s.{{cite news | last =Kinzer | first =Stephen | author-link=Stephen Kinzer | title =The Blond Beast | newspaper =The New York Times | date =February 4, 1996 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/04/books/the-blond-beast.html | access-date =May 17, 2013 }} Hasselbach had been the leader of the East German neo-Nazis, and in 1993 had renounced the movement in a spectacular manner. For the English-language version of his memoir, during the summer of 1994 Hasselbach and Reiss stayed in an isolated cabin in Sweden where Hasselbach was in hiding, and Reiss interviewed him for the book.{{cite magazine|last=Brennan|first= Christine|url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20102877,00.html |title=Picks and Pans: Pages – The Practical Guide to Practically Everything|magazine=People|date=February 26, 1996|volume= 45|number= 8}} A 21,000-word excerpt of Führer-Ex appeared in The New Yorker magazine under the title "How Nazis Are Made".{{cite magazine | last =Hasselbach | first =Ingo | author-link =Ingo Hasselbach |author2=Tom Reiss | title =How Nazis Are Made | magazine =The New Yorker | date =January 8, 1996 | url =http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1996/01/08/1996_01_08_036_TNY_CARDS_000374325 | access-date =May 17, 2013 }}

In 2005, Reiss published The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life. In the book Reiss details and analyzes the life of Russian Jewish-born Lev Nussimbaum (1905–1942), who as a teen fled the Bolshevik Revolution with his father in 1920. The Nussimbaums sought refuge in several locations, including Constantinople and Paris, and in 1922 ended up in Germany. There, Nussimbaum converted to Islam, disguised himself as a Muslim prince, and became an author, publishing prolifically under his new name "Essad Bey". In part of the early 1930s, Nussimbaum lived in New York City and Hollywood, but was unable to immigrate to the U.S. and returned to Germany. In 1937, according to Reiss, he published the classic novel Ali and Nino: A Love Story, under the pseudonym "Kurban Said".Horwell, Veronica [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/jun/18/featuresreviews.guardianreview14 "Back to Baku: Tom Reiss tells an extraordinary tale of reinvention in his biography of Lev Nussimbaum, The Orientalist"]. The Guardian. 17 June 2005.Strauss, Darin. [https://www.chicagotribune.com/2005/02/13/the-story-of-a-writer-who-rewrote-his-own-identity/ "The story of a writer who rewrote his own identity"]. Chicago Tribune. February 13, 2005.Theroux, Paul. In: Said, Kurban. [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ali-Nino-Story-Kurban-Said/dp/0099283220 Ali and Nino: A Love Story]. Vintage Books, 2000. Introduction, pp. 5–6.{{cite news|author-link=Rory Stewart|last=Stewart|first= Rory|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3645159/Turkish-delight.html |title=Turkish delight: Rory Stewart reviews The Orientalist by Tom Reiss|newspaper=Telegraph|date= 11 July 2005}}{{cite news|author-link=Philip Marsden|last=Marsden|first= Philip|url=http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/books/article138391.ece |title=Biography: The Orientalist by Tom Reiss|newspaper=Sunday Times|date= 26 June 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304061634/http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/books/article138391.ece |archive-date=March 4, 2016 }}{{cite journal|author-link=Samantha Ellis|last=Ellis|first= Samantha|url=http://www.jewishquarterly.org/issuearchive/articlee9b1.html?articleid=153 |title=Radical reinventions|journal=Jewish Quarterly|date= Autumn 2005|number=199}} In 1938, Nussimbaum fled Nazi Germany and went into hiding in Italy, where he died in 1942.

Reiss traveled to ten countries to research the book, which details not only Nussimbaum's life, but also extensive local and historical background of the times, and also Reiss's search to find and piece together Nussimbaum's biographical details. The Orientalist appeared on many "top ten" lists in 2005, and was shortlisted for the 2006 Samuel Johnson Prize{{cite web|url=http://www.librarything.com/bookaward/Samuel+Johnson+Prize+for+Non-fiction+shortlist |title=Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction shortlist | Awards |publisher=LibraryThing |access-date=2013-05-18}} for best nonfiction book in the English language. It has been translated into more than 20 languages.

{{Main|The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo}}

Reiss's 2012 book, The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo, won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography{{cite web|url=http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/2013-Biography-or-Autobiography |title=The 2013 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Biography or Autobiography |publisher=The Pulitzer Prizes |access-date=2013-05-18}} With biographical blurb and publisher description. and the 2013 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography.{{cite web|url=http://www.pen.org/2013-penjacqueline-bograd-weld-award-biography|title=2013 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography | Citation |date=25 July 2013 |publisher=pen.org |access-date=2013-08-16}} It is the biography of General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, the mixed-race son of a French marquis and a Haitian slave, who became a swashbuckling swordsman in Paris and then a military hero of the French Revolutionary Wars, remaining the highest-ranking black military figure in a Western army until Gen. Colin Powell 200 years later. Dumas's rivalry with Napoleon caused him to leave the Egyptian campaign which Napoleon himself had already abandoned, and he was captured by enemy forces in Naples and thrown in a dungeon for two years. By the time he was released, Napoleon had risen to power and reinstated racism and slavery in France and its colonies, leaving Dumas with few recourses. The debilitation from Dumas's long imprisonment led to his early death, but his life inspired his son Alexandre Dumas to write books such as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.

The Christian Science Monitor called the book a "remarkable and almost compulsively researched account" and stated that "the author spent a decade on the case, and it shows."{{cite news|author=David Holahan |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2012/1121/The-Black-Count |title=The Black Count |newspaper=The Christian Science Monitor |date=2012-11-21 |access-date=2013-05-18}} "To tell this tale", wrote The Boston Globe. "Reiss must cover the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, and the rise of Napoleon toward Empire; he does all that with remarkable verve."{{cite news |author=Madison Smartt Bell |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2012/10/06/the-black-count-tom-reiss/GzcDfziTVpiUfzCZr2FSRL/story.html |title='The Black Count' by Tom Reiss - Books |newspaper=The Boston Globe |date=2012-10-06 |access-date=2013-05-18}}

The Black Count appeared on multiple "best of" lists since its publication in September 2012. The New York Times named it one of the 100 most notable books of 2012,{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/books/review/100-notable-books-of-2012.html?pagewanted=all | work=The New York Times | title=100 Notable Books of 2012 | date=November 27, 2012}} and TIME included it in their list of Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2012.{{cite magazine|url=https://entertainment.time.com/2012/12/04/top-10-arts-lists/|title=The Black Count, Tom Reiss|last=Grossman|first=Lev|date=December 4, 2012|magazine=TIME|access-date=May 13, 2013}} Amazon.com chose it as one of the "10 Best Books of 2012" in the "Biographies and Memoirs" category.{{cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=s9_dnav_bw_ir03_b?_encoding=UTF8&node=5917067011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-5&pf_rd_r=076NTXNDWNE077NXDVKA&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1437038522&pf_rd_i=5916596011 |title=Biographies & Memoirs: Books |publisher=Amazon.com |access-date=2013-05-18}} The book was chosen by BBC4 as the "Book of the Week" in November 2012 and was broadcast as a five-part radio series,{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01p4ntb |title=BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, The Black Count, Episode 3 |publisher=BBC |date=2012-11-29 |access-date=2013-05-18}} and NPR listed it as one of the Best 5 Biographies of 2012.{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/2012/12/28/166899101/true-originals-biographies-that-defy-expectations|title=Best Biographies of 2012 : NPR |last=Schaub|first=Michael |date=December 28, 2012 |work=NPR |access-date=May 13, 2013}} The Black Count was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in the biography category,{{cite news |last=Williams |first=John |url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/14/national-book-critics-circle-names-2012-award-finalists/ |title=National Book Critics Circle Names 2012 Award Finalists |work=Arts Beat: The Culture at Large |publisher=The New York Times |date=January 14, 2013 |access-date=January 15, 2013}} and it was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Biography/Autobiography.{{cite news |url=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/moviesnow/la-et-mn-naacp-image-awards-nominations-list-20121211,0,3972506.story|title=NAACP Image Awards: The complete nominations list |last=Sandell|first=Scott |date=December 11, 2012 |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=May 13, 2013}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{Official website|http://www.tomreiss.com}}
• [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/sep/15/vanishing-fascination-anonymous-authors?INTCMP=SRCH "The Vanishing Fascination of Truly Anonymous Authors"] in The Guardian
• {{LCAuth|n95066726|Tom Reiss|3|}}

{{PulitzerPrize BiographyorAutobiographyAuthors 2001–2025}}

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Category:1964 births

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American Jews

Category:American male biographers

Category:American male journalists

Category:American male non-fiction writers

Category:Harvard Advocate alumni

Category:Harvard College alumni

Category:Hotchkiss School alumni

Category:Jewish American journalists

Category:Jewish American non-fiction writers

Category:Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners

Category:The Harvard Crimson people

Category:The New Yorker people