Ronald Chernow (born 1949) is an American biographer. He is the author of Washington: A Life, Alexander Hamilton, The House of Morgan, and Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., among other works. He has won the Pulitzer prize, the National Book Award and other prestigious awards for his books, which have often been best-sellers.
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Born in Brooklyn, New York, Chernow graduated with honors from Yale University and Cambridge University with degrees in English literature. He then began a career as a freelance journalist. From 1973 to 1982, he published more than 60 articles in national publications.[1] In the mid-1980s, he began work at the Twentieth Century Fund, a think tank based in New York City, where he was director of financial policy studies.[1] Chernow's wife Valerie, a sociologist, died in 2006.[2]
Chernow is a current (2010) member and past president of the Board of Trustees for PEN American Center, the eastern U.S. branch of International PEN, an international literary and human rights organization.
His first book, The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance was published in 1990 and won the National Book Award for nonfiction. The book traced the history of four generations of the J.P. Morgan financial empire.[3] The reviewer for the New York Times Book Review said, "As a portrait of finance, politics and the world of avarice and ambition on Wall Street, the book has the movement and tension of an epic novel. It is, quite simply, a tour de force."[4]
The Warburgs, Chernow's 1993 account of the German-Jewish Warburg banking family, was awarded the Columbia Business School's George S. Eccles Prize for Excellence in Economic Writing. The book was named as one of the year's twelve best nonfiction books by the American Library Association and a Notable Book by The New York Times.
Chernow's 1997 collection of essays, The Death of the Banker, touched upon his earlier writings and chronicled "the decline and fall of the great financial dynasties and the triumph of the small investor."
In 1998 Chernow published his biography of John D. Rockefeller, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. The book reflected Chernow's continued interest in financial history, especially when shaped by compelling and influential individuals. The biography was selected by Time magazine and The New York Times as one of the year's ten best books. Time called it "one of the great American biographies."[5]
In 2004, Chernow published his 832-page biography, Alexander Hamilton. The biography won the inaugural George Washington Book Prize for early American history.[6]
The reviews in the major scholarly journals were favorable. Professor Stephen B. Presser of Northwestern University wrote:[7]
Chernow's 904-page Washington: A Life was released on October 5, 2010 (ISBN 978-1594202667). It won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography (2011) and the American History Book Prize. Professor Gordon S. Wood, renowned scholar of the Founding era, wrote:[8]
In April 2011, Chernow signed a deal to write a comprehensive biography on Ulysses S. Grant.[9] Chernow explained his transition from writing about George Washington to Grant: "Makes some sense as progression. Towering general of Revolution to towering general of Civil War. Both two-term presidents, though with very different results."[10]
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