Rich Cohen (author)
Encyclopedia
Rich Cohen is an American
non-fiction
writer. He is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair
and Rolling Stone
magazines. He lives in New York City
.
, Illinois
, and grew up in Chicago
's North Shore
suburb of Glencoe
. He received his BA
from Tulane University
in 1990. His father, the negotiator Herb Cohen, grew up with the broadcaster Larry King
; Cohen worked on King's CNN
show for a short time after graduation. His sister, Sharon Cohen Levin, is an Assistant United States Attorney of the Southern District of New York.
A.J. Liebling, Ian Frazier
and Joseph Mitchell
, Cohen took a job as a messenger at the offices of The New Yorker
magazine, where he published twelve stories in the "Talk of the Town" section in eighteen months. After working as a reporter for The New York Observer, Cohen joined the staff of Rolling Stone
in 1994. Since 2007, he has been a contributing editor at Vanity Fair
.
account of the Jewish gangsters of 1930s Brooklyn
—in 1998. In The New York Times
, writer Vincent Patrick
called the book "marvelous," with "writing good enough to cause one, at times, to reread a page in order to savor the description."
His second work, The Avengers: A Jewish War Story (2000), follows a group of anti-Nazi partisans
in the forests of Lithuania
at the close of World War II
. The book was excerpted in Newsweek
. Publishers Weekly
called the non-fiction work "a terrific narrative of courage and tenacity," and The Washington Post
called it "a tremendous story."
Cohen's 2006 book Sweet and Low is a memoir about the creation of the artificial sweetener
, a product invented by Benjamin Eisenstadt
, the author's grandfather. Newsweek praised the book as "sad, true and hilarious"; The Washington Post called it "superb," and "a wildly addictive, high-octane narrative". Writing in The New York Times, critic
Michiko Kakutani
called the book "a classic"—"a telling—and often hilarious—parable about the pursuit and costs of the American Dream."
In 2009, Cohen published Israel is Real: An Obsessive Quest to Understand the Jewish Nation and its History. In The New York Times Book Review
, the writer Tony Horwitz
said the book "accomplished the miraculous. It made a subject that has vexed me since childhood into a riveting story."
announced it had closed a deal to produce The Long Play, a screenplay Cohen had written for Mick Jagger
and director Martin Scorsese
, with Scorsese directing.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
non-fiction
Non-fiction
Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
writer. He is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
and Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazines. He lives in 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...
.
Background and education
Cohen was born in Lake ForestLake Forest, Illinois
Lake Forest is an affluent city located in Lake County, Illinois, United States. The city is south of Waukegan along the shore of Lake Michigan, and is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area and the North Shore. Lake Forest was founded around Lake Forest College and was laid out as a town in...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, and grew up in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
's North Shore
North Shore (Chicago)
The North Shore is a term that refers to the generally affluent suburbs north of Chicago, Illinois bordering the shore of Lake Michigan.- History :Europeans settled the area sparsely after an 1833 treaty with local Native Americans...
suburb of Glencoe
Glencoe, Illinois
Glencoe is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, the village population was 8,723. Glencoe is located on suburban Chicago's North Shore. Glencoe is located within the New Trier High School District. Glencoe is regarded as one of the most affluent suburbs on...
. He received his BA
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
from Tulane University
Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
in 1990. His father, the negotiator Herb Cohen, grew up with the broadcaster Larry King
Larry King
Lawrence Harvey "Larry" King is an American television and radio host whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys and ten Cable ACE Awards....
; Cohen worked on King's CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
show for a short time after graduation. His sister, Sharon Cohen Levin, is an Assistant United States Attorney of the Southern District of New York.
Journalism
An admirer of the works of journalistsJournalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
A.J. Liebling, Ian Frazier
Ian Frazier
Ian Frazier is an American writer and humorist. He is best known for his 1989 non-fiction history Great Plains, his acclaimed 2010 best-selling opus Travels in Siberia, and as a writer and humorist for The New Yorker....
and Joseph Mitchell
Joseph Mitchell
Joseph Mitchell was an American writer best known for the work he published in The New Yorker. He is known for his carefully written portraits of eccentrics and people on the fringes of society, especially in and around New York City.Mitchell was born on his maternal grandparents' farm near...
, Cohen took a job as a messenger at the offices of The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
magazine, where he published twelve stories in the "Talk of the Town" section in eighteen months. After working as a reporter for The New York Observer, Cohen joined the staff of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
in 1994. Since 2007, he has been a contributing editor at Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
.
Books
Cohen published his first book Tough Jews—a non-fictionNon-fiction
Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
account of the Jewish gangsters of 1930s Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
—in 1998. In The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, writer Vincent Patrick
Vincent Patrick
Vincent Patrick is the author of the cult crime novels The Pope of Greenwich Village and Family Business. He adapted both novels for the screen. The Pope of Greenwich Village, starring Mickey Rourke, was released in 1984...
called the book "marvelous," with "writing good enough to cause one, at times, to reread a page in order to savor the description."
His second work, The Avengers: A Jewish War Story (2000), follows a group of anti-Nazi partisans
Jewish partisans
Jewish partisans were fighters in irregular military groups participating in the Jewish resistance movement against Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II....
in the forests of Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
at the close of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The book was excerpted in Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
. Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
called the non-fiction work "a terrific narrative of courage and tenacity," and The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
called it "a tremendous story."
Cohen's 2006 book Sweet and Low is a memoir about the creation of the artificial sweetener
Sweet'N Low
Sweet'n Low is a brand of artificial sweetener from granulated saccharin, dextrose and cream of tartar. It was invented and first introduced in 1957 by Benjamin Eisenstadt and his son, Marvin Eisenstadt...
, a product invented by Benjamin Eisenstadt
Benjamin Eisenstadt
Benjamin Eisenstadt designer the modern sugar packets and developed Sweet'N Low. He was the founder of the Cumberland Packing Corporation.-Biography:...
, the author's grandfather. Newsweek praised the book as "sad, true and hilarious"; The Washington Post called it "superb," and "a wildly addictive, high-octane narrative". Writing in The New York Times, critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
Michiko Kakutani
Michiko Kakutani
is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for The New York Times and is considered by many to be a leading literary critic in the United States.-Life and career:...
called the book "a classic"—"a telling—and often hilarious—parable about the pursuit and costs of the American Dream."
In 2009, Cohen published Israel is Real: An Obsessive Quest to Understand the Jewish Nation and its History. In The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...
, the writer Tony Horwitz
Tony Horwitz
Tony Horwitz is an American journalist and writer. His works include Blue Latitudes or Into the Blue, One for the Road, Confederates In The Attic, Baghdad Without A Map, and A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World. His next book Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked...
said the book "accomplished the miraculous. It made a subject that has vexed me since childhood into a riveting story."
Screenplays
On February 26, 2007, Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
announced it had closed a deal to produce The Long Play, a screenplay Cohen had written for Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
and director Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
, with Scorsese directing.
Non-Fiction
- Tough Jews (1998)
- The Avengers (2000)
- The Record Men (2004)
- Sweet and Low (2006)
- Israel is Real (2009)
External links
- Rich Cohen - Website
- Rich Cohen on All Things Considered
- Rich Cohen on NPR's The Leonard Lopate Show 2006
- Rich Cohen on NPR's The Leonard Lopate Show 2005
- Rich Cohen articles at Byliner
- The Avengers Excerpt, Newsweek Magazine
- Rich Cohen Author Page, Random House
- Rich Cohen Author Page, Barnes and Noble