Max Watman is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author

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:...

. Born in Shenandoah Valley

Shenandoah Valley

The Shenandoah Valley is both a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians , to the north by the Potomac River...

, Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

, he holds degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University

Virginia Commonwealth University

Virginia Commonwealth University is a public university located in Richmond, Virginia. It comprises two campuses in the Downtown Richmond area, the product of a merger between the Richmond Professional Institute and the Medical College of Virginia in 1968...

 and Columbia University

Columbia 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...

, and currently lives in Hudson Valley

Hudson Valley

The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy.-History:...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

with his wife and son. He has published two books of nonfiction, both concerned with the American history of activities historically considered vices. Race Day: A Spot on the Rail with Max Watman (2005, Ivan R. Dee) is an episodic history of horse racing while Chasing the White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw's Adventures in Moonshine (2010, Simon & Schuster) discusses the two-hundred-year-old practice of illegal distillation of spirits.

Work available online

• As a book reviewer for The New Criterion, (2000–07)
• As racing correspondent for the New York Sun (2006–2008)
• As a contributor to the Huffington Post (2010-)

External links

• Max Watman's page at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Max-Watman/e/B001K8JXI6
• Library Journal review of Chasing the White Dog http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6700357.html?industryid=47124
• Drink Spirits review of Chasing the White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw’s Adventures in Moonshine