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Michael J. Arlen

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American writer

Michael John Arlen (born December 9, 1930, London, England) is an American writer, primarily of non-fiction and personal history, as well as a longtime staff writer and television critic for The New Yorker.

Early life

Arlen is the son of a British-Armenian writer, Michael Arlen, and former Countess Atalanta Mercati of Athens, Greece. His early childhood was spent with his family in Cannes, in the South of France. At the outbreak of World War II, he was at boarding school in England and went with his school to join a Canadian school in Ottawa, Canada. Later he transferred to St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire, after which he went to Harvard College, where he was a co-President of The Harvard Lampoon and graduated in 1952.

Career

Arlen worked as a reporter on Life for five years, from 1952 to 1957, before joining the staff of The New Yorker in 1957 where he remained until 1990. His first book was Living-Room War, a collection of his television pieces centered on the Vietnam War. The book's title, a term Arlen coined, has gone on to be heavily referenced in academic and journalistic writing. His two best-known books are Exiles (focused on his childhood in the South of France) and Passage to Ararat (about his Armenian heritage), both of them personal histories that first appeared in full in The New Yorker.

Awards

Exiles was short-listed for the National Book Award. Passage to Ararat won the National Book Award (Contemporary Affairs) in 1976.

Personal life

Arlen has four children from his first marriage. He married a second time, to screenwriter Alice Albright, in 1972, and together they raised an extended family of seven children. Alice Albright Arlen died in 2016.

Works

  • Living-Room War (1969)
  • An American Verdict (1974)
  • Exiles (1970)
  • Passage to Ararat (1975) — National Book Award, Contemporary Affairs
  • The View from Highway 1 (1976)
  • Thirty Seconds (1980)
  • The Camera Age (1981)
  • Say Goodbye to Sam (1984)
  • The Huntress (2016)

References

  1. Vineta Colby, World Authors, 1975-1980 (Wilson, 1985: ISBN 0824207157), p. 45.
  2. Arlen, Michael J. (1970) Exiles Published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York ISBN 9780374150969
  3. Arlen, Michael J. (1975) Passage to Ararat Published by Farrar Straus & Giroux: ISBN 978-0374229894
  4. Exiles p. 141
  5. Kaplan, Martin (1973)The Harvard Lampoon Centennial Celebration, 1876-1973 Published by Little, Brown: ISBN 978-0316482707 p.251
  6. Arlen, Michael J. (August 1972) “Green days and photojournalism, and the old man in the room” The Atlantic
  7. Arlen, Michael J. (1969) Living-Room War Published by Viking, US: ISBN 9780670435630
  8. Pach, Chester (May 13, 2017) “ Lyndon Johnson’s Living Room War” New York Times.
  9. Exiles
  10. Passage to Ararat
  11. "National Book Awards – 1976". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-09. There was a "Contemporary" or "Current" award category from 1972 to 1980.
  12. "Alice Arlen, Screenwriter With Premier Journalistic Pedigree, Dies at 75". New York Times. Retrieved March 1, 2016

External links

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