Jonathan Allen Lethem (born February 19, 1964) is an American novelist, essayist and short story writer. His first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was published in 1994. It was followed by three more science fiction novels.In 1999, Lethem published Motherless Brooklyn, a National Book Critics Circle Award-winning novel that achieved mainstream success. In 2003, he published The Fortress of Solitude, which became a New York Times Best Seller. In 2005, he received a MacArthur Fellowship.
I grew up in a very borderline Brooklyn neighborhood. It was in decline in the early '70s, and has very slowly been gentrified. My parents were part of the first wave: bohemians, radicals and artists, the typical people who reclaim borderline neighborhoods.
2
[of his time spent in Berkeley, California:] "If you asked me then, I would have said I'd be working at bookstores until I was 45. You have to understand -- all my heroes were dark horses. They all had embattled careers because of genre prejudice, something I've had the good fortune to be spared. It's like I'm standing on their shoulders. I sort of feel Philip K. Dick died for my sins."
#
Fact
1
Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, vol. 138, pages 283-286. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.
2
American novelist and short story writer, winner of many awards, including the National Book Critic's Circle Award for his 2000 novel Motherless Brooklyn.
3
The April 21, 1997, issue of Newsweek included Lethem as one of "100 People for the New Century" -- a list in which he was the only novelist.
4
He is a fan of baseball.
5
Has a brother and a sister, both younger. His sister Mara is a photographer. His brother Blake is a graffiti artist.
6
Winner of Gold Dagger for Crime Writing in 2000
7
He grew up on Dean Street in Brooklyn, New York, and returned to live there after many years in San Francisco, three blocks from the townhouse where he spent his childhood.
8
Attended Bennington College at the same time as Bret Easton Ellis, novelist Jill Eisenstadt, novelist Joseph Clark, novelist Donna Tartt, and scriptwriter Matthew Weiss.
9
American novelist and short story writer, winner of the World Fantasy Award, the Gold Dagger, and the National Book Critic's Circle Award.
$800,000
