Adam Gopnik

Adam Gopnik
Born	August 1956 (age 56) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	Writer, essayist and commentator
Nationality	American
Period	1986–present
Spouse(s)	Martha Parker (2 children)

Adam Gopnik, (born August 24, 1956) is a Canadian-raised American writer, essayist and commentator. He is best known as a staff writer for The New Yorker—to which he has contributed non-fiction, fiction, memoir and criticism—and as the author of the essay collection Paris to the Moon, an account of five years that Gopnik, his wife Martha, and son Luke, spent in the French capital.

Biography

Early years

Gopnik was born in Philadelphia and reared in Montreal. His parents, Irwin and Myrna Gopnik, were professors at McGill University, from which Gopnik graduated (BA). While there, he was a contributor for The McGill Daily. He completed graduate work at the New York University Institute of Fine Arts. In 1986, Gopnik began his long professional association with The New Yorker with a piece that would show his future range, a consideration of connections between baseball, childhood, and Renaissance art. He has written for four editors at the magazine: William Shawn, Robert Gottlieb, Tina Brown, and David Remnick.

Interest in arts

Gopnik studied art history and with his friend Kirk Varnedoe curated the famous 1990 High/Low show at New York's Museum of Modern Art. He later wrote an article for Search Magazine on the connection between religion and art and the compatibility of Christianity and Darwinism. He states in the article that the arts of human history are products of religious thought and that human conduct is not guaranteed by religion or secularism.

Paris and "Paris Journal"

In 1995, The New Yorker dispatched him to Paris to write the "Paris Journals", in which he described life in that city. These essays were later collected and published by Random House in Paris to the Moon, after Gopnik returned to New York City in 2000. The book became a New York Times bestseller.

Personal life

Gopnik lives in New York with his wife, Martha Parker, and two children, Luke and Olivia. His five siblings include Blake Gopnik, the The Daily Beast art critic, and Alison Gopnik, a child psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley (author of The Scientist in the Crib, UK title: How Babies Think).

Books

In addition to 2000's Paris to the Moon, Random House also published the author's reflections on life in New York, and particularly on the comedy of parenting, Through the Children's Gate, in 2006. (As in the earlier memoir, much of the material had appeared previously in The New Yorker.) In 2005 Hyperion Books published his children's novel The King in the Window, about Oliver, an American boy living in Paris, who is mistaken for a mystical king and stumbles upon an ancient battle waged between Window Wraiths and the malicious Master of Mirrors. A book on Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, called Angels And Ages, was published in January 2009. In 2010 Hyperion Books published children's fantasy novel "The Steps Across the Water" which chronicles the adventures of a young girl, Rose, finding in the mystical city of U Nork. In 2011 Gopnik was chosen as the noted speaker for the 50th anniversary of the Canadian Massey Lectures where he delivered five lectures across five Canadian cities on his book Winter: Five Windows on the Season. His most recent book (2011) is "The Table Comes First," about food, cooking and restaurants.

Honors and appearances

A frequent guest on Charlie Rose, Gopnik has been honored with three National Magazine Awards for Essay and Criticism, and a George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting. His entry on the culture of the United States is featured in the Encyclopædia Britannica.

Gopnik recently wrote and presented BBC Four's Lighting Up New York, a cultural journey through the recent history of New York.

Gopnik also participates as a member of the Jury for the NYICFF, a local New York City Film Festival dedicated to screening films for children between the ages of 3 and 18.

Works

Books

• Paris to the Moon (2000), ISBN 0-375-75823-2. excerpt
• (editor) Americans in Paris: A Literary Anthology (2004), ISBN 1-931082-56-1
• The King in the Window (2005)
• Through the Children's Gate: A Home in New York (2006), ISBN 978-1-4000-4181-7. excerpt
• Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life (2009), ISBN 978-0-307-27078-8
• "The Steps Across the Water" (2010), ISBN 978-1-4231-1213-6
• "Winter: Five Windows on the Season" (2011), ISBN 978-0-88784-975-6
• "The Table Comes First: France, Family, and the Meaning of Food" (2011), ISBN 978-0-307-59345-0

Articles

• Gopnik, Adam (December 8, 2008). "The Critics: A Critic at Large: Man of Fetters: Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Thrale". The New Yorker 84 (40): 90–96. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved July 9, 2011. 
• Gopnik, Adam (September 28, 2009). "Talk of the Town: Comment: Read All About It". The New Yorker 85 (30): 21–22. Archived from the original on 9 January 2010. Retrieved February 22, 2010. 
• Gopnik, Adam (March 15, 2010). "Talk of the Town: Bright Ideas: Plant TV". The New Yorker 86 (4): 23–24. Retrieved January 15, 2011. 
• Gopnik, Adam (April 5, 2010). "No Rules!: Is Le Fooding more than a feeling?". The New Yorker 86 (7): 36–41. Archived from the original on 1 April 2010. Retrieved April 2, 2010. 
• Gopnik, Adam (February 14, 2011). "The Information: How the Internet gets inside us.". The New Yorker 87 (1): 124–130. Retrieved February 21, 2011. 
• Gopnik, Adam (January 24, 2012). "The Caging of America.". The New Yorker 88 (1). Retrieved January 24, 2012. 

External links

• Adam Gopnik's personal home page.
• Adam Gopnik interview at Identity Theory.