David J. Remnick (born October 29, 1958) is an American journalist, writer and editor. He won a
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...
in 1994 for his book '' Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire'', and is also the author of ''Resurrection'' and ''King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero''. Remnick has been editor 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 since 1998. He was named "Editor of the Year" by ''
Advertising Age
''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in mu ...
'' in 2000. Before joining ''The New Yorker'', Remnick was a reporter and the Moscow correspondent for ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
''. He also has served on the
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress) ...
board of trustees and is a member of the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
''. Retrieved April 10, 2011. "David Remnick was born in 1958 and grew up in
Hillsdale, New Jersey
Hillsdale is a borough in the New York City metropolitan area in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 10,219, He attended Yavneh Academy in Paramus. Remnick was also a childhood friend of comedian
Bill Maher
William Maher (; born January 20, 1956) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is known for the HBO political talk show '' Real Time with Bill Maher'' (2003–present) and the similar ...
. He attended
Pascack Valley High School
Pascack Valley High School (PVHS) is a four-year comprehensive regional public high school located in Hillsdale in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as one of two secondary schools in t ...
in Hillsdale. At Pascack Valley High School he studied Russian and was thereby inspired to also study the politics and culture of the USSR.
He was graduated
summa cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...
from
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 ...
in 1981 with an A.B. in comparative literature; there he met writer
John McPhee
John Angus McPhee (born March 8, 1931) is an American writer. He is considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. He is a four-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the category General Nonfiction, and he won that award on the four ...
, was a member of the University Press Club, and helped found '' The Nassau Weekly''. Remnick completed a 122-page-long senior thesis titled "The Sympathetic Thread: 'Leaves of Grass' 1855-1865." Remnick has implied that after college he wanted to write novels, but due to the illnesses of his parents, he needed to get a job. Wanting to be a writer, he took a job at ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
''.
Career
''The Washington Post''
Remnick began his reporting career at ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
'' in 1982 shortly after his graduation from Princeton. His first assignment was to cover the
United States Football League
The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...
. After six years, in 1988 he became the newspaper's
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
correspondent, which provided him with the material for ''Lenin's Tomb''. He also received the
George Polk Award
The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the awar ...
for excellence in journalism in 1993.
''The New Yorker''
Remnick became a staff writer at ''
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 ...
'' in September 1992, after ten years at ''The Washington Post''.
Remnick's 1997 ''New Yorker'' article "Kid Dynamite Blows Up", about boxer
Mike Tyson
Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2005. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "The Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson is con ...
, was nominated for a
National Magazine Award
The National Magazine Awards, also known as the Ellie Awards, honor print and digital publications that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative techniques, noteworthy enterprise and imaginative design. Or ...
. In July 1998, he became editor, succeeding
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 Diarie ...
. Remnick promoted
Hendrik Hertzberg
Hendrik Hertzberg (born July 23, 1943) is an American journalist, best known as the principal political commentator for ''The New Yorker'' magazine. He has also been a speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter and editor of ''The New Republic'', and ...
, a former
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
speechwriter and former editor of ''
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 ...
'', to write the lead pieces in "Talk of the Town", the magazine's opening section. In 2005, Remnick earned $1 million for his work as the magazine's editor.
In 2003, Remnick penned an editorial in ''The New Yorker'' in the lead-up to the Iraq War saying "the United States has been wrong, politically and morally, about Iraq more than once in the past... but... a return to a hollow pursuit of containment will be the most dangerous option of all." In the months leading up to the war, the magazine also published several articles connecting Saddam Hussein to al-Qaida, often relying on unnamed sources, or simply the claims of Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld (July 9, 1932 – June 29, 2021) was an American politician, government official and businessman who served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under president Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under Preside ...
, as evidence. The magazine received some criticism for their journalism during this period. The claims that Hussein and al-Qaida had a close operational relationship were false, as confirmed by numerous sources including a U.S military study in 2008.
In 2004, for the first time in its 80-year history, ''The New Yorker'' endorsed a presidential candidate,
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party, he ...
.
In May 2009, Remnick was the subject of an extended
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
thread by former ''New Yorker'' staff writer Dan Baum, whose contract with the magazine was not renewed by Remnick. The tweets, written over the course of a week, described the difficult relationship between Baum and Remnick, his editor.
Remnick's biography of 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 (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
, '' The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama'', was released on April 6, 2010. It features hundreds of interviews with friends, colleagues, and other witnesses to Obama's rise to the presidency of the United States.
In 2010, Remnick lent his support to the campaign urging the release of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
ian woman sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of adultery and ordering the murder of her husband by her lover.
Remnick provided guest commentary and contributed to
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
Sochi
Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents i ...
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
, including the opening ceremony and commentary for
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's v ...
.
Remnick is also the host of ''
The New Yorker Radio Hour
''The New Yorker Radio Hour'' is a radio show and podcast produced by ''The New Yorker'' and WNYC Studios. It is hosted by David Remnick, who has been editor of ''The New Yorker'' since 1998. The first episode of ''The New Yorker Radio Hour'' d ...
'', produced by
WNYC
WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that ...
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 ...
''.
In May 2014, Remnick served as the commencement speaker at the 160th commencement of
Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...
.
Personal life
In 1987, Remnick married reporter Esther Fein in a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
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 ...
'' and ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
''. The couple has three children, Alex, Noah, and Natasha. Remnick is fluent in Russian.
Works
See also
*
New Yorkers in journalism
New York City has been called the media capital of the world. Many journalists work in Manhattan, reporting about international, American, business, entertainment, and New York metropolitan area-related matters.
New Yorkers in journalism
A
...