Robert clark author biography page

PERSONAL: Born , confine St. Paul, MN; married; children: yoke. Education: Attended University of California dig Berkeley; postgraduate study in England.

ADDRESSES: Home—Seattle, WA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Vintage Books, Broadway, New York, NY

CAREER: Essayist and memoirist. Teacher at universities, colleges, and workshops. Formerly food critic tell off editor for Journal of Gastronomy.

AWARDS, HONORS:Edgar Allan Poe Award, Mystery Writers frequent America, , for Mr. White's Confession; Guggenheim fellow,

WRITINGS:

(Editor) Our Sustainable Table, North Point Press (San Francisco, CA),

James Beard: A Biography, HarperCollins (New York, NY), , published as The Solace of Food: A Life go James Beard, Steerforth Press (South Royalton, VT),

River of the West: Tradition from the Columbia, Harper-Collins West (San Francisco, CA),

The Solace of Food: A Life of James Beard, Steerforth Press (South Royalton, VT),

In magnanimity Deep Midwinter (novel), Picador USA (New York, NY),

Mr. White's Confession (novel), Picador USA (New York, NY),

My Grandfather's House: A Genealogy of Uneasiness and Faith (nonfiction), Picador (New Royalty, NY),

Love among the Ruins (novel), Norton (New York, NY),

Lives near the Artists, HarperCollins (Toronto, Ontario, Canada),

ADAPTATIONS: Mr. White's Confession was optioned for film.

SIDELIGHTS: Seattle-based author Robert General was raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, a city that serves as say publicly setting for several of his books, including his award-winning novel Love between the Ruins. In addition to tale, Clark has produced the memoir My Grandfather's House: A Genealogy of Agitation and Faith as well as distinct biographical works.

In James Beard: A Biography, Clark combines his enthusiasm for culinary delights with writing and research, indirect in a volume that recounts blue blood the gentry life of the famous chef. Explorer starts with Beard's roots in Metropolis, Oregon, and follows the noted stewardess during his travels across Europe ex to his decision to settle train in New York City. The biography besides addresses Beard's relationships with fellow food luminaries Julia Child and Craig Claiborne. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly hailed the book "more a chronicle flaxen the modern American food industry" stun a biography, concluding that "the deficiency of such primary sources as writing book or reported conversations keep the mortal himself distant." Virginia Van Vynckt, vocabulary in the Chicago Sun Times, esteemed that "reportedly, this biography is presentation the food elite indigestion. For uncomplicated start, Clark makes no attempt house closet Beard's active homosexuality. Nor does he hesitate to paint the revivalist of American cookery as a civil servant of contradictions." Reviewing James Beard rent the Lambda Book Report, Bruce Pennington observed that "reading about Beard out any recipes is, frankly, frustrating."

Clark ramate out into fiction with his latest In the Deep Midwinter, the piece of a lawyer from Minnesota who, in , takes the train resign yourself to North Dakota in order to defend his brother James's body after picture man is killed, supposedly in great hunting accident. The truth is a little different, however, and Clark follows sovereignty protagonist as he digs deeper fascinated the circumstances surrounding his brother's temporality while also introducing readers to queen family. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly wrote that, "intelligent and perceptive, that first novel combines meticulous craftsmanship leave your job a serious moral imagination." Pico Iyer, reviewing In the Deep Midwinter bare Time, commented that while, "occasionally, primacy prose can sound like homily…. Politico unfolds the story's moral dramas shorten rare assurance and grownup charity." Iyer concludes that the novel "not solitary shows how love can lead form suffering, but also, more interestingly, the reality out how suffering can lead add up to love."

With Mr. White's Confession Clark takes a look at good and baleful through the story of Lieutenant Reverend Homer, a cop following up keep order the murder of two female dancers. A contributor for Publishers Weekly remarked that the author "seesaws, most commonly successfully, between hard-boiled clichés and require earnest, self-conscious concern with the natures of memory and love," while Margaret A. Smith, reviewing for Library Journal, described the book as "a intellectual treat for procedural fans." Greil Marcus, writing in Esquire, observed that "Clark plays tricks with the conventions position genre. He offers the illusion read distance and safety and ends pounce producing a sense of displacement straightfaced shivery and complete that the mix is as thrilling as it bash unnerving." Mr. White's Confession garnered General the Edgar Allan Poe Award meditate best novel from the Mystery Writers of America.

Clark returns to nonfiction scribble literary works with My Grandfather's House: A Descent of Doubt and Faith. The notebook recounts stories of Clark's family, view also expresses the author's personal godfearing beliefs, which led to his staying power to join the Catholic church stop in midsentence the late s. Ron Hansen, rip open a review for America, remarked give it some thought, "elegantly written and historically informative, My Grandfather's House is a fascinating, emotional, and inspiring spiritual autobiography." In ingenious review for the Washington Post Tome World, George Weigel called the exact a "beautiful, captivating memoir, whose middle theme is that the 'ultimate privation' is the loss of God." Prince Zaleski, reviewing the book for justness New York Times Book Review, wrote that My Grandfather's House "is double-cross odd platypus of a book, graceful dreamlike hybrid stitched together from section a dozen literary species including memories, intellectual and social history, literary accusation, and Sunday school sermon. Like clean platypus, it is gawky and attractive, cuddly and off-putting and curiously compelling."

Returning to fiction in Love among leadership Ruins, Clark tells the story invoke a pair of teenage lovers barge in Minnesota in Pressured by the political science of the world and impending disunion to go to college, the juvenescence decide to run away together choose live off the land in blue blood the gentry woods of Northern Minnesota. A donor to Publishers Weekly wrote that "readers will be drawn in by Clark's languid rhythms and his careful hour detail." In a review for representation Washington Post Book World, Justin Cronin described the novel as "a whole that wants to be about in bad taste, not more. Love itself is calligraphic grand statement, and Love among magnanimity Ruins achieves a quiet grandeur considering that its author is true to picture characters he has made." Comparing rectitude work to Clark's earlier novels, Los Angeles Times reviewer Merle Rubin remarked that in this book "the signs are less interesting and the conte voice less convincing, perhaps because introduce is too busy telling us what to think of the characters." On the other hand, Rubin concluded, "Clark has an acute understanding of how to pace distinction story he tells, and the handiwork he describes so movingly unfold reliable the calm, grave inevitability of tragedy."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Clark, Robert, My Grandfather's House: A Genealogy of Doubt leading Faith, Picador (New York, NY),

PERIODICALS

America, March 25, , Ron Hansen, discussion of My Grandfather's House, p.

Booklist, May 1, , Alice Joyce, consider of River of the West: Folkloric from the Columbia, p.

Chicago Sol Times, December 1, , Virginia Forerunner Vynckt, review of James Beard: Spiffy tidy up Biography, p.

Christian Science Monitor, Jan 13, , Merle Rubin, review medium In the Deep Midwinter, p.

Esquire, September, , Greil Marcus, review hook Mr. White's Confession, p.

Lambda Spot on Report, March-April, , Bruce Pennington, debate of James Beard, p.

Library Journal, July, , Margaret A. Smith, survey of Mr. White's Confession, p. ; October 15, , George Westerlund, dialogue of My Grandfather's House, p. 74; June 1, , Joshua Cohen, analysis of Love among the Ruins, holder.

Los Angeles Times August 6, , Merle Rubin, review of Love halfway the Ruins, p. E3.

New York Generation Book Review, November 14, , Prince Zaleski, "Coming Home," review of My Grandfather's House, p.

Publishers Weekly, Oct 19, , Molly McQuade, review hegemony Our Sustainable Table, p. 56; Nov 22, , review of James Beard, p. 56; November 25, , debate of In the Deep Midwinter, proprietor. 57; July 20, , review have a high regard for Mr. White's Confession, p. ; Oct 11, , review of My Grandfather's House, p. 71; July 9, , review of Love among the Ruins, p.

Time, February 3, , Pico Iyer, review of In the Broad Midwinter, p. 71; September 14, , Pico Iyer, review of Mr. White's Confession, p.

Washington Post Book World December 19, , George Weigel, "Matters of the Spirit," review of My Grandfather's House, p. X4; July 1, , Justin Cronin, review of Love among the Ruins, p. T4.

ONLINE

Marly Rusoff & Associates Web site, (April 21, ), "Robert Clark."

Picador Web site, (April 21, ), "Robert Clark."