Jerome Charyn
Encyclopedia
Jerome Charyn is an award-winning American author
. With nearly 50 published works, Charyn has earned a long-standing reputation as an inventive and prolific chronicler of real and imagined American life. Michael Chabon calls him “one of the most important writers in American literature.”
New York Newsday
hailed Charyn as “a contemporary American Balzac,” and the Los Angeles Times
described him as “absolutely unique among American writers.”
Since the 1964 release of Charyn’s first novel, Once Upon a Droshky, he has published 30 novels, three memoirs, eight graphic novels, two books about film, short stories, plays and works of non-fiction. Two of his memoirs were named New York Times Book of the Year. Charyn has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
. He received the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has been named Commander of Arts and Letter (Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
) by the French Minister of Culture.
Charyn was Distinguished Professor of Film Studies at the American University of Paris
until 2009, when he retired from teaching.
In addition to his writing and teaching, Charyn is a tournament table tennis player, once ranked in the top 10 percent of players in France
. Noted novelist Don DeLillo
called Charyn’s book on table tennis, Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins, "The Sun Also Rises of ping-pong."
Charyn lives in Paris
and New York City
.
, where he studied history and comparative literature with a focus on Russian literature, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and cum laude (BA, 1959).
, the Bronx, San Francisco, Los Angeles
, Palo Alto, California
, Houston, Austin, Texas
, Paris and Barcelona
. He currently divides his time between New York and Paris. In Paris, despite teaching at the American University for 14 years, he refused to master French, fearful of its effect on “the rhythm [of my native speech], even though French words creep into your vocabulary. I don't want my music interfered with.”
, popularized in the movie Fame.
Charyn lectured in English at the City College of New York
in 1965. He was assistant professor of English at Stanford University
from 1966 to 1968. In 1968, Charyn joined Noam Chomsky, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Gloria Steinem, William Styron, Kurt Vonnegut, Joan Baez, Allen Ginsburg, Susan Sontag, Thomas Pynchon, Henry Miller, James Baldwin and more than 400 others in signing the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. He served as a visiting professor in colleges across the country, including Rice University
in 1979 and Princeton University
, from 1981 until 1986. From 1988 to 1989, Charyn was Distinguished Professor at the City College of New York
.
From 1995 to 2008, Charyn taught film at American University of Paris
, where he is Distinguished Professor emeritus.
One of Charyn’s best-known protagonists is Isaac Sidel, a Jewish New York detective turned mayor, and the subject of ten novels, including Blue Eyes and The Good Policeman. Charyn’s brother, Harvey, a homicide detective with the NYPD, added authenticity to this popular series. In 1991, Charyn co-produced and co-wrote a TV pilot based on The Good Policemen, starring the late Ron Silver
as Isaac Sidel. The Sidel books are currently being re-imagined as graphic novels in France.
Charyn's eight graphic novels were written with the very best European artists, including Jacques de Loustal
and José Antonio Muñoz, winner of the 2007 Angoulême Grand Prix
. Much of his writing in this genre was influenced by the comic books he devoured as a child. Charyn himself says comic books helped him learn to read.
Charyn's books have been translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Chinese and 11 other languages.
He is represented by the literary agency headed by Georges Borchardt
.
His personal papers are held by the Fales Library
at New York University
.
’s voice and surrounding her with invented characters. The New York Times said this “fits neatly into the flourishing genre of literary body-snatching.” In the San Francisco Chronicle, the novel was called a “bodice-ripper.”
Other critics saw the work as a magical tour de force. Joyce Carol Oates
, writing in The New York Review of Books, said: “Of literary sleights of hand none is more exhilarating for the writer, as none is likely to be riskier, than the appropriation of another—classic—writer’s voice.” In the Globe and Mail, reviewer William Kowalski
wrote: “I had hoped that there was someone like Dickinson out there. My one regret, after finding her, was that I would never get to make her acquaintance. No doubt millions of others feel the same. It’s for us that Jerome Charyn has written this book.”
On May 1, 2011, The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson was named a "Must-Read" book by the Massachusetts Center for the Book
and selected as finalist for its annual book award in the fiction category.
In The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, Charyn attempts to bring America’s greatest female poet to life by transforming himself into Emily Dickinson. Assuming her voice, he narrates Dickinson’s “secret life” to the reader, delving into her childhood, romantic involvements, even her final illness and death.
Charyn says he drew inspiration for his novel from Emily Dickinson’s letters and poems. He says of Dickinson: “I am fascinated by her writing and the kind of power she had. Where it came from, I don't think we'll ever know.”
, to write an essay about their former colleague and friend Donald Barthelme
. The project evolved into a lengthy article, which offers a sort of collage of these three writers and the world of their influences. The work is divided into three parts - an introductory essay on the project by editor-in-chief Iris Smyles, Charyn's essay on Barthelme, and Tuten's piece My Autobiography: Portable with Images. The work also features photos of the three writers and their work, as well as quotes from Barthelme himself.
On the Darkening Green, McGraw-Hill, 1965
The Man Who Grew Younger, Harper & Row, 1967
Going To Jerusalem, Viking, 1967
American Scrapbook, Viking, 1969
Eisenhower, My Eisenhower, Holt, 1971
The Tar Baby, Holt, 1973
Blue Eyes, Simon & Schuster, 1975
Marilyn the Wild, Arbor House, 1976
The Education of Patrick Silver, Arbor House, 1976
The Franklin Scare, Arbor House, 1977
Secret Isaac, Arbor House, 1978
The Seventh Babe, Arbor House, 1979
The Catfish Man, Arbor House, 1980
Darlin’ Bill, Arbor House, 1980
Panna Maria, Arbor House, 1982
Pinocchio’s Nose, Arbor House, 1983
War Cries Over Avenue C, Donald I. Fine, 1985
Paradise Man, Donald I. Fine, 1987
The Good Policeman, Mysterious Press, 1990
Elsinore, Warner Books, 1991
Maria’s Girls, Warner Books, 1992
Back to Bataan, Farrar, Straus (for younger readers), 1993
Montezuma’s Man, Warner Books, 1993
Little Angel Street, Warner Books, 1995
El Bronx, Warner Books, 1997
Death of a Tango King, New York University Press, 1998
Captain Kidd, St. Martin’s Press, 1999
Hurricane Lady, Warner Books, 2001
The Isaac Quartet, Four Walls Eight Windows, 2002
The Green Lantern, Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2004
Johnny One-Eye: A Tale of the American Revolution, Norton, 2008
The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, Norton, 2010
Family Man, art by Joe Staton, lettering by Ken Bruzenak, Paradox Press, 1995
"The Blue Book of Crime,” in The New Black Mask, Harcourt Brace, 1986
"Fantomas in New York", in A Matter of Crime, Harcourt Brace, 1988
“Young Isaac,” in The Armchair Detective, 1990
“Lorelei” in Atlantic Monthly Summer Fiction Issue, Summer, 2010 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/08/lorelei/8038
“Silk & Silk” Narrative Magazine's Story of the Week, October, 2010 http://www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/stories-week-2010%E2%80%932011/silk-silk
“Adonis” in The American Scholar, Winter, 2011 Issue
“Little Sister” in Atlantic Monthly Fiction Issue 2011 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/08/little-sister/8581/
“Alice's Eyes” in American Short Fiction Summer 2011 http://www.americanshortfiction.org/
Movieland: Hollywood and the Great American Dream Culture, Putnam’s, 1989, New York University Press, 1996
The Dark Lady from Belorusse, St. Martin’s Press, 1997
The Black Swan, St. Martin’s Press, 2000
Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins: Ping-Pong and the Art of Staying Alive, Four Walls Eight Windows, 2001
Bronx Boy, St. Martin’s Press, 2002
Gangsters & Gold Diggers: Old New York, the Jazz Age, and the Birth of Broadway, Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003
Savage Shorthand: The Life and Death of Isaac Babel, Random House, 2005
Inside the Hornet’s Head: an anthology of Jewish American Writing, Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2005
Raised by Wolves: The Turbulent Art and Times of Quentin Tarantino, Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2005
Marilyn: The Last Goddess [an illustrated biography of Marilyn Monroe], Abrams, 2008
Joe DiMaggio: The Long Vigil, Yale University Press, American Icon series, March, 2011
Empire State Building, co-writer, semi-fictional documentary broadcast by Canal Plus, (France 2008)
Editor, The Troubled Vision: An Anthology of Contemporary Short Novels and Passages. New York, Collier, 1970
Editor, The New Mystery. New York, Dutton, 1993
Polar (Paris) summer 1995 issue, devoted to Jerome Charyn
Air France Magazine cover story on novel Citizen Side, August 1997
"Notes on the Rhetoric of Anti-Realist Fiction" by Albert Guerard, in Tri-Quarterly (Evanston, Illinois), Spring 1974
"Jerome Charyn: Artist as Mytholept" by Robert L. Patten, in Novel (Providence, Rhode Island), Fall, 1984
"Exploding the Genre: The Crime Fiction of Jerome Charyn" by Michael Woolf, in American Crime Fiction, London, Macmillan, 1988
Rosenthal Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1981
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in Fiction, 1983
Prix Alfred, Angoulême, 1986 (for graphic novel, La Femme du Magicien)
Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (French Minister of Culture – 1989)
Fiction Prize, Deauville Festival of American Cinema, 1995
Officier des Arts et des Lettres (French Minister of Culture – 1998)
Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres (French Minister of Culture – 2002)
Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, 2005 (for The Green Lantern)
Finalist for Massachusetts Center for the Book Fiction Award, 2011 (for The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson)
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
. With nearly 50 published works, Charyn has earned a long-standing reputation as an inventive and prolific chronicler of real and imagined American life. Michael Chabon calls him “one of the most important writers in American literature.”
New York Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
hailed Charyn as “a contemporary American Balzac,” and the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
described him as “absolutely unique among American writers.”
Since the 1964 release of Charyn’s first novel, Once Upon a Droshky, he has published 30 novels, three memoirs, eight graphic novels, two books about film, short stories, plays and works of non-fiction. Two of his memoirs were named New York Times Book of the Year. Charyn has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living American citizens. The winner receives US $15,000 and each of four runners-up receives US $5000. The foundation brings the winner and runners-up to...
. He received the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has been named Commander of Arts and Letter (Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...
) by the French Minister of Culture.
Charyn was Distinguished Professor of Film Studies at the American University of Paris
American University of Paris
The American University of Paris is a private, independent, and accredited liberal arts and sciences university in Paris, France. Founded in 1962, the university is one of the oldest American institutions of higher education in Europe...
until 2009, when he retired from teaching.
In addition to his writing and teaching, Charyn is a tournament table tennis player, once ranked in the top 10 percent of players in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Noted novelist Don DeLillo
Don DeLillo
Don DeLillo is an American author, playwright, and occasional essayist whose work paints a detailed portrait of American life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries...
called Charyn’s book on table tennis, Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins, "The Sun Also Rises of ping-pong."
Charyn lives in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Early life
Charyn was born in the Bronx to Sam and Fanny (Paley) Charyn. In order to escape its mean streets, Charyn immersed himself in comic books and cinema. Books were scarce in the Charyn household, save for volume “A” of the Book of Knowledge. After becoming all too well versed in astronomy and aardvarks, Charyn hungered for more. He attended The High School of Music and Art in Manhattan, majoring in painting. Turning from painting to literature, Charyn enrolled at Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, where he studied history and comparative literature with a focus on Russian literature, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and cum laude (BA, 1959).
Later life
Charyn has left footprints all over the globe, living in Greenwich VillageGreenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
, the Bronx, San Francisco, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
, Houston, Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, Paris and Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
. He currently divides his time between New York and Paris. In Paris, despite teaching at the American University for 14 years, he refused to master French, fearful of its effect on “the rhythm [of my native speech], even though French words creep into your vocabulary. I don't want my music interfered with.”
Teaching career
From 1962 through 1964, Charyn taught at his alma mater, Manhattan’s High School of Music and Art, and at High School of Performing ArtsHigh School of Performing Arts
The High School of Performing Arts, more formally known as The School of Performing Arts: A Division of the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, informally known as "PA", was a public alternative high school in New York, New York, USA that existed from 1948 through...
, popularized in the movie Fame.
Charyn lectured in English at the City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
in 1965. He was assistant professor of English at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
from 1966 to 1968. In 1968, Charyn joined Noam Chomsky, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Gloria Steinem, William Styron, Kurt Vonnegut, Joan Baez, Allen Ginsburg, Susan Sontag, Thomas Pynchon, Henry Miller, James Baldwin and more than 400 others in signing the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. He served as a visiting professor in colleges across the country, including Rice University
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...
in 1979 and Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, from 1981 until 1986. From 1988 to 1989, Charyn was Distinguished Professor at the City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
.
From 1995 to 2008, Charyn taught film at American University of Paris
American University of Paris
The American University of Paris is a private, independent, and accredited liberal arts and sciences university in Paris, France. Founded in 1962, the university is one of the oldest American institutions of higher education in Europe...
, where he is Distinguished Professor emeritus.
Literary career
Charyn often returns to his native Bronx in many of his writings, including a book appropriately named El Bronx. Michael Woolf, who wrote Exploding the Genre: The Crime Fiction of Jerome Charyn, says of Charyn: “Of all the novelists characterized as Jewish-American, Charyn is the most radical and inventive. There is in the body of his work a restless creativity which constantly surprises and repeatedly undermines the reader's expectation."One of Charyn’s best-known protagonists is Isaac Sidel, a Jewish New York detective turned mayor, and the subject of ten novels, including Blue Eyes and The Good Policeman. Charyn’s brother, Harvey, a homicide detective with the NYPD, added authenticity to this popular series. In 1991, Charyn co-produced and co-wrote a TV pilot based on The Good Policemen, starring the late Ron Silver
Ron Silver
Ronald Arthur "Ron" Silver was an American actor, director, producer, radio host and political activist.-Early life:...
as Isaac Sidel. The Sidel books are currently being re-imagined as graphic novels in France.
Charyn's eight graphic novels were written with the very best European artists, including Jacques de Loustal
Jacques de Loustal
Jacques de Loustal is a French comics artist who uses a painterly style reminiscent of David Hockney.-Biography:...
and José Antonio Muñoz, winner of the 2007 Angoulême Grand Prix
Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême
Every year, the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême is awarded during the Angoulême International Comics Festival to an author for his body of work and/or for his achievement in the evolution of comics....
. Much of his writing in this genre was influenced by the comic books he devoured as a child. Charyn himself says comic books helped him learn to read.
Charyn's books have been translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Chinese and 11 other languages.
He is represented by the literary agency headed by Georges Borchardt
Georges Borchardt
Georges Borchardt is a well-respected literary agent in America; he has represented figures ranging from General Charles de Gaulle to Jane Fonda.-Early life:...
.
His personal papers are held by the Fales Library
Fales Library
New York University's Fales Library and Special Collections is located on the third floor of the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library at 70 Washington Square South between LaGuardia Place and the Schwartz Plaza, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It houses nearly 200,000...
at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
.
"The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson" - W. W. Norton, 2010
The publication of this novel stirred a great deal of controversy. Some critics felt that Charyn was much too brazen in writing in Emily DickinsonEmily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
’s voice and surrounding her with invented characters. The New York Times said this “fits neatly into the flourishing genre of literary body-snatching.” In the San Francisco Chronicle, the novel was called a “bodice-ripper.”
Other critics saw the work as a magical tour de force. Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates is an American author. Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published over fifty novels, as well as many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction...
, writing in The New York Review of Books, said: “Of literary sleights of hand none is more exhilarating for the writer, as none is likely to be riskier, than the appropriation of another—classic—writer’s voice.” In the Globe and Mail, reviewer William Kowalski
William Kowalski
William John Kowalski III is an American novelist and screenwriter.-Youth:Kowalski is the eldest child of Dr. William John Kowalski, Jr. of Buffalo, N.Y. and Kathleen Emily Siepel of Angola, N.Y. . In 1974, the family moved to Erie, Pennsylvania...
wrote: “I had hoped that there was someone like Dickinson out there. My one regret, after finding her, was that I would never get to make her acquaintance. No doubt millions of others feel the same. It’s for us that Jerome Charyn has written this book.”
On May 1, 2011, The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson was named a "Must-Read" book by the Massachusetts Center for the Book
Massachusetts Center for the Book
The Massachusetts Center for the Book is the Commonwealth's affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.-National and state Centers for the Book:...
and selected as finalist for its annual book award in the fiction category.
In The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, Charyn attempts to bring America’s greatest female poet to life by transforming himself into Emily Dickinson. Assuming her voice, he narrates Dickinson’s “secret life” to the reader, delving into her childhood, romantic involvements, even her final illness and death.
Charyn says he drew inspiration for his novel from Emily Dickinson’s letters and poems. He says of Dickinson: “I am fascinated by her writing and the kind of power she had. Where it came from, I don't think we'll ever know.”
"The Collagists"
In 2007 Charyn was asked by literary website Smyles and Fish, along with lifelong friend, novelist Frederic TutenFrederic Tuten
Frederic Tuten is an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. He has written five novels – The Adventures of Mao on the Long March , Tallien: A Brief Romance , Tintin in the New World: A Romance , Van Gogh's Bad Café and The Green Hour – as well as one book of inter-related short...
, to write an essay about their former colleague and friend Donald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme was an American author known for his playful, postmodernist style of short fiction. Barthelme also worked as a newspaper reporter for the Houston Post, managing editor of Location magazine, director of the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston , co-founder of Fiction Donald...
. The project evolved into a lengthy article, which offers a sort of collage of these three writers and the world of their influences. The work is divided into three parts - an introductory essay on the project by editor-in-chief Iris Smyles, Charyn's essay on Barthelme, and Tuten's piece My Autobiography: Portable with Images. The work also features photos of the three writers and their work, as well as quotes from Barthelme himself.
Fiction
Once upon a Droshky, McGraw-Hill, 1964On the Darkening Green, McGraw-Hill, 1965
The Man Who Grew Younger, Harper & Row, 1967
Going To Jerusalem, Viking, 1967
American Scrapbook, Viking, 1969
Eisenhower, My Eisenhower, Holt, 1971
The Tar Baby, Holt, 1973
Blue Eyes, Simon & Schuster, 1975
Marilyn the Wild, Arbor House, 1976
The Education of Patrick Silver, Arbor House, 1976
The Franklin Scare, Arbor House, 1977
Secret Isaac, Arbor House, 1978
The Seventh Babe, Arbor House, 1979
The Catfish Man, Arbor House, 1980
Darlin’ Bill, Arbor House, 1980
Panna Maria, Arbor House, 1982
Pinocchio’s Nose, Arbor House, 1983
War Cries Over Avenue C, Donald I. Fine, 1985
Paradise Man, Donald I. Fine, 1987
The Good Policeman, Mysterious Press, 1990
Elsinore, Warner Books, 1991
Maria’s Girls, Warner Books, 1992
Back to Bataan, Farrar, Straus (for younger readers), 1993
Montezuma’s Man, Warner Books, 1993
Little Angel Street, Warner Books, 1995
El Bronx, Warner Books, 1997
Death of a Tango King, New York University Press, 1998
Captain Kidd, St. Martin’s Press, 1999
Hurricane Lady, Warner Books, 2001
The Isaac Quartet, Four Walls Eight Windows, 2002
The Green Lantern, Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2004
Johnny One-Eye: A Tale of the American Revolution, Norton, 2008
The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, Norton, 2010
Short stories and collections (selected)
The Man Who Grew Younger and Other Stories, Harper, 1967Family Man, art by Joe Staton, lettering by Ken Bruzenak, Paradox Press, 1995
"The Blue Book of Crime,” in The New Black Mask, Harcourt Brace, 1986
"Fantomas in New York", in A Matter of Crime, Harcourt Brace, 1988
“Young Isaac,” in The Armchair Detective, 1990
“Lorelei” in Atlantic Monthly Summer Fiction Issue, Summer, 2010 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/08/lorelei/8038
“Silk & Silk” Narrative Magazine's Story of the Week, October, 2010 http://www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/stories-week-2010%E2%80%932011/silk-silk
“Adonis” in The American Scholar, Winter, 2011 Issue
“Little Sister” in Atlantic Monthly Fiction Issue 2011 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/08/little-sister/8581/
“Alice's Eyes” in American Short Fiction Summer 2011 http://www.americanshortfiction.org/
Non-fiction
Metropolis: New York as Myth, Marketplace and Magical Land, Putnam’s, 1986Movieland: Hollywood and the Great American Dream Culture, Putnam’s, 1989, New York University Press, 1996
The Dark Lady from Belorusse, St. Martin’s Press, 1997
The Black Swan, St. Martin’s Press, 2000
Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins: Ping-Pong and the Art of Staying Alive, Four Walls Eight Windows, 2001
Bronx Boy, St. Martin’s Press, 2002
Gangsters & Gold Diggers: Old New York, the Jazz Age, and the Birth of Broadway, Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003
Savage Shorthand: The Life and Death of Isaac Babel, Random House, 2005
Inside the Hornet’s Head: an anthology of Jewish American Writing, Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2005
Raised by Wolves: The Turbulent Art and Times of Quentin Tarantino, Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2005
Marilyn: The Last Goddess [an illustrated biography of Marilyn Monroe], Abrams, 2008
Joe DiMaggio: The Long Vigil, Yale University Press, American Icon series, March, 2011
Selected plays and documentaries
George (three-act play) developed at the Actors Studio, under Arthur Penn, staged readings at La Maison des Ecrivains (Paris 1988) and Ubu Repertory Theater (NY 1990)Empire State Building, co-writer, semi-fictional documentary broadcast by Canal Plus, (France 2008)
Editor
Editor, The Single Voice: An Anthology of Contemporary Fiction. New York, Collier, 1969Editor, The Troubled Vision: An Anthology of Contemporary Short Novels and Passages. New York, Collier, 1970
Editor, The New Mystery. New York, Dutton, 1993
Publications about Jerome Charyn
The Review of Contemporary Fiction Summer 1992 issue, devoted to work of Charyn and José DonosoPolar (Paris) summer 1995 issue, devoted to Jerome Charyn
Air France Magazine cover story on novel Citizen Side, August 1997
"Notes on the Rhetoric of Anti-Realist Fiction" by Albert Guerard, in Tri-Quarterly (Evanston, Illinois), Spring 1974
"Jerome Charyn: Artist as Mytholept" by Robert L. Patten, in Novel (Providence, Rhode Island), Fall, 1984
"Exploding the Genre: The Crime Fiction of Jerome Charyn" by Michael Woolf, in American Crime Fiction, London, Macmillan, 1988
Honors
National Endowment for the Arts, Fellowship in Fiction, 1980, 1985Rosenthal Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1981
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in Fiction, 1983
Prix Alfred, Angoulême, 1986 (for graphic novel, La Femme du Magicien)
Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (French Minister of Culture – 1989)
Fiction Prize, Deauville Festival of American Cinema, 1995
Officier des Arts et des Lettres (French Minister of Culture – 1998)
Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres (French Minister of Culture – 2002)
Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, 2005 (for The Green Lantern)
Finalist for Massachusetts Center for the Book Fiction Award, 2011 (for The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson)
Literary archives
Charyn’s manuscripts are housed in the Fales Collection at Elmer Holmes Bobst Library of New York University, since 1993.External links
- The Fales Library Guide to the Jerome Charyn Papers
- Official Website
- "The Collagists" at Smyles & Fish
- Video: Charyn discusses his youth in the Bronx, his love for Paris, and his novel Johnny One-Eye (W. W. Norton, 2008)
- Video: Charyn discusses Emily Dickinson and critical reaction to his novel The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson (W. W. Norton, 2010). (TRT 3:09 min.)
- Video: Charyn discusses Emily Dickinson at Harvard Bookstore, NPR Forum Network Free Lecture (March, 2010)
- Video: Director Naomi Gryn goes back to the Bronx with authors Jerome Charyn and Frederic TutenFrederic TutenFrederic Tuten is an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. He has written five novels – The Adventures of Mao on the Long March , Tallien: A Brief Romance , Tintin in the New World: A Romance , Van Gogh's Bad Café and The Green Hour – as well as one book of inter-related short...
(originally broadcast on Channel 4, BBC, 1993) - Official Page: Charyn’s novel “The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson”
- Official Page: Charyn’s novel “Johnny One-Eye: A Tale of the American Revolution”