Posts

The Last Columnist

Image
In 2018, I edited The Last Columnist , a novel by Tom Morgan, inspired by notorious Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Walter Duranty.  "When he stabs a finger in the eyes of the elite, long-time columnist Mage Haus has to expect retaliation. But is he up for it? After all, he is not the power he once was. He was one of the most popular columnist-critic-commentators in America. Was . Before his angry reaction to his wife's suicide soured his writing. Before a stroke of ill health, brought this Icarus to earth. Now his notoriety and column gradually regain followers. He once more exposes corruption and malfeasance in Manhattan and lately at its Goth University. He is an equal-opportunity taunter of faculty, administrators and students who embrace political correctness on the campus.  Unlike other columnists, Haus's perspective in his "City Haus - Country Haus" column is from both the land of rural rube and urban effete. In the city he frequents leg...

Pangyrus Features

Image
Pangyrus comprises Boston- and Cambridge-based writers, editors, and creative professionals aiming to foster a community of creative individuals and organizations dedicated to art, ideas, and making culture thrive. Combining ‘Pangea’, the world continent, and ‘gyrus’– the ridges of the cerebral cortex crucial to verbal association– Pangyrus is about connection. Originally conceived by Editor-in-Chief Greg Harris , a professor of creative writing at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School , its managing editor is Cynthia Bargar , Director of Development at the Cambridge Theatre. I have been with Pangyrus almost since its inception, and am both its Reviews Editor, and a contributor of reviews. Below is a listing of my current features for the website. I also have just submitted a feature for a forthcoming print edition, Pangyrus 6 - on the life of African American poet, short-story author and novelist Paul Laurence Dunbar , who is the subject of a recently released documentary by ...

Upstate Diary Features

Image
I've written for Upstate Diary since October 2016, and in that time have reviewed books, art exhibits, filmmakers, and other notable personalities. Upstate Diary , founded by Creative Director Kate Orne , largely focuses on the creative lives of urban dwellers in more rural climates, and has both a web and print presence. I have contributed to both formats, as I detail below. It is, in essence, a curation of the artistic life of the region. I grew up in upstate New York, and am very familiar with the terrain, and I was so very appreciative to have had the opportunity to contribute (and will in the future) to this important periodical. Tama Janowitz:  Scream: A Memoir of Glamour and Dysfunction . (October, 2016) Peter and the Farm , a film directed by Tony Stone. (December, 2016) Andres Serrano at The School.   (March, 2017) The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative , by Florence Williams. (June, 2017) Strange Weathe...

Book Reviews and Features, Part 1

Image
Over the years, in addition to book editing and writing, I've authored numerous reviews, interviews and features for various periodicals, including The Christian Science Monitor , Pangyrus , Upstate Diary , and others. My focus is eclectic, from biographies and histories, to novels, poetry and essays, to sports and art exhibits. In addition to those I post here on this site, there are others that are in print form only, and I will describe those as fully as I can, and provide links to where you can locate the print editions, where possible. Christian Science Monitor: Reviews: Tools to keep the pages turning: The Booklover's Repair Kit . (Nov. 30, 2000) Christian Science Monitor Book Bits: iWoz, by Steve Wozniak and Gina Smith .  (Dec. 19, 2006) The Partnership:  The history of Goldman Sachs and its rise from Manhattan basement to ‘global juggernaut.’    (Nov. 8, 2008) Herbert Hoover: The 31st President, 1929-1933, by William E. Leuchtenburg.  (Fe...

Advance Man: The Life and Times of Harry Hoagland

Image
In 2005, Boston's Newbury Street Press published my biography of Henry Williamson Hoagland Jr. (Harry), Advance Man: The Life and Times of Harry Hoagland . In the course of his professional career, Harry was a pioneering venture capital executive and presidential advance man (for President Eisenhower), founding partner of Fidelity Ventures, and a generous and prolific philanthropist. Harry Hoagland was a venture capital success, as he was at other fields, because he worked hard to exploit opportunities, even in the face of resistance from others. For example, "General" Georges Doriot, the founder of American Research and Development Corporation (the first publicly held venture capital company), and Harry's mentor, was never particularly keen on developing new business for ARD in regions of the country outside of the Northeast U.S. But having grown up in the Rocky Mountains and on the West Coast, this was a distinct advantage Harry could give A.R.D., and he worked ha...
Image
Digital Equipment Corporation co-founder, Harlan E. Anderson , published his memoir, Learn, Earn & Return:  My Life as a Computer Pioneer in November of 2009.  I served as its editor and project manager. The hardcover book is about 300 pages with approximately 100 photos. Anderson writes of learning about computers and writing programs at the University of Illinois in the late 1940s, when the first stored program computes were still under construction.  Anderson shares his experience of meeting Ken Olsen at MIT’s Lincoln Lab where they built the Whirlwind computer’s core memory. And, he writes about he and Ken co-founding Digital Equipment Corporation . Anderson’s earning days were strongly related to his having been the co-founder, vice president, and board director of Digital from 1957 to 1966.  When Digital (DEC) when public in 1966, it was, according to Spencer Ante , a business writer and author of Creative Capital: Georges Doriot and the Birth of V...

Sons of Granada

Image
Last year, I edited and project managed a novel, Sons of Granada , by Carl Jeronimo, which draws largely on the life of the Granadino poet Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936), who was murdered by forces loyal to Generalissimo Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). This book is a re-imagining of Lorca's life, based loosely on the author's own experiences. Sons of Granada won a 2018 New England Book Show award for small press fiction, non-illustrated. In the words of Carl Jeronimo from the Sons of Granada blog : "My great grandfather was from   Andalusia , a small town called Jete. He was sent to Cuba in the second half of the 19th century, so my family has always considered itself Cuban. "My father, Armando Jeronimo, took our entire family to Spain in the 1970s to visit relatives he had made contact with notwithstanding the fact that Cuban travel was prohibited at that time. "In the 1990s,  I returned to Spain for the the third time ...