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David Samuels (born 1967) is an American non-fiction and fiction writer. He is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine. He was a longtime
contributing editor A contributing editor is a newspaper, magazine or online job title that varies in its responsibilities. Often, but not always, a contributing editor is a "high-end" freelancer, consultant, or expert who has proven ability and has readership dra ...
at '' Harper's Magazine'', and a contributor to ''
The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
,'' N+1, and ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', as well as the literary editor of '' Tablet''.


Background and education

Samuels grew up in
Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
. In 1989, he graduated with a BA in history from
Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
, where he was an editor of the ''
Harvard Lampoon ''The Harvard Lampoon'' is an undergraduate humor publication founded in 1876 by seven undergraduates at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Overview The ''Harvard Lampoon'' publication was founded in 1876 by seven undergraduates ...
''. Samuels became a Mellon Fellow in the Humanities at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
, where he received a master's degree in history in 1993.


Career


Early years

Samuels' first article to receive much public attention was a controversial 1991
cover story Cover story or Cover Story may refer to: * A magazine or newspaper article whose subject appears on that issue's front cover, and may be profiled in depth. * A fictitious explanation intended to hide one's real motive; see disinformation, cover-u ...
on rap music in ''
The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
''; the piece—which contended that the primary hip-hop audience consisted of white suburban teens—has been widely anthologized. A later article he wrote on rap music for ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' was reprinted in the ''Best Music Writing of 2000'' collection, edited by
Peter Guralnick Peter Guralnick (born December 15, 1943, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American music critic, author, and screenwriter. He specializes in the history of early rock and roll and has written on Elvis Presley, Sam Phillips, and Sam Cooke. Caree ...
. His work has also been anthologized in ''Best American Political Writing of 2004'', ''Best American Science and Nature Writing of 2006'', and other collection

as well as the French nonfiction quarterly
Feuilleton A ''feuilleton'' (; a diminutive of french: feuillet, the leaf of a book) was originally a kind of supplement attached to the political portion of French newspapers, consisting chiefly of non-political news and gossip, literature and art critici ...



Magazines

Samuels was a Contributing Editor at ''Harper's Magazine'' from 1996 to 2018, and has written over a dozen long features for ''The New Yorker''. His stories have also been featured on the covers of ''The Atlantic'' and the ''New York Times Magazine''. His work hearkens back to the
New Journalism New Journalism is a style of news writing and journalism, developed in the 1960s and 1970s, that uses literary techniques unconventional at the time. It is characterized by a subjective perspective, a literary style reminiscent of long-form non- ...
of the 1960s—a blend of first-person observation, detailed reporting, and a careful attention to language. Samuels' pieces for '' Harper's'' are often panoramic takes on a single event, including the demolition of the
Sands Hotel and Casino The Sands Hotel and Casino was a historic American hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada, United States, that operated from 1952 to 1996. Designed by architect Wayne McAllister, with a prominent high sign, the Sands was the sevent ...
in Las Vegas, the riot at
Woodstock 1999 Woodstock '99 (also called Woodstock 1999) was a music festival held from July 22 to July 25, 1999, in Rome, New York. After Woodstock '94, it was the second large-scale music festival that attempted to emulate the original 1969 Woodstock f ...
, a Donald Rumsfeld press conference at
the Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a meton ...
, and
Super Bowl XL Super Bowl XL was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Seattle Seahawks and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion f ...
in Detroit. His features for ''The New Yorker'' and ''The Atlantic'' often focus on extreme subcultures and individuals with double identities. His long profile of
Yasir Arafat Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...
for ''
The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'' in September 2005 was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in reporting, and was named one of the three most important articles of the year by the columnist David Brooks in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'

After publishing a controversial cover story in ''
The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
''s April 2008 issue about the
paparazzi Paparazzi (, ; ; singular: masculine paparazzo or feminine paparazza) are independent photographers who take pictures of high-profile people; such as actors, musicians, athletes, politicians, and other celebrities, typically while subjects ...
who trail Britney Spears, Samuels appeared on NPR's '' On the Media'', and offered an apology for having hurt the feelings of those subscribers who objected to finding Spears on the cover of the magazine. "Yes, I want to take full responsibility for destroying ''The Atlantic'', 150-year-old pillar of American journalism," he said. "And now it's gone, thanks to me

To open his long profile of the rapper
Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...
titled "American Mozart" in the May 2012 issue of ''
The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', Samuels told of meeting President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
at a fundraiser at the Manhattan restaurant Daniel and asking him who he liked better – West or his ''
Watch the Throne ''Watch the Throne'' is a collaborative studio album by American rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West, collectively known as The Throne. It was released on August 8, 2011, through Roc-A-Fella Records, Roc Nation, and Def Jam Recordings. Prior to the r ...
'' collaborator Jay-Z. Obama said that he preferred Jay-Z, but thought that West was "smart" and "very talented." When Samuels recalled that Obama had previously called West a "jackass," Obama replied "He is a jackass. But he's talented". An angry minority of ''Atlantic'' subscribers wrote to the magazine to express their bafflement at the comparison of West with Mozar

In the April 12, 2010 issue of ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', Samuels published an account of his contacts with the Pink Panthers, a group of jewel thieves from Serbia and Montenegro who have reportedly stolen watches and jewels worth an estimated $250 million. The article, entitled "The Pink Panthers," was an idiosyncratic travelogue that detailed the group's cinematic robberies against the backdrop of recent Balkan history. The style of the Panthers piece earned Samuels a rebuke from Pietry Calcaterra – the chief of Interpol's Pink Panthers unit – who wrote a letter of complaint to ''The New Yorker'' stating that "The victim is not the man wielding the gun, however colourful his alleged derring-do. The victim in an armed robbery is the person lying on a shop floor with a gun pointed at his head

His immersive profile of White House speechwriter and deputy National Security advisor Ben Rhodes, published in the May 8, 2016 issue of ''
The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...
'' examined the use of traditional narrative techniques in the making and selling of American foreign policy in the age of social media. The article ignited a firestorm in the digital press, which was harshly criticized in the article by both Rhodes and Samuels, leading to an unusual response by Samuels to his critics in the pages of the Times titled "Through the Looking Glass With Ben Rhode

" On August 20, 2019, Samuels published a highly personal account of an encounter with the musician
Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fur ...
in ''
The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...
'' in which the writer described his youngest son's struggle with a
sensory processing disorder Sensory processing disorder (SPD, formerly known as sensory integration dysfunction) is a condition in which multisensory input is not adequately processed in order to provide appropriate responses to the demands of the environment. Sensory proces ...
.


Books

In the spring of 2008, Samuels published ''Only Love Can Break Your Heart''—a collection of his journalism—along with ''The Runner: A True Account of the Amazing Lies and Fantastical Adventures of the Ivy League Impostor James Hogue''. The latter was based on his 2001 profile of the university confidence man James Hogue, in ''The New Yorker''. In 2015, a French translation of "The Runner" was published under the title "Mentir A Perdre Haleine"

In 2018, Samuels published a double-sided French language collection of two decades of his journalism, "Seul L'Amour Peut Te Briser Le Coeur,

which received laudatory coverag

in the French press, who dubbed Samuels the inventor of "neo-gonzo journalism

.


Style

In ''
The New York Observer ''The New York Observer'' was a weekly newspaper printed from 1987 to 2016, when it ceased print publication and became the online-only newspaper ''Observer''. The media site focuses on culture, real estate, media, politics and the entertainmen ...
'', critic Matt Haber called Samuels "a master of the new old journalism." In the same publication, critic Michael Washburn described Samuels' work in ''The Runner'' and ''Only Love'' as "thrilling"; "With an intelligence and unsparing lucidity reminiscent of
Joan Didion Joan Didion (; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer. Along with Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson and Gay Talese, she is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism. Didion's career began in the 1950s after she won ...
, Mr. Samuels has written some of the best long-form literary journalism of the past decade." In a long review essay in ''
The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...
'', the critic John Palattella wrote that Samuels' achievement was "staggering" and compared his work favorably to that of Didion and
Tom Wolfe Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...
: "Like Didion, Samuels investigates the vortex of American life, a feeling of weightlessness and existential drift that can swallow people whole, but he reports on it in an entirely different manner." Reviewing ''The Runner'' for ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', Keith Gessen wrote "Samuels is an elite narrative journalist, a master at teasing out the social and moral implications of the smallest small talk." Writing separately in the same publication about ''Only Love Can Break Your Heart'', Jascha Hoffman described the collection as "a tribute to the twin American traditions of self-invention and self-deceit" and the author as "a brilliant reporter who has made a career of observing 'our national gift for self-delusion and for making ourselves up from scratch.'" In the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'', critic Richard Rayner cited the author's "wonderful feeling for the weirdness and truths of self-contained worlds"; he continued, "the writing is Joseph Mitchell-meets- Elmore Leonard, and a whole subculture comes to life. ... Samuels is heir to an American tradition."
James Hannaham James Hannaham (born 1968) is a writer, performer, and visual artist. His novel ''Delicious Foods'' (2015), which deals with human trafficking, won the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and was named one of ''Publishers Weekl ...
wrote in ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
'' that Samuels "has nearly autistic command of minor details and facts" and "achieves the glorious breadth and detail of a mural painter." Contrary to most critics, Hannahan preferred Samuels' book '' The Runner'' to his collected journalism in ''Only Love Can Break Your Heart'', calling the book "terse, passionate and complicated," while criticizing Samuels' political writing for "a creepy lack of bias."


Works


Books

* ''Only Love Can Break Your Heart'' (2008) * ''The Runner: A True Account of the Amazing Lies and Fantastical Adventures of the Ivy League Impostor James Hogue'' (2008),


Anthologies

* ''The Best American Music Writing, 2000'' * ''The Best American Political Writing, 2004'' * ''The Best American Science and Nature Writing, 2006''


References


External links

*http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080714/palattella *http://harpers.org/subjects/DavidSamuels/WriterOf/Article *http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/by/david_samuels *http://www.newyorker.com/search/query?query=%22David%20Samuels%22&sort=publishDate%20desc,%20score%20desc&queryType=nonparsed *http://llnw.wbez.org/AfternoonShift_20120425_Kanye2.mp3 *http://www.thenewjournalatyale.com/2012/09/a-conversation-with-david-samuels/ *http://longform.org/2012/10/31/longform-podcast-david-samuels/ *http://grantland.com/the-triangle/grantland-sports-podcast-david-samuels-on-the-gracie-jiu-jitsu-dynasty/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Samuels, David American non-fiction writers 1967 births Living people The Harvard Lampoon alumni