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Rich Cohen (born July 30, 1968) is an American
non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...
writer. He is a contributing editor at '' Vanity Fair'' and ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
''. He is co-creator, with
Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...
,
Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...
and
Terence Winter Terence Patrick Winter (born October 2, 1960) is an American writer and producer of television and film. He is the creator, writer, and executive producer of the HBO television series ''Boardwalk Empire'' (2010–14). Before creating ''Boardwal ...
, of the
HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
series ''
Vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...
''. His works have been ''
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 ...
'' bestsellers, ''New York Times'' Notable Books, and have been collected in the
Best American Essays ''The Best American Essays'' is a yearly anthology of magazine articles published in the United States.Robert Atwan (ed.), Adam Gopnick (guest ed.). ''The Best American Essays 2008'', Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008. It was started in 1986 and is ...
series. He lives in
Ridgefield, Connecticut Ridgefield is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York ...
, with his four sons. In 2022, Cohen became a columnist for the ''
Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
''. He is not to be confused with
Richard A. Cohen Richard A. Cohen (born 1952) is an American psychotherapist and author associated with the ex-gay movement. He is a co-founder of Positive Approaches to Healthy Sexuality (PATH), and the past director of the defunct (since 2015) International He ...
.


Early life

Cohen was born in
Lake Forest, Illinois Lake Forest is a city located in Lake County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 19,367. The city is along the shore of Lake Michigan, and is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area and the North Shore. Lake Forest ...
, and grew up in Chicago's North Shore suburb of Glencoe. He received his BA from
Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...
in 1990. His father, the negotiator
Herb Cohen Herbert Cohen (December 30, 1932 – March 16, 2010) was an American personal manager, record company executive, and music publisher, best known as the manager of Judy Henske, Linda Ronstadt, Frank Zappa, Tim Buckley, Odetta, Tom Waits, Geor ...
, grew up with the broadcaster
Larry King Larry King (born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger; November 19, 1933 – January 23, 2021) was an American television and radio host, whose awards included 2 Peabodys The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program ...
; Cohen worked on King's CNN show for a short time after graduation. His sister, Sharon Cohen Levin, is an Assistant United States Attorney of the Southern District of New York. His brother, Steve Cohen, a former aide to New York governor
Andrew Cuomo Andrew Mark Cuomo ( ; ; born December 6, 1957) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the same position that his father, Mario Cuo ...
, is a partner at the law firm Zuckerman Spaeder in New York City.


Career


Journalism

An admirer of the works of journalists
A. J. Liebling Abbott Joseph Liebling (October 18, 1904 – December 28, 1963) was an American journalist who was closely associated with ''The New Yorker'' from 1935 until his death. He was known for, among other things, the aphorism "Freedom of the press bel ...
,
Ian Frazier Ian Frazier (born 1951 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American writer and humorist. He wrote the 1989 non-fiction history ''Great Plains'', 2010's non-fiction travelogue ''Travels in Siberia'', and works as a writer and humorist for ''The New Yorke ...
, and Joseph Mitchell, Cohen took a job as a messenger at the offices 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 ...
'' magazine, where he published twelve stories in the "Talk of the Town" section in eighteen months. After working as a reporter for the ''
New York Observer New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
'', in 1994 Cohen joined the staff of ''Rolling Stone''. Since 2007, he has been a contributing editor at ''Vanity Fair''.


Author

Cohen published his first book ''Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams''—a non-fiction account of the Jewish gangsters of 1930s Brooklyn, notably those involved with
Murder, Inc. Murder, Inc. (Murder, Incorporated) was an organized crime group, active from 1929 to 1941, that acted as the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicatea closely connected criminal organization that included the Italian-American Mafia, the ...
—in 1998. Cohen's second work, ''The Avengers: A Jewish War Story'' (2000), follows a group of anti-Nazi partisans in the forests of Lithuania at the close of World War II. Cohen's third work, the memoir ''Lake Effect'' was published in 2002. In 2006, Cohen published ''Sweet and Low: A Family Story'', a memoir about the creation of the
artificial sweetener A sugar substitute is a food additive that provides a sweetness like that of sugar while containing significantly less food energy than sugar-based sweeteners, making it a zero-calorie () or low-calorie sweetener. Artificial sweeteners may be d ...
, a product invented by
Benjamin Eisenstadt Benjamin Eisenstadt (December 7, 1906 – April 8, 1996) was the designer of the modern sugar packet and developer of Sweet'N Low. He was the founder of the Cumberland Packing Corporation and a notable philanthropist. Personal life Benjamin Ei ...
, Cohen's grandfather. In 2009, Cohen published ''Israel is Real: An Obsessive Quest to Understand the Jewish Nation and its History''. In 2010, Cohen co-wrote the memoir ''When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead'', the story of American film producer
Jerry Weintraub Jerome Charles "Jerry" Weintraub (September 26, 1937 – July 6, 2015) was an American film producer, talent manager and actor whose television films won him three Emmys. He began his career as a talent agent, having managed relatively unknown ...
. The book was a ''New York Times'' bestseller. Cohen's story of
United Fruit The United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was formed in 1899 fro ...
president and banana king
Sam Zemurray Samuel Zemurray (born Schmuel Zmurri; January 18, 1877 – November 30, 1961), nicknamed "Sam the Banana Man", was an American businessman who made his fortune in the banana trade. He founded the Cuyamel Fruit Company and later became president o ...
, ''The Fish That Ate the Whale'', was published by
Farrar, Straus & Giroux Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer ...
in 2012. In 2013, Cohen published ''Monsters'': ''The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football'', a story of football through the eyes of the 1985
Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...
. The book was a ''New York Times'' best seller. Cohen's next book, a narrative history of
The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...
called ''The Sun and The Moon and the Rolling Stones'', was published by Spiegel and Grau in May 2016.''The Sun and the Moon and the Rolling Stone''
Penguin Random House Website. Accessed 2016-01-03.
Cohen had been on close terms with the Rolling Stones since the mid-1990s. Cohen's 2019 book, ''The Last Pirate of New York: A Ghost Ship, a Killer, and the Birth of a Gangster Nation'', details the life and times of Albert W. Hicks, an American criminal active from about 1840 to 1860.


Film and television

On February 26, 2007,
Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
announced it had closed a deal to produce ''The Long Play'', a screenplay which Cohen wrote several drafts for and did research on, for producers Mick Jagger and Martin Scorsese, with Scorsese directing. In 2012 and 2013 Cohen was an advisor on the Starz series '' Magic City''. Cohen is a co-creator, with Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger and Terence Winter, of the HBO series ''Vinyl''.Tim Goodmen, "'Vinyl': TV Review"
''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'', February 2, 2016.


Critical reception

In 2013, NPR editor
Tina Brown Christina Hambley Brown, Lady Evans (born 21 November 1953), is an English journalist, magazine editor, columnist, talk-show host, and author of '' The Diana Chronicles'' (2007) a biography of Diana, Princess of Wales, '' The Vanity Fair Diari ...
called Cohen's essay on the financier Ted Forstmann "very entertaining" and a "must read". In ''
The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...
'', writer
Vincent Patrick Vincent Patrick is the author of the cult crime novels ''The Pope of Greenwich Village'' and ''Family Business''. He adapted both novels for the screen. ''The Pope of Greenwich Village'', directed by Stuart Rosenberg and starring Eric Roberts, ...
called Cohen's book ''Tough Jews'' "marvelous and colorful" with "writing good enough to cause one, at times, to reread a page in order to savor the description". Another ''New York Times'' critic
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt Christopher Lehmann-Haupt (June 14, 1934 – November 7, 2018) was an American journalist, editor of the ''New York Times Book Review'', critic, and novelist, based in New York City. He served as senior Daily Book Reviewer from 1969 to 1995. Bi ...
, called it "exuberant" and "a vivid narrative"; Cohen's book had "taken the noise of these facts and turned it from gunfire into a kind of music". Critic
Michiko Kakutani Michiko Kakutani (born January 9, 1955) is an American writer and retired literary critic, best known for reviewing books for ''The New York Times'' from 1983 to 2017. In that role, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1998. Early life ...
called Cohen's ''Sweet and Low'' "a classic" ... "A telling—and often hilarious—parable about the pursuit and costs of the American Dream". In 2006, the book made the ''New York Times'' list of 100 notable books. In ''The New York Times Book Review'', writer
Tony Horwitz Anthony Lander Horwitz (June 9, 1958 – May 27, 2019) was an American journalist and author who won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. His books include ''One for the Road: a Hitchhiker's Outback'', ''Baghdad Without a Map'', '' ...
said ''Israel is Real'' "accomplished the miraculous. It made a subject that has vexed me since childhood into a riveting story." Critic and historian Mark Lewis called ''The Fish That Ate the Whale'' " Kiplingesque" and "fascinating." In ''
The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...
'', critic Chris Hartman called the book "masterful and elegantly written ... a cautionary tale for the ages". Reviewing ''The Last Pirate of New York'' in the ''Wall Street Journal'', Rinker Buck wrote, "'The Last Pirate of New York' is history-lite at its best, and readers will finish it with a satisfaction deeply relevant today."


Awards

*2009 The Best American Essays of 2008 *2006
Salon Book Award ''Salon'' is an American Progressivism in the United States, politically progressive/Modern liberalism in the United States, liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on Politics of the United States, U.S. politics ...
(Nonfiction), ''Sweet and Low''


Select bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * Ghostwritten * *


References


External links


Official website
* NPR's Weekend Edition
''The Fish That Ate The Whale''
* CBS News
''The Fish That Ate The Whale''
* Appearance o
All Things Considered
* Appearance on NPR'
The Leonard Lopate Show 2006
* Appearance on NPR'
The Leonard Lopate Show 2005


in ''The New York Times Book Review''
''The Avengers'' Excerpt
Newsweek Magazine * Random Hous

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Rich Jewish American writers American male non-fiction writers Tulane University alumni 1968 births Living people American magazine journalists 21st-century American Jews