Michael Lesy

Michael Lesy (born 1945) is a writer and professor of literary journalism at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. His books, which combine historical photographs with his own writing, include Wisconsin Death Trip (1973), Bearing Witness: A Photographic Chronicle of American Life (1982), Visible Light (1985), Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties (2007), and Repast: Dining Out at the Dawn of the New American Century with Lisa Stoffer (2013).

Lesy grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio and studied at Columbia University, The University of Wisconsin and Rutgers University, where he attained a doctorate in American cultural history.[1] He has taught at Hampshire College since 1990 and is professor of literary journalism. In 2006 he was named a United States Artists Fellow.[2]

Wisconsin Death Trip was adapted into a film by James Marsh in 1999.[3][4]

Lesy is also a professor in the Five Colleges (Massachusetts) community of Hampshire County, Massachusetts.

He was awarded a 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship for Photography Studies.[5]

Bibliography

Year Title Publisher
1973 Wisconsin Death Trip Pantheon Books
1976 Real Life: Louisville in the Twenties Pantheon Books
1980 Time Frames: The Meaning of Family Pictures Pantheon Books
1982 Bearing Witness: A Photographic Chronicle of American Life Pantheon Books
1985 Visible Light Crown Publishing Group
1987 The Forbidden Zone Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
1991 Rescues: The Lives of Heroes Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
1997 Dreamland: America at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century New Press
2002 Long Time Coming: A Photographic Portrait of America, 1935-1943 W. W. Norton & Company
2005 Angel's World: The New York Photographs of Angelo Rizzuto W. W. Norton & Company
2007 Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties W. W. Norton & Company
2013 Repast: Dining Out at the Dawn of the New American Century (with Lisa Stoffer) W. W. Norton & Company

References

  1. Birnbaum, Robert (2003) "Interview: Michael Lesy", identitytheory.com, September 16, 2003, retrieved 2011-03-12
  2. "PROFESSOR MICHAEL LESY NAMED UNITED STATES ARTISTS FELLOW", Hampshire College, retrieved 2011-03-12
  3. Holden, Stephen (1999) "FILM REVIEW; How a Town In Wisconsin Went Mad", New York Times, December 1, 1999, retrieved 2011-03-12
  4. Marcus, Greil (1999) "A Record of Despair Born of a Single Image", New York Times, November 28, 1999, retrieved 2011-03-12
  5. Guggenheim Foundation (2013) "Michael Lesy", retrieved 2013-09-16