| Caroline Knapp | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | November 8, 1959 |
| Died | June 3/4, 2002 |
| Notable works | Drinking: A Love Story |
Caroline Knapp (November 8, 1959 – June 3/4, 2002) was an American writer and columnist whose candid best-selling memoir Drinking: A Love Story recounted her 20-year battle with alcoholism. She was the daughter of noted psychiatrist Peter H. Knapp, who was a researcher of psychosomatic medicine.
Life and career
Knapp grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts and graduated from Brown University. From 1988 to 1995, she was a columnist for the Boston Phoenix where her column "Out There" often featured the fictional "Alice K." In 1994, those columns were collected in her first book, Alice K's Guide to Life: One Woman's Quest for Survival, Sanity, and the Perfect New Shoes.
Knapp won wide acclaim for Drinking: A Love Story (1996) that described her life as a "high-functioning alcoholic" and remained on The New York Times Best Seller List for several weeks. She followed Drinking with Pack of Two, also a best-seller, which recounted her relationship with her dog Lucille and humans' relationships with dogs in general.
In May 2002, she married her longtime friend and companion, photographer Mark Morelli.
Death
Knapp died in Cambridge of lung cancer on June 3, 2002. Two books of hers were published after her death: Appetites: Why Women Want, which described Knapp's experience with anorexia and other women's struggles with addictions, and The Merry Recluse, a collection of essays.
Gail Caldwell’s Let's Take the Long Way Home (2010), is a memoir of her friendship with Knapp.
Selected bibliography
- Alice K's Guide to Life: One Woman's Quest for Survival, Sanity, and the Perfect New Shoes (1994)
- Drinking: A Love Story (1996)
- Pack of Two: The Intricate Bond Between People and Dogs (1998)
- Appetites: Why Women Want (published posthumously, 2003)
- The Merry Recluse: A Life in Essays (published posthumously, 2004)
References
- Knapp, Caroline (1996). Drinking: A Love Story. The Dial Press. pp. 39. ISBN 0-385-31551-1.
- Caldwell, Gail (2006). A strong west wind: a memoir (first ed.). New York: Random House. ISBN 1-4000-6248-9. OCLC 59756036.
External links
- Providence Phoenix obituary, June 6, 2002
- New York Times obituary, June 5, 2002
- Review of Pack of Two by Susan Cheever, The New York Times, July 5, 1998
- Column 'The Merry Recluse'
- 1959 births
- 2002 deaths
- 20th-century American memoirists
- American self-help writers
- Brown University alumni
- Writers from Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Deaths from lung cancer in Massachusetts
- Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery
- American columnists
- American women memoirists
- American women essayists
- American women columnists
- 20th-century American essayists
- 20th-century American women writers