Scott Timberg (February 15, 1969 – December 10, 2019) was an American journalist, culture writer, and editor. He was best known as an authority on southern California culture and for his book ''Culture Crash: The Killing of the Creative Class''.

Early life

Scott Robert Timberg was born in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

, son of journalist and author Robert Timberg and Jane Timberg. He was raised in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. Timberg earned a Bachelor of Arts from

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...

in 1991 and a master’s degree in journalism from the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

. He attended a term abroad at the

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

. His grandfather was composer

Sammy Timberg Samuel Timberg (May 21, 1903 – August 26, 1992) was an American musician and composer for the stage, film studios, and television. Biography Timberg was born in New York City to a Jewish family originating in Austria, youngest son of Israel and ...

and his great uncle was vaudevillian Herman Timberg.

Career

Timberg started his journalism career at ''

The Day (New London) ''The Day'' newspaper, formerly known as ''The New London Day'', is a local newspaper based in New London, Connecticut, published by The Day Publishing Company. The newspaper has won Newspaper of the Year and the Best Daily Newspaper Award from t ...

'' in Connecticut. He moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

in 1997 to join the staff of ''

New Times LA ''New Times LA'' is a now-defunct alternative weekly newspaper that was published in Los Angeles, California by New Times Media from 1996 to 2002. History It was formed by the purchase and merger of the '' Los Angeles View''/'' Los Angeles Villag ...

''. He was a long-time staff writer for 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 ...

'' until 2008 and a staff writer for '' Salon''. As a freelancer he wrote for the ''

Los Angeles Review of Books The ''Los Angeles Review of Books'' (''LARB'' is a literary review magazine covering the national and international book scenes. A preview version launched on Tumblr in April 2011, and the official website followed one year later in April 2012. ...

,'' ''

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 ...

'' and ''Los Angeles Magazine'', among others. Timberg spent the longest period of his life in Los Angeles, with a year in

Athens, Georgia Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the sta ...

in 2015.

Books

* ''The Misread City: New Literary Los Angeles (''editor, with Dana Gioia'') (''2003'')'' * ''Culture Crash: The Killing of the Creative Class'' (2015) * ''Beeswing: Fairport, Folk Rock and Finding My Voice, 1967–75'' (co-written with Richard Thompson) (2021)

Writings About Scott Timberg

* Various, ''Remembering Scott Timberg'' (

) (2019) * Christopher Reynolds, ''Scott Timberg, spirited listener, reader and writer is dead at 50'' ( LA Times) (2019) * ''

Dana Gioia Michael Dana Gioia (; born December 24, 1950) is an American poet, literary critic, literary translator, and essayist. Since the early 1980s, Gioia has been considered part of the literary movements within American poetry known as New Forma ...

'', ''Scott Timberg: a bitter symbol for those who have been marginalized by our “creative culture"'' (The Book Haven) (2019)

Awards

Timberg's book ''Culture Crash: The Killing of the Creative Class'' won the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award in 2015. The ''New Yorker'' called it "a quietly radical rethinking of the very nature of art in modern life".

Personal life and death

Timberg married Sara Scribner, a school librarian and journalist; the couple had a son. Timberg committed suicide on December 10, 2019, in Los Angeles, at the age of 50.

References

External links

* Timberg's blo
''CultureCrash''
1969 births 2019 suicides 21st-century American non-fiction writers American bloggers American male journalists American people of Austrian-Jewish descent Journalists from California Los Angeles Times people People from Stanford, California Place of death missing University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Writers from Los Angeles Wesleyan University alumni 21st-century American male writers 2019 deaths Suicides in California {{US-nonfiction-writer-stub