Adam Begley

Adam C. Begley (born 1959 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American freelance writer, and was the books editor for The New York Observer from 1996 to 2009.

Begley is the son of Sally (Higginson) and novelist Louis Begley. He graduated from Harvard College, and from Stanford University with a Ph.D. in 1989. His work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, and the Financial Times.

He lives with his wife, Anne Cotton, and stepchildren, in Great Gidding, Cambridgeshire. He wrote a biography of author John Updike, published by HarperCollins in 2014, and a biography of French photographer Nadar, published by Tim Duggan Books in 2017. He is a contributing interviewer to the Paris Review's Art of Fiction series.

Awards

• 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship
• 2011 Leon Levy Center for Biography Fellowship

Works

• Literary Agents: A Writer’s Guide. Adam Begley, Debby Mayer, Penguin Books, 1993, ISBN 978-0-14-017215-7
• The Art of Fiction No. 135: Don DeLillo, Paris Review, 1993
• The Salon.com Reader's Guide to Contemporary Authors, Laura Miller, Adam Begley, Penguin Books, 2000, ISBN 978-0-14-028088-3
• The Art of Fiction No. 173: Ian McEwan, Paris Review, 2002
• The Art of Fiction No. 179: Jim Crace, Paris Review, 2003
• Certitude: A Profusely Illustrated Guide to Blockheads and Bullheads, Past and Present, Adam Begley, Christopher Hitchens, Illustrator Edward Sorel, HARMONY, 2009, ISBN 978-0-307-40804-4
• "Stendhal in Parma, Italy", The New York Times, December 27, 2009
• The Art of Fiction No. 204: David Mitchell, Paris Review, 2010
• Updike, Adam Begley, Harper-Collins, New York, 2014, ISBN 978-0-06-189645-3
• The Great Nadar, Adam Begley, Tim Duggan Books, New York, 2017, ISBN 978-1-10-190260-8