Mark Stevens (born August 14, 1951) is an American writer who was co-awarded the 2005

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 ...

with

Annalyn Swan Annalyn Swan (born ca. 1951 in Biloxi, Mississippi) is an American writer and biographer who has written extensively about the arts. With her husband, art critic Mark Stevens, she is the author of '' de Kooning: An American Master'' (2004), a b ...

for ''De Kooning: An American Master''. His book with Swan also received the

National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography The National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, established in 1983, is an annual American literary award presented by the National Book Critics Circle The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) is an American nonprofit organization ( 501(c) ...

in 2004 and a

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Since 1980, the ''Los Angeles Times'' has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The Prizes currently have nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award added in 1991), history, mystery/thriller ( ...

in 2005. During his writing career, Stevens was an art critic for ''

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 ...

'', ''

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 hum ...

'' and ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

'' between the 1970s to 2000s. Other publications by Stevens include a 1981 work on

Richard Diebenkorn Richard Diebenkorn (April 22, 1922 – March 30, 1993) was an American painter and printmaker. His early work is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1960s he bega ...

's art and a 1984 book called ''Summer of the City''.

Early life and education

On August 14, 1951, Stevens was born in New York City. For his post-secondary education, Stevens received a Bachelor of Arts from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

in 1973 and a Master of Arts from King's College in 1975.

Career

Stevens began his writing career as a freelancer in 1975 before becoming an art critic for ''

'' in 1977. He remained at Newsweek until August 1988 while expanding his writings with ''

'' and '' Vanity Fair''. At ''The New Republic'', Stevens started critiquing art in 1986 before continuing his art critic career with ''

'' in 1996. Stevens remained with the magazine until his resignation in 2007. Outside of art, Stevens published a work about

's artworks in 1981. In 1984, he released his first book ''Summer of the City'' in 1984 while writing for Newsweek. In 1989, Stevens and his wife

signed with ''

Bantam Books Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. ...

'' for a future biography about

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning (; ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter El ...

. After spending ten years on the writing process, ''de Kooning: An American Master'' was released in 2004 by ''

Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...

''. In 2008, Stevens and Swan reached a deal with Knopf for a future

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...

biography. The resulting work, ''Francis Bacon: Revelations'', was published in 2021 with

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

(UK) and

Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...

(US).

Awards and honors

In 2004, Stevens and Swan won the

with ''De Kooning: An American Master''. The following year, Stevens and his wife won the 2005

for ''De Kooning: An American Master''. Stevens and Swan were also recipients of the

for their biography of De Kooning in 2005. The De Kooning book also received the

Ambassador Book Award The Ambassador Book Award (1986–2011) was presented annually by the English-Speaking Union. It recognized important literary and non-fiction works that contributed to the understanding and interpretation of American life and culture. Winners of ...

in the Biography & Autobiography category that year.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stevens, Mark 1951 births American writers American art critics Newsweek people The New Republic people Vanity Fair (magazine) people Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners Living people Princeton University alumni Alumni of King's College, Cambridge