Alex Beam (born Jacob Alexander Beam in 1954)
[Staff report (July 2000)]
''Stanford Magazine'' is an American
writer
A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...
and
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
. He retired as a
columnist
A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (newspaper), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the fo ...
for ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' in 2012, but still contributes to the paper's op-ed page.
He has worked at ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'' and ''
BusinessWeek
''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...
'', where his tenure included
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
and
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
bureau chief,
before joining ''The Boston Globe''. Beam is the author of two novels and five non-fiction books, two of which were ''New York Times'' Notable Books.
Personal life
Beam grew up in Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
[Birnbaum, Robert. "Interview: Alex Beam."](_blank)
'Identitytheory.com''.URL accessed March 12, 2007. His father, Jacob D. Beam
Jacob Dyneley Beam (March 24, 1908 – August 16, 1993) was an American diplomat.
Life and career
Beam was born in Princeton, New Jersey. His father was a German professor at Princeton University, and the younger Beam earned a bachelor's deg ...
, was a diplomat.[ Jacob D. Beam's father, Alex's grandfather, was named Jacob.][ Alex Beam's son is also named Jacob.][ Beam attended ]Phillips Exeter Academy
(not for oneself) la, Finis Origine Pendet (The End Depends Upon the Beginning) gr, Χάριτι Θεοῦ (By the Grace of God)
, location = 20 Main Street
, city = Exeter, New Hampshire
, zipcode ...
,[Boston Globe Article (September 6, 200]
School Wasn't Prepped for this Scandal.
'The Boston Globe'' where he was Foreign Correspondent for the twice-weekly school newspaper, ''The Exonian
''The Exonian'' is the bi-weekly student-run newspaper of Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire. It has been printed continuously since April 6, 1878, making it the oldest continuously-published preparatory school newspaper in the coun ...
'', and graduated from Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
[Cohn, Bob (September 1997)]
Digging into the Past.
''Stanford Magazine'' in 1975.[Staff report (February 2002)]
''Yale Alumni Magazine'' He is married to Kirsten Lundberg. He is a churchgoer. His son Christopher Beam is a journalist and screenwriter in Los Angeles.
Career
He helped establish a small weekly newspaper in Ludlow, Vermont, ''The Black River Tribune.'' Beam worked at ''Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'' and ''BusinessWeek
''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...
'', where his tenure included service as Moscow and Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
[ bureau chief,] before joining ''The Boston Globe''.
His twice-weekly column for the ''Globe'' has appeared since 1987. He was a John Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
in 1996–1997. In addition to his journalistic work, Beam is the author of two novels set in Russia—''Fellow Travelers'' (1987) and ''The Americans Are Coming!'' (1991), both published by St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...
.
Beam has also published five works of non-fiction. ''Gracefully Insane: Life and Death Inside America's Premier Mental Hospital'', which explored the history of McLean Hospital
McLean Hospital () (formerly known as Somerville Asylum and Charlestown Asylum) is a psychiatric hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. It is noted for its clinical staff expertise and neuroscience research and is also known for the large number of ...
, was published in January 2002. His second non-fiction book, about the Great Books movement, ''A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books'', appeared in 2008. Both were named Notable Books in the annual list compiled by ''The New York Times Book Review''. ''American Crucifixion: The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church'' came out in 2014, follo''wed'' by ''The Feud; Vladimir Nabokov, Edmund Wilson and the End of a Beautiful Friendship''. Random House published ''Broken Glass: Mies Van Der Rohe, Edith Farnsworth, and the Fight Over a Modernist Masterpiece'' in March, 2020.
For a time Beam wrote a weekly blog about the game of squash
Squash may refer to:
Sports
* Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets
* Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling
* Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...
for '' Vanity Fair's'' online edition.
Controversy
In December 2010, Beam wrote an article in the ''Globe'' about Liverpool Football Club
Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has p ...
's supporters, criticizing them for continuing to mourn the deaths of 96 supporters during the Hillsborough disaster
The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal human crush during a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the ...
, which he called a "riot." He also referred to the city as "doggy" and "grotty."
The ''Globe'' later issued a correction to the online version of the article, acknowledging that the disaster was not a riot, and that the official investigation blamed poor crowd control and inadequate stadium design.
References
External links
Alex Beam columns
via ''The Boston Globe''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beam, Alex
1954 births
Living people
American columnists
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American male writers
American investigative journalists
The Boston Globe people
Newsweek people
Journalists from Washington, D.C.
Phillips Exeter Academy alumni
Yale University alumni
Stanford University Knight Fellows
Place of birth missing (living people)
American male novelists
20th-century American non-fiction writers
American male non-fiction writers