John Matteson (born March 3, 1961) is an American professor of English and legal writing at

John Jay College of Criminal Justice The John Jay College of Criminal Justice (John Jay) is a public college focused on criminal justice and located in New York City. It is a senior college of the City University of New York (CUNY). John Jay was founded as the only liberal art ...

in New York City. He won the 2008

Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography The Pulitzer Prize for Biography is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished biography, autobiography or memoir by an American author o ...

for his first book, '' Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father''. Born in

San Mateo, California San Mateo ( ; ) is a city in San Mateo County, California, on the San Francisco Peninsula. About 20 miles (32 km) south of San Francisco, the city borders Burlingame to the north, Hillsborough to the west, San Francisco Bay and Foster C ...

, Matteson is the son of Thomas D. Matteson (1920–2011), an airline executive jointly responsible for developing the theory of

reliability-centered maintenance Reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) is a concept of maintenance planning to ensure that systems continue to do what their user require in their present operating context. Successful implementation of RCM will lead to increase in cost effecti ...

, and Rosemary H. Matteson (1920–2010), who worked as a commercial artist before becoming a homemaker. Matteson attended

Menlo School Menlo School, also referred to as Menlo, is a private college preparatory school in Atherton, California, United States, across the street from Menlo Park. Menlo comprises a middle school, grades 6–8, with approximately 230 students, an ...

Atherton, California Atherton () is an incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States. Its population was 7,188 as of 2020. Atherton is known for its wealth; in 1990 and 2019, Atherton was ranked as having the highest per capita income among U.S. t ...

. He graduated with an

A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in history from Princeton University in 1983 after completing an 178-page-long senior thesis titled "The Confederate Cotton Embargo, 1861-1862: A Study in States' Rights." He then received a J.D. from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class i ...

in 1986, and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in English from Columbia University in 1999. He served as a law clerk for U.S. District Court Judge Terrence W. Boyle before working as a litigation attorney at Titchell, Maltzman, Mark, Bass, Ohleyer & Mishel in San Francisco and with Maupin, Taylor, Ellis & Adams in Raleigh, North Carolina. He has written articles for a wide variety of publications, including '' The New York Times'', '' The Wall Street Journal'', '' The New England Quarterly'', ''Streams of William James'', and ''Leviathan.'' His second book, ''The Lives of Margaret Fuller'' was published in January 2012 and received the 2012 Ann M. Sperber Prize as the year's outstanding biography of a journalist or other figure in media. It was also a finalist for the inaugural Plutarch Award, the prize for best biography of the year as chosen by the Biographers International Organization (BIO), and was shortlisted for the

PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography The PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award is awarded by the PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) to honor a "distinguished biography possessing notable literary merit which has been published in the United States during the previous calendar year." ...

. His W. W. Norton & Company annotated edition of ''

Little Women ''Little Women'' is a coming-of-age novel written by American novelist Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888). Alcott wrote the book, originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869, at the request of her publisher. The story follows the lives ...

'' was published in November 2015, featuring many exclusive photographs from Alcott's childhood home,

Orchard House Orchard House is a historic house museum in Concord, Massachusetts, United States, opened to the public on May 27, 1912. It was the longtime home of Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) and his family, including his daughter Louisa May Alcott (1832 ...

, as well as numerous illustrations and stills from the various film adaptations. Matteson's most recent book, ''A Worse Place Than Hell: How the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg Changed a Nation,'' was published in February 2021. It focuses on

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...

, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Louisa May Alcott,

Arthur Buckminster Fuller Arthur Buckminster Fuller (August 10, 1822 – December 11, 1862) was a Unitarian clergyman of the United States. Biography Fuller was born in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts on August 10, 1822. He was a son of United States Congressman Timothy Full ...

, and John Pelham. Matteson appeared in the 2018 documentary ''Orchard House: Home of Little Women''.'' Matteson is a former treasurer of the

Melville Society The Melville Society , is an organization for the study of author Herman Melville. Founded in 1945, the Society was a result of the Melville Revival of the 1920s and 1930s and is now the oldest American society devoted to a single literary figure. ...

and is a member of the Louisa May Alcott Society's advisory board. Matteson is a fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society and has served as the deputy director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography. He married Michelle Rollo in 1991. They have a daughter. He is not the same person as the John Matteson who, as a professor of speech at

Los Angeles City College Los Angeles City College (LACC) is a public community college in East Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. A part of the Los Angeles Community College District, it is located on Vermont Avenue south of Santa Monica Boulevard on the former campu ...

in 2008, allegedly barred a student from giving a classroom speech in opposition to same-sex marriage.Sewell Chan
A Professor's Doppelgänger Problem
'' New York Times'' (2009-02-20). Retrieved 2016-01-01.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matteson, John 1961 births American biographers American academics of English literature City University of New York faculty John Jay College of Criminal Justice faculty Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners Columbia University alumni Princeton University alumni Harvard Law School alumni People from Atherton, California People from San Mateo, California Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Journalists from California