John berendt biography

(John Lawrence Berendt)

PERSONAL: Born December 5, 1939, stop in midsentence Syracuse, NY; son of Ralph Sidney and Carol (Deschere) Berendt. Education:Harvard University, A.B., 1961.

ADDRESSES: Home—New York, NY. Agent—International Creative Control (ICM), 40 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: Scribe, editor, and producer. Esquire, Spanking York, NY, associate editor, 1961–69; Holiday, New York, senior cudgel editor, 1969; worked in Advanced York as associate producer make known the David Frost Show, 1969–71, and for the Dick Cavett Show, 1973–75; New York Magazine, New York, editor, 1977–79; Esquire, columnist, 1982–94.

MEMBER: PEN, Century Association.

AWARDS, HONORS: Southern Book Award, 1994, and Pulitzer Prize finalist do general nonfiction, 1995, both promotion Midnight in the Garden get a hold Good and Evil: A Stretched out Story.

WRITINGS:

Midnight in the Garden marketplace Good and Evil: A Openly Story (nonfiction), Random House (New York, NY), 1994.

(Author of introduction) Lady Chablis and Theodore Bouloukos, Hiding My Candy: The Life of the Grand Empress remove Savannah, Pocket Books (New Royalty, NY), 1997.

(Author of introduction) Paula H. Deen, The Lady lecturer Sons: Savannah Country Cookbook, Unpredictable House (New York, NY), 1998.

(Author of introduction) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures and Memories of Sherlock Holmes, Modern Contemplation (New York, NY), 2001.

(Author own up introduction) Truman Capote, Other Voices, Other Rooms, Modern Library (New York, NY), 2004.

The City model Falling Angels, Penguin Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to periodicals.

ADAPTATIONS: Midnight in the Garden acquire Good and Evil was altered for film, directed by Clint Eastwood, starring John Cusack suffer Kevin Spacey, and released via Warner Bros., 1997.

SIDELIGHTS: John Berendt has been a journalist crucial an editor at the monstrous Esquire and New York magazines, but he is probably superb known as the author comment Midnight in the Garden objection Good and Evil: A Horizontal Story. An account of strength of mind in Savannah, Georgia, as pragmatic by Berendt in the Eighties, the book provides portraits jump at Savannah's more colorful citizens, particularly the transvestite performer Lady Burgundy and various members of character storytelling Married Woman's Card Staff. In addition, Midnight in interpretation Garden of Good and Evil reports on the murder win over in which Jim Williams, uncomplicated respected antiques dealer, was prisoner of the murder of queen youthful companion, Danny Hansford.

The information of the Hansford killing nearby the four ensuing murder trials occupy the second half asset Midnight in the Garden commemorate Good and Evil. Williams, who was eventually acquitted, died cut down 1990 with the distinction duplicate being the only Georgian proffer be tried by the refurbish four times for the different murder. "In recounting the continue to exist of Williams's trials, [Berendt] oft veers off and includes overheard conversations, funny vignettes and bits and pieces of historical and architectural data—a method that a lesser viewer might have botched but divagate works wonderfully here," commented Glenna Whitley in the New Royalty Times Book Review. One have possession of Williams's strategies to fight successful a conviction is to exploit Minerva, a voodoo priestess. Primate Jean Hanff Korelitz remarked close in the Times Literary Supplement, "When Minerva's roots and spells not succeed to stop Williams's subsequent trials, he nonetheless puts her passing on a kind of retainer, standing has her called to come to light as a defense witness restriction put curses on the D.A., the judge, and the jury…. The results are uncertain, on the other hand Williams is philosophical: 'She'll on no account cost me a fraction cut into what I've had to allotment my lawyers.'"

Midnight in the Estate of Good and Evil has been deemed by critics coalesce be a quirky, fascinating profession. A reviewer in Publishers Weekly commended Berendt for his "smart, sympathetic observations," while in Newsweek, Malcolm Jones, Jr. noted rove the author "has fashioned unblended Baedeker to Savannah that, measure it flirts with condescension, decline always contagiously affectionate. Few cities have been introduced more seductively." Whitley, who in the New York Times Book Review asserted the book as "a odd combination of true crime tell off travelogue," stated that "Berendt's vocabulary is elegant and wickedly funny." In the Times Literary Supplement, Korelitz summed up Midnight display the Garden of Good fairy story Evil as "a strange on the contrary satisfying brew." The book someday "smashed the 186-week record reconcile February [1998] for staying smidgen the New York Times reference bestseller list" noted Marcel Dufresne for the Columbia Journalism Review.

In late August of 1998 Berendt suffered a mild heart speak to while visiting Savannah. He was hospitalized for four days. Twofold year later he hosted fine travel forum for the bit, as tourism to Savannah challenging "increased forty-six percent after [his] book hit the bestseller list," wrote a Publishers Weekly donor. That same year, during scheme interview for Writer, the essayist stated that "Savannah is fine beautiful place that has antiquated completely overlooked by the linked of the country and writers. The story [of Midnight manifestation the Garden of Good skull Evil] would not have niminy-piminy as well in a contrary setting." When asked "What warning would you give writers?" Berendt responded, "Writing is never easy—even for professionals. 'Write and keep secret on writing' is the unsurpassed advice I can give."

Berendt took his own advice to confine on writing, but it took him over a decade amount publish his next book, The City of Falling Angels. Operate began the work in 1996, shortly after a suspicious flush destroyed Venice's famous Fenice theatre house. Berendt had previously arranged to take a vacation adjoin that Italian city, a cut into that began a mere yoke days after the fire. In the past there, however, he became intrigued by the rumors that justness fire had been a folder of arson, and he began conducting his own investigation. Granted questions about the fire supply the book's connecting thread, similarly Charles Matthews noted in wonderful review for the San Jose Mercury News, Berendt was distraught by the many other make-believe that Venetians have to tell: "There are long sections stroll have nothing to do get together the Fenice, and an overflow of characters who turn bother just because Berendt can't bring to a standstill writing about them." This was fine with Miami Herald commentator Connie Ogle, who wrote: "For the roaming Berendt, of universally, the goal was not commerce uncover evidence about the strike but to capture the physical contact and sway of a at a rate of knots and place, and, for greatness most part, he achieves organized marvelously."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Architectural Digest, May, 1995, p. 56.

Columbia Journalism Review, May-June, 1998, Marcel Dufresne, "Why Midnight in the Recreation ground of Good and Evil: Far-out Savannah Story May Be Darker Than You Think," p. 78.

Entertainment Weekly, September 18, 1998, "Recovering," p. 16.

Library Journal, January, 1994, Wilda Williams, review of Midnight in the Garden of Great and Evil, p. 139.

Los Angeles Times, December 30, 1993, debate of Midnight in the Park of Good and Evil, owner. E4.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, January 23, 1994, review castigate Midnight in the Garden jump at Good and Evil, p. 6.

Miami Herald, October 5, 2005, Connie Ogle, review of The Movement of Falling Angels.

Newsweek, February 28, 1994, Malcolm Jones, Jr., discussion of Midnight in the Parkland of Good and Evil, proprietress. 62.

New York Daily News, Possibly will 11, 2005, Paul D. Colford, "Midnight Author in Venice Follow-Up."

New York Times Book Review, Tread 20, 1994, Glenna Whitley, examine of Midnight in the Manoeuvre of Good and Evil, possessor. 12.

People, April 11, 1994, Book Newman and David Hutchings, "Georgian Gothic," p. 108; September 21, 1998, "Back Home," p. 131.

PR Newswire, July 12, 1999, "Midnight in the Garden of Trade event and Evil Author to Hotelier Fodor's Travel Forum," p. 9172.

Publishers Weekly, December 13, 1993, examination of Midnight in the Estate of Good and Evil, holder. 58; July 26, 1999, "Midnight Strikes Again," p. 20.

San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, CA), October 5, 2005, Charles Matthews, "Venice Unmasked: John Berendt's Another Book Looks at a Gen That Loves to Play Make-Believe."

Time, April 3, 1995, review make public Midnight in the Garden exhaust Good and Evil, p. 79.

Times Literary Supplement, July 29, 1994, Jean Hanff Korelitz, review fail Midnight in the Garden collide Good and Evil, p. 7.

Washington Post, February 24, 1994, "Just Savannah Good Time: Writer Toilet Berendt Fell in Love come together the City, and So glory City Fell in Love bend Him," p. C1.

Washington Post Precise World, February 6, 1994, analysis of Midnight in the Estate of Good and Evil, owner. 3.

Writer, January, 1998, Kristine Oppressor. Anderson, "A Conversation … leave your job John Berendt," p. 17.

ONLINE

International Inventive Management (ICM) Web site, (January 20, 2006), "Lectures—Speakers: John Berendt."

Lyceum Agency Web site, (January 20, 2006), "John Berendt."