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{{Short description|American biographer, editor, essayist (born 1961)}}
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{{Infobox writer
{{Infobox writer
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| birth_name = Stacy Madeleine Schiff
| birth_name = Stacy Madeleine Schiff
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1961|10|26}}
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1961|10|26}}
| birth_place = [[Adams, Massachusetts|Adams]], Massachusetts
| birth_place = [[Adams, Massachusetts]]
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| alma_mater = [[Williams College]]
| alma_mater = [[Williams College]]
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| genre = [[Biography]], [[essay]], [[non-fiction]]
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| website = {{url|stacyschiff.com}}
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'''Stacy Madeleine Schiff''' (born October 26, 1961)<ref name=BN>{{cite web|url=http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writer.asp?z=y&cid=1422790 |title=Barnes&Noble Meet the Writers: Stacy Schiff |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070202190553/http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writer.asp?z=y&cid=1422790 |archive-date=February 2, 2007 }}</ref> is an [[United States|American]] [[nonfiction]] author.
'''Stacy Madeleine Schiff''' (born October 26, 1961)<ref name=BN>{{cite web|url=http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writer.asp?z=y&cid=1422790 |title=Barnes&Noble Meet the Writers: Stacy Schiff |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070202190553/http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writer.asp?z=y&cid=1422790 |archive-date=February 2, 2007 }}</ref> is an American essayist. Her biography of [[Véra Nabokov]] won the 2000 [[Pulitzer Prize]] in biography. Schiff has also written biographies of French aviator and author of ''[[The Little Prince]]'', [[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]], colonial American-era polymath and prime mover of America's founding, [[Benjamin Franklin]], Franklin's fellow [[Founding Fathers of the United States|Founding Father]] [[Samuel Adams]], ancient Egyptian queen [[Cleopatra]], and the important figures and events of the [[Salem Witch Trials]] of 1692–93 in [[colonial Massachusetts]].


== Biography ==
== Early life and career ==
Schiff was born in [[Adams, Massachusetts]], to Morton Schiff, the president of Schiff Clothing, a store founded by Schiff's great-grandfather in 1897, and Ellen, a professor of [[French literature]] at North Adams State college (now called [[Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts]]).<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/14/style/stacy-m-schiff-an-editor-weds.html|title=Stacy M. Schiff, An Editor, Weds|date=May 14, 1989|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> Schiff graduated from [[Phillips Academy]] (Andover) preparatory school, and subsequently earned her B.A. degree from [[Williams College]] in 1982. She was a senior editor at [[Simon & Schuster]] until 1990.
Schiff, born in [[Adams, Massachusetts|Adams]], Massachusetts, is a graduate of [[Phillips Academy]] (Andover) preparatory school, and earned her B.A. degree from [[Williams College]] in 1982. She was a senior editor at [[Simon & Schuster]] until 1990. Her essays and articles have appeared in ''[[The New Yorker]]'', ''The New York Times'', [[The New York Review of Books]], ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]], [[The Boston Globe]],'' and ''[[The Washington Post]],'' among many other publications.<ref name = PSU>{{Cite journal | title = An interview with Stacy Schiff | publisher = [[The Pennsylvania State University]] | year = 1999 | author = Suellen Stringer-Hye | url = http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/sschiff1.htm }}</ref><ref name=NYRB_Schiff>{{Cite news | title = Book reviews by Stacy Schiff in the New York Review of Books| newspaper= The New York Review of Books | url = https://www.nybooks.com/search/?s=stacy+schiff }}, ''[[The Boston Globe]]'', and ''[[The Washington Post]]'', among many other publications.</ref>


== Career as author ==
Schiff won the 2000 [[Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography]] for ''Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)'', a biography of [[Vera Nabokov]], wife and muse of [[Vladimir Nabokov]]. She was also a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for ''Saint-Exupéry: A Biography'' of [[Antoine de Saint Exupéry]].<ref name=BN />
Schiff won the 2000 [[Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography]] for ''Véra'', a biography of [[Véra Nabokov]], the wife and muse of the Russian-American novelist [[Vladimir Nabokov]]. She was also a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for ''Saint-Exupéry: A Biography'' of [[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]].<ref name="BN" />


Schiff's ''A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America'' (2005) won the [[George Washington Book Prize]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Schiff Wins Washington Book Prize For Work On Franklin |work=The Washington Post |date=May 24, 2006 |first=Bob |last=Thomspon |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/23/AR2006052301731.html |quote=}}</ref> Her fourth book, ''Cleopatra: A Life'', was published in 2010. As the ''Wall Street Journal''<nowiki/>'s reviewer put it, "Schiff does a rare thing: She gives us a book we'd miss if it didn't exist." <ref>{{cite news | title=Book Review: Cleopatra – WSJ | work=The Wall Street Journal | date=November 2010 | first=Sarah | last=Ruden | url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304741404575565321810001664 }}</ref>
Schiff's ''A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America'' (2005) won the [[George Washington Book Prize]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Schiff Wins Washington Book Prize For Work On Franklin |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=May 24, 2006 |first=Bob |last=Thompson |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/23/AR2006052301731.html }}</ref> It was made into ''[[Franklin (miniseries)|Franklin]]'', a 2024 miniseries starring [[Michael Douglas]].


Her fourth book, ''Cleopatra: A Life'', was published in 2010. As ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]''<nowiki/>'s reviewer put it, "Schiff does a rare thing: She gives us a book we'd miss if it didn't exist."<ref>{{cite news | title=Book Review: ''Cleopatra''|newspaper=[[The Wall Street Journal]]| date=November 2010 | first=Sarah | last=Ruden | url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304741404575565321810001664 }}</ref> ''[[The New Yorker]]'' termed the book "a work of literature";<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/11/15/the-cleopatriad|title=The Cleopatriad|last=Thurman|first=Judith|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|access-date=March 1, 2020}}</ref> [[Simon Winchester]] predicted "it will become a classic".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/14-non-fiction/1281-cleopatra-schiff?start=1|title=Cleopatra - Stacy Schiff - Author Biography|website=www.litlovers.com|access-date=March 1, 2020}}</ref> ''Cleopatra'' appeared on ''[[The New York Times]]''<nowiki/>'s Top Ten Books of 2010,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/books/review/10-best-books-of-2010.html|title=The 10 Best Books of 2010|date=December 1, 2010|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=March 18, 2020}}</ref> and won the 2011 [[PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pen.org/2011-penjacqueline-bograd-weld-award/|title=2011 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award|date=November 15, 2012|publisher=[[PEN America]]|access-date=March 18, 2020}}</ref>
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Little, Brown published ''The Witches: Salem, 1692'' in 2015. ''The New York Times'' described it as "an almost novelistic, thriller-like narrative,"<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/26/books/stacy-schiffs-the-witches-shines-a-torch-on-salem-trials.html|title=Stacy Schiff’s 'The Witches' Shines a Torch on Salem Trials|last=Alter|first=Alexandra|date=2015-10-25|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-03-22|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> however, writing in the ''[[New York Times Book Review]]'', Jane Kamensky found it to be "curiously flat," offering "banalities" and a "tenuous grip on the period."<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/books/review/the-witches-salem-1692-by-stacy-schiff.html</ref> Writing in ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'', Felipe Fernández-Armesto found that Schiff offered "a trial narrative unsurpassed for detail and impressive for her mastery of the fragmentary and frustrating sources." He found the overall result, however, to be "unsatisfying" because "she uncovers no new clues to understanding" the context of the trials.<ref>http://www.wsj.com/articles/american-witchesand-their-hunters-1445618862?alg=y</ref>


⚫
Schiff's ''The Witches: Salem, 1692'' was published in 2015. ''The New York Times'' described it as "an almost novelistic, thriller-like narrative".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/26/books/stacy-schiffs-the-witches-shines-a-torch-on-salem-trials.html|title=Stacy Schiff's ''The Witches'' Shines a Torch on Salem Trials|last=Alter|first=Alexandra|date=October 25, 2015|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=March 22, 2017}}</ref> [[David McCullough]] declared the book "brilliant from start to finish".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.amazonbookreview.com/post/de9ec62d-aa8a-48b3-9f74-831556984c6a/celebrity-picks-david-mcculloughs-favorite-reads-of-2015|title=Amazon Book Review|website=www.amazonbookreview.com|access-date=March 18, 2020}}</ref> Writing in the ''[[New York Times Book Review]]'', Jane Kamensky found it to be “curiously flat,” offering “banalities” and a “tenuous grip on the period.” Kamensky concluded, “For all her talents in sketching the who, what, where and when of the Salem trials, [the] vexed question of why is one that Schiff simply cannot manage.” <ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/books/review/the-witches-salem-1692-by-stacy-schiff.html | title='The Witches: Salem, 1692,' by Stacy Schiff | work=The New York Times | date=October 27, 2015 | last1=Kamensky | first1=Jane }}</ref> Writing in ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'', Felipe Fernández-Armesto found that Schiff offered "a trial narrative unsurpassed for detail and impressive for her mastery of the fragmentary and frustrating sources." He found the overall result, however, to be "unsatisfying" because "she uncovers no new clues to understanding" the context of the trials.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.wsj.com/articles/american-witchesand-their-hunters-1445618862?alg=y | title=American Witches—and Their Hunters | newspaper=WSJ | last1=Fernández-Armesto | first1=Felipe }}</ref>
Schiff lived in [[New York City]], as of 2010.<ref name="JW_NYT_2000">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/stacy-schiffs-cleopatra-skilled-political-operator-not-sex-goddess/article1319170/|title=Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra: skilled political operator, not sex goddess|author=Kate Taylor|date=2010-12-10|newspaper=The Globe and Mail|accessdate=2013-03-05}}</ref>

Her essays and articles have appeared in ''The New Yorker'', ''The New York Times'', ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'', and ''[[The Washington Post]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Suellen Stringer-Hye|year=1999|title=An interview with Stacy Schiff|url=http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/sschiff1.htm|publisher=[[Pennsylvania State University]]|access-date=August 9, 2006|archive-date=August 14, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090814211356/http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/sschiff1.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="NYRB_Schiff">{{Cite news|title=Book reviews by Stacy Schiff in the New York Review of Books|newspaper=The New York Review of Books|url=https://www.nybooks.com/search/?s=stacy+schiff}}, ''[[The Boston Globe]]'', and ''[[The Washington Post]]'', among many other publications.</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=June 13, 2001|title=Stacy Schiff details biographer's triumphs, tribulations, obsessions|newspaper=iBerkshires|url=https://www.iberkshires.com/story/1549/Stacy-Schiff-details-the-biographer-s-tribulations-triumphs-obsessions.html?ss_id=1763}}</ref> A former guest columnist at ''The New York Times'', Schiff resides in New York City and is a trustee of the [[John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation]].<ref>{{Cite web|publisher=[[John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation]]|title=Board of Trustees|url=https://www.gf.org/leadership/trustees/|access-date=March 19, 2020|archive-date=April 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200410181348/https://www.gf.org/leadership/trustees/|url-status=dead}}</ref>


== Awards and honors ==
== Awards and honors ==
* [[National Endowment for the Humanities]], fellowship<ref name="fellow">{{cite web |url=http://www.lapl.org/events/aloud/mar-apr_05/s-schiff.html |title=ALOUD: Lectures, Readings, Performances, & Discussions |publisher=Los Angeles Central Library |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051227223442/http://www.lapl.org/events/aloud/mar-apr_05/s-schiff.html |archive-date=December 27, 2005}}</ref>
* [[National Endowment for the Humanities]], fellowship<ref name="fellow">{{cite web |url=http://www.lapl.org/events/aloud/mar-apr_05/s-schiff.html |title=ALOUD: Lectures, Readings, Performances, & Discussions |publisher=Los Angeles Central Library |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051227223442/http://www.lapl.org/events/aloud/mar-apr_05/s-schiff.html |archive-date=December 27, 2005}}</ref>
* [[John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation|1996 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation]], fellowship<ref name="fellow"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/stacy-schiff/|title=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation {{!}} Stacy Schiff|language=en-US|access-date=2020-02-20}}</ref>
* [[John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation|1996 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation]], fellowship<ref name="fellow"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/stacy-schiff/|publisher=[[John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation]]|title=Stacy Schiff|access-date=February 20, 2020}}</ref>
* 2000 [[2000 Pulitzer Prize|Pulitzer Prize]], ''Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)''<ref name="Pulitzer-2000-bio">{{cite web |url=http://www.pulitzer.org/winners/stacy-schiff |title=Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), by Stacy Schiff (Random House) |publisher=The Pulitzer Prizes — Columbia University |access-date=December 21, 2017}}</ref>
* 2000 [[2000 Pulitzer Prize|Pulitzer Prize]], ''Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pulitzer.org/winners/stacy-schiff |title=''Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)'', by Stacy Schiff (Random House) |publisher=The Pulitzer Prizes – Columbia University |access-date=December 21, 2017}}</ref>
* 2015 Lapham's Quarterly Janus Prize<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/content/decades-ball-1780s|title=The Decades Ball - June 1, 2015|author=|date=|website=Lapham’s Quarterly|access-date=April 7, 2019}}</ref>
* 2006 [[George Washington Book Prize]], ''A Great Improvisation''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.washcoll.edu/centers/starr/past-winners.php|title=George Washington Book Prize Past Winners|access-date=May 31, 2019|archive-date=May 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190531203431/https://www.washcoll.edu/centers/starr/past-winners.php|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* 2017 New England Historic Genealogical Society Lifetime Achievement Award in History and Biography<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.americanancestors.org/About/Press-and-Media/Press-Releases/2017-Annual-Dinner|title=2017 Annual Dinner|author=|date=|website=www.americanancestors.org|access-date=April 7, 2019}}</ref>
* 2015 ''[[Lapham's Quarterly]]'' Janus Prize<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/content/decades-ball-1780s|title=The Decades Ball – June 1, 2015|magazine=[[Lapham's Quarterly]]|access-date=April 7, 2019}}</ref>
* 2017 New England Historic Genealogical Society Lifetime Achievement Award in History and Biography<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.americanancestors.org/About/Press-and-Media/Press-Releases/2017-Annual-Dinner|title=2017 Annual Dinner|website=www.americanancestors.org|access-date=April 7, 2019|archive-date=June 24, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180624150830/https://www.americanancestors.org/About/Press-and-Media/Press-Releases/2017-Annual-Dinner|url-status=dead}}</ref>
⚫
*2019 [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://artsandletters.org/pressrelease/2019-newly-elected-members/|title=2019 Newly Elected Members|last1=Fedor|first1=Ashley|website=American Academy of Arts and Letters|accessdate=8 January 2020}}</ref>
*2018 [[French Ministry of Culture]], Chevalier [[Ordre des Arts et des Lettres|des Arts et Lettres]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Nomination dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres|date=Summer 2018|url=https://www.culture.gouv.fr/Nous-connaitre/Organisation/Conseil-de-l-Ordre-des-Arts-et-des-Lettres/Arretes-de-Nominations-dans-l-ordre-des-Arts-et-des-Lettres/Nomination-dans-l-ordre-des-Arts-et-des-Lettres-ete-2018|website=www.culture.gouv.fr/}}</ref>
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*2019 [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://artsandletters.org/pressrelease/2019-newly-elected-members/|title=2019 Newly Elected Members|last1=Fedor|first1=Ashley|website=American Academy of Arts and Letters|access-date=January 8, 2020}}</ref>


== Works ==
== Works ==
=== Books ===
=== Books ===
<!--Listed first editions -->
<!--Listed first editions -->
* {{cite book | author = Schiff, Stacy | title = Saint-Exupéry: A Biography | publisher = A.A. Knopf | location = New York | year = 1994 | pages = | isbn = 0-679-40310-8 }}
* {{cite book | last = Schiff|first=Stacy|author-mask=0| title = [[Saint-Exupéry: A Biography]] | publisher = A. A. Knopf | location = New York | year = 1994 | isbn = 0-679-40310-8|ref=none}}; nominated for the 1995 [[Pulitzer Prize]]<ref>{{Cite web| url = http://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/1995 | title = 1995 Finalists | publisher = The Pulitzer Prizes – Columbia University }}</ref>
:''(Nominated for the 1995 [[Pulitzer Prize]])''<ref>{{Cite journal | url = http://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/1995 | title = 1995 Finalists | publisher = The Pulitzer Prizes – Columbia University | postscript = <!--None-->}}</ref>
* {{cite book | last = Schiff|first=Stacy|author-mask=0| title = Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov) | publisher = Pan Books | year = 1999 | isbn = 0-330-37674-8|ref=none}}; winner of 2000 Pulitzer Prize<ref>{{Cite web| url = http://www.pulitzer.org/awards/2000 | title = 2000 Winners | publisher = The Pulitzer Prizes – Columbia University }}</ref>
* {{cite book | author = Schiff, Stacy | title = Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov) | publisher = Pan Books Ltd | location = | year = 1999 | pages = | isbn = 0-330-37674-8}}
* {{cite book | last = Schiff|first=Stacy|author-mask=0| title = A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America | publisher = Henry Holt | location = New York | year = 2005 | isbn = 0-8050-6633-0|ref=none}}; published in the UK as ''Dr Franklin Goes to France''
:''(Winner of 2000 [[Pulitzer Prize]])''<ref>{{Cite journal | url = http://www.pulitzer.org/awards/2000 | title = 2000 Winners | publisher = The Pulitzer Prizes – Columbia University | postscript = <!--None-->}}</ref>
* {{cite book | last = Schiff|first=Stacy|author-mask=0| title = [[Cleopatra: A Life]] | publisher = Little, Brown and Company | year = 2010 | isbn = 978-0-316-00192-2|ref=none}}
* {{cite book | author = Schiff, Stacy | title = A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America | publisher = Henry Holt | location = New York | year = 2005 | pages = | isbn = 0-8050-6633-0}} (Published in the UK as ''Dr Franklin Goes to France'')
* {{cite book | last = Schiff|first=Stacy|author-mask=0| title=The Witches: Salem, 1692|publisher=Little, Brown and Company |year=2015|isbn=978-0-316-20061-5|ref=none}}
* {{cite book | author = Schiff, Stacy | title = Cleopatra: A Life | publisher = Little, Brown and Company | year = 2010 | isbn = 978-0-316-00192-2 }}
* {{cite book | last = Schiff|first=Stacy|author-mask=0| title=[[The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams]] |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |year=2022 | isbn=9780316441117|ref=none}}

* {{cite book|author=Schiff, Stacy|title=The Witches: Salem, 1692|publisher=Little, Brown and Company|year=2015|isbn=978-0-316-20061-5|location=|pages=}}
=== Columns and reviews ===
{{Expand section| date=April 2022}}

* {{Cite magazine |last=Schiff |first=Stacy|author-mask=0|date=2006-07-24 |title=Know It All |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/07/31/know-it-all |access-date=2022-04-14 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|ref=none}}


== See also ==
== See also ==
* [[Essjay controversy#''The New Yorker'' interview|Essjay controversy]]
* {{section link|Essjay controversy|The New Yorker interview}}


== References ==
== References ==
Line 79: Line 89:


== External links ==
== External links ==
* {{official|https://stacyschiff.com/}}
*[http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/sschiff1.htm "An Interview with Stacy Schiff"] by Suellen Stringer-Hye, published in April 1999 by Random House.
⚫
*{{C-SPAN|83120}}, including [https://www.c-span.org/video/?301561-1/qa-stacy-schiff "Q&A – interview with Schiff"], November 6, 2011
*{{C-SPAN|Stacy Schiff}}
⚫
**[http://www.c-span.org/video/?301561-1/qa-stacy-schiff ''Q&A'' interview with Schiff, November 6, 2011]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20130622045649/http://newbooksinbiography.com/2011/12/07/stacy-schiff-cleopatra-a-life-back-bay-books-2011/ Interview] with Schiff on "New Books in Biography"
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20130622045649/http://newbooksinbiography.com/2011/12/07/stacy-schiff-cleopatra-a-life-back-bay-books-2011/ Interview] with Schiff on "New Books in Biography"
*[https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/7089/stacy-schiff-the-art-of-biography-no-6-stacy-schiff Stacy Schiff, The Art of Biography No. 6] ''Paris Review'', Winter 2017
*[https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/7089/stacy-schiff-the-art-of-biography-no-6-stacy-schiff "Stacy Schiff, The Art of Biography No. 6"], ''[[The Paris Review]]'', Winter 2017


{{PulitzerPrize BiographyorAutobiographyAuthors 1976–2000}}
{{PulitzerPrize BiographyorAutobiographyAuthors 1976–2000}}

{{Authority control}}
{{Authority control}}


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[[Category:Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners]]
[[Category:Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners]]
[[Category:Williams College alumni]]
[[Category:Williams College alumni]]
[[Category:Guggenheim Fellows]]
[[Category:American women historians]]
[[Category:American women historians]]
[[Category:Women biographers]]
[[Category:American women biographers]]
[[Category:American women journalists]]
[[Category:American women journalists]]
[[Category:21st-century American women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American women writers]]
[[Category:Women autobiographers]]
[[Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters]]
[[Category:Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres]]
[[Category:Historians of the American Revolution]]
[[Category:American Egyptologists]]
[[Category:Historians of the Thirteen Colonies]]

Latest revision as of 20:44, 26 October 2024

Stacy Schiff
Photographic portrait
Schiff in 2016
BornStacy Madeleine Schiff
(1961-10-26) October 26, 1961 (age 63)
Adams, Massachusetts
OccupationWriter and editor
EducationPhillips Academy (Andover)
Alma materWilliams College
GenreBiography, essay, non-fiction
Notable awardsPulitzer Prize
Website
stacyschiff.com

Stacy Madeleine Schiff (born October 26, 1961)[1] is an American essayist. Her biography of Véra Nabokov won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in biography. Schiff has also written biographies of French aviator and author of The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, colonial American-era polymath and prime mover of America's founding, Benjamin Franklin, Franklin's fellow Founding Father Samuel Adams, ancient Egyptian queen Cleopatra, and the important figures and events of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692–93 in colonial Massachusetts.

Early life and career

[edit]

Schiff was born in Adams, Massachusetts, to Morton Schiff, the president of Schiff Clothing, a store founded by Schiff's great-grandfather in 1897, and Ellen, a professor of French literature at North Adams State college (now called Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts).[2] Schiff graduated from Phillips Academy (Andover) preparatory school, and subsequently earned her B.A. degree from Williams College in 1982. She was a senior editor at Simon & Schuster until 1990.

Career as author

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Schiff won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for Véra, a biography of Véra Nabokov, the wife and muse of the Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. She was also a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for Saint-Exupéry: A Biography of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.[1]

Schiff's A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America (2005) won the George Washington Book Prize.[3] It was made into Franklin, a 2024 miniseries starring Michael Douglas.

Her fourth book, Cleopatra: A Life, was published in 2010. As The Wall Street Journal's reviewer put it, "Schiff does a rare thing: She gives us a book we'd miss if it didn't exist."[4] The New Yorker termed the book "a work of literature";[5] Simon Winchester predicted "it will become a classic".[6] Cleopatra appeared on The New York Times's Top Ten Books of 2010,[7] and won the 2011 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography.[8]

Schiff's The Witches: Salem, 1692 was published in 2015. The New York Times described it as "an almost novelistic, thriller-like narrative".[9] David McCullough declared the book "brilliant from start to finish".[10] Writing in the New York Times Book Review, Jane Kamensky found it to be “curiously flat,” offering “banalities” and a “tenuous grip on the period.” Kamensky concluded, “For all her talents in sketching the who, what, where and when of the Salem trials, [the] vexed question of why is one that Schiff simply cannot manage.” [11] Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Felipe Fernández-Armesto found that Schiff offered "a trial narrative unsurpassed for detail and impressive for her mastery of the fragmentary and frustrating sources." He found the overall result, however, to be "unsatisfying" because "she uncovers no new clues to understanding" the context of the trials.[12]

Her essays and articles have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, and The Washington Post.[13][14][15] A former guest columnist at The New York Times, Schiff resides in New York City and is a trustee of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.[16]

Awards and honors

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Works

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Books

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  • Saint-Exupéry: A Biography. New York: A. A. Knopf. 1994. ISBN 0-679-40310-8.; nominated for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize[25]
  • Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov). Pan Books. 1999. ISBN 0-330-37674-8.; winner of 2000 Pulitzer Prize[26]
  • A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America. New York: Henry Holt. 2005. ISBN 0-8050-6633-0.; published in the UK as Dr Franklin Goes to France
  • Cleopatra: A Life. Little, Brown and Company. 2010. ISBN 978-0-316-00192-2.
  • The Witches: Salem, 1692. Little, Brown and Company. 2015. ISBN 978-0-316-20061-5.
  • The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams. Little, Brown and Company. 2022. ISBN 9780316441117.

Columns and reviews

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Barnes&Noble Meet the Writers: Stacy Schiff". Archived from the original on February 2, 2007.
  2. ^ "Stacy M. Schiff, An Editor, Weds". The New York Times. May 14, 1989.
  3. ^ Thompson, Bob (May 24, 2006). "Schiff Wins Washington Book Prize For Work On Franklin". The Washington Post.
  4. ^ Ruden, Sarah (November 2010). "Book Review: Cleopatra". The Wall Street Journal.
  5. ^ Thurman, Judith. "The Cleopatriad". The New Yorker. Retrieved March 1, 2020.
  6. ^ "Cleopatra - Stacy Schiff - Author Biography". www.litlovers.com. Retrieved March 1, 2020.
  7. ^ "The 10 Best Books of 2010". The New York Times. December 1, 2010. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  8. ^ "2011 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award". PEN America. November 15, 2012. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  9. ^ Alter, Alexandra (October 25, 2015). "Stacy Schiff's The Witches Shines a Torch on Salem Trials". The New York Times. Retrieved March 22, 2017.
  10. ^ "Amazon Book Review". www.amazonbookreview.com. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  11. ^ Kamensky, Jane (October 27, 2015). "'The Witches: Salem, 1692,' by Stacy Schiff". The New York Times.
  12. ^ Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. "American Witches—and Their Hunters". WSJ.
  13. ^ Suellen Stringer-Hye (1999). "An interview with Stacy Schiff". Pennsylvania State University. Archived from the original on August 14, 2009. Retrieved August 9, 2006.
  14. ^ "Book reviews by Stacy Schiff in the New York Review of Books". The New York Review of Books., The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post, among many other publications.
  15. ^ "Stacy Schiff details biographer's triumphs, tribulations, obsessions". iBerkshires. June 13, 2001.
  16. ^ "Board of Trustees". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Archived from the original on April 10, 2020. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
  17. ^ a b "ALOUD: Lectures, Readings, Performances, & Discussions". Los Angeles Central Library. Archived from the original on December 27, 2005.
  18. ^ "Stacy Schiff". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
  19. ^ "Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), by Stacy Schiff (Random House)". The Pulitzer Prizes – Columbia University. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
  20. ^ "George Washington Book Prize Past Winners". Archived from the original on May 31, 2019. Retrieved May 31, 2019.
  21. ^ "The Decades Ball – June 1, 2015". Lapham's Quarterly. Retrieved April 7, 2019.
  22. ^ "2017 Annual Dinner". www.americanancestors.org. Archived from the original on June 24, 2018. Retrieved April 7, 2019.
  23. ^ "Nomination dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres". www.culture.gouv.fr/. Summer 2018.
  24. ^ Fedor, Ashley. "2019 Newly Elected Members". American Academy of Arts and Letters. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
  25. ^ "1995 Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes – Columbia University.
  26. ^ "2000 Winners". The Pulitzer Prizes – Columbia University.
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