Rich Cohen

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For other people with the same name, see Richard Cohen (disambiguation).

Rich Cohen
Born (1968-07-30) July 30, 1968 (age 53)
Lake Forest, Illinois, U.S.
OccupationNon-fiction writer, journalist, screenplay writer
Period1992–present
Notable worksTough Jews (1998)
Sweet and Low (2006)
Monsters (2013)
Vinyl (2016)

Rich Cohen (born July 30, 1968) is an American non-fiction writer. He is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone. He is co-creator, with Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger and Terence Winter, of the HBO series Vinyl.[1] His works have been New York Times bestsellers, New York Times Notable Books, and have been collected in the Best American Essays series. He lives in Ridgefield, Connecticut, with four sons, Aaron, Nate, Micah and Elia.

He is not to be confused with Richard A. Cohen.

Early life[]

Cohen was born in Lake Forest, Illinois, and grew up in Chicago's North Shore suburb of Glencoe.[2] 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.[3] His sister, Sharon Cohen Levin, is an Assistant United States Attorney of the Southern District of New York. His brother, Steve Cohen, a former top aide to New York governor Andrew Cuomo, is a partner at the law firm Zuckerman Spaeder in New York City.[4]

Career[]

Journalism[]

An admirer of the works of journalists A. J. Liebling, Ian Frazier and Joseph Mitchell, Cohen took a job as a messenger at the offices of The New Yorker magazine,[5] where he published twelve stories in the "Talk of the Town" section in eighteen months.[6] 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. In 2008, Cohen's essay on German history was selected for inclusion in The Best American Essays of 2008. In 2013, on NPR's Morning Edition, Newsweek and Daily Beast editor Tina Brown called Cohen's essay on the financier Ted Forstmann "very entertaining" and a "must read".[7]

Books[]

Tough Jews[]

Cohen published his first book Tough Jews—a non-fiction account of the Jewish gangsters of 1930s Brooklyn, notably those involved with Murder, Inc.—in 1998. In The New York Times Book Review, writer Vincent Patrick called the book "marvelous and colorful" with "writing good enough to cause one, at times, to reread a page in order to savor the description".[8] Newsweek critic Jack Kroll called the book a "bloodstained fairy tale for adults ... entertaining and defiantly romantic".[9] In The New York Times, critic Christopher Lehmann-Haupt called it "exuberant" and "a vivid narrative"; Cohen's book had "taken the noise of these facts and turned it from gunfire into a kind of music".[10]

The Avengers[]

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.[11] Publishers Weekly called the non-fiction work "a terrific narrative of courage and tenacity",[12] and The Washington Post called it "a tremendous story".[13]

Lake Effect[]

His third work, the memoir Lake Effect (2002), received the 2002 Great Lakes Book Award[14] and was a New York Times Notable Book.

Sweet and Low[]

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";[15] The Washington Post called it "superb",[16] and "a wildly addictive, high-octane narrative".[17] 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".[18] Writing in Salon, critic Laura Miller noted "[Cohen] describes it all with an economical, pugnacious wit that never falters. The heart of the book is a long, complicated and darkly funny family feud encompassing intrigues, sabotage and widely divergent stories about what really happened and when, and of course, who it can all be blamed on."[19] The book was a New York Times Notable Book and received a 2006 Salon Book Award.

Israel is Real[]

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."[20] Writing in Newsweek, critic Sara Nelson called the book "Iconoclastic and provocative.... Part history, part polemic, and all original, it is hard to categorize politically, which may be why readers will be arguing about it for years to come."[21] In The Jerusalem Post, Elaine Margolin called the book "an intoxicating narrative ... Cohen claims his book is about his 'obsessive quest to understand the Jewish nation and its history,' but it seems far more complex and personal than that. Beneath his perceptive and provocative prose about Jewish history, religion, identity and memory is his own heartfelt struggle to become a good Jew.... Cohen is a fearless time-traveler, an acrobat of sorts, who is equally adept at commenting on ancient Jewish history and biblical stories as he is about the contemporary appeal of Larry David or Woody Allen, and he often draws breathtaking comparisons between past and present Jewish life."[22]

In 2010, Cohen co-wrote the memoir When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead, the story of American film producer Jerry Weintraub; the book was a New York Times bestseller.[23]

The Fish That Ate the Whale[]

Cohen's story of United Fruit president and banana king Sam Zemurray, The Fish That Ate the Whale, was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2012.[24] Writing in The New York Times Book Review, critic and historian Mark Lewis called the book "Kiplingesque" and "fascinating", and provided an overview of Cohen's work. "Rich Cohen books constitute a genre unto themselves: pungent, breezy, vividly written psychodramas about rough-edged, tough-minded Jewish machers who vanquish their rivals, and sometimes change the world in the process."[25] In The Christian Science Monitor, critic Chris Hartman called the book "masterful and elegantly written ... a cautionary tale for the ages".[26] In The Washington Post, James Auley called it "immensely readable" and "as good an example of the American promise as one could imagine".[27] The Jerusalem Post's Elaine Margolin called the book "piercing and terrifically intuitive.... Cohen is a beautifully talented and vibrant writer who seems to effortlessly brings his pages to life."[28]

Monsters[]

On October 29, 2013, Cohen published Monsters: a story of football through the eyes of the 1985 Chicago Bears. In an advance review, Kirkus Reviews called the book "devastating and moving", "engaging yet ultimately melancholy"; "ideal for anyone who wonders, 'What happens when you have a dream and that dream comes true?'"[29] Writer Dave Eggers said Monsters was "not just a great sports book, but a great book, period", Amazon selected it as a Best Book of the Month. At Grantland, Kevin Nguyen wrote, "As much as it is about the '85 Bears, Monsters is an emotional education of football"; he continues, "Cohen writes, 'It was [George] Halas, as much as anyone, who invented the modern NFL offense and lifted the game from the ground into the air.' You can't help but think that Cohen's doing the same thing here for sports narratives."[30] In a review for The Wall Street Journal, writer and critic Joseph Epstein wrote, "Rich Cohen's Monsters is the best book on professional football I know."[31] The book is a New York Times best seller.[32]

The Sun and the Moon and the Rolling Stones[]

Cohen's next book, a narrative history of The Rolling Stones called The Sun and The Moon and the Rolling Stones, was published by Spiegel and Grau in May 2016.[33] Cohen had been on close terms with the band since the mid-1990s.[34] In a pre-publication review, Kirkus Reviews wrote, "Cohen weaves together the peak events with a supple sense of the inner dynamics," calling the work, "A compact and conversant history that makes the story new again, capturing the Rolling Stones in all their Faustian glory".[35] Writer Richard Price wrote of the book, "With The Sun & The Moon & The Rolling Stones, Rich Cohen has arrived as one of the greatest social and cultural historians of postwar twentieth century America."[36]

The Last Pirate of New York[]

This book details the life and times of Albert W. Hicks, an American criminal active from about 1840 to 1860. Cohen grew up hearing legendary stories of New York gangsters and found those legends had grown up hearing stories of even older gangster legends. He traced these legends back to the earliest, and contends Hicks was the transition between pirates of old and the new world of gangsters—the last pirate and first gangster. Reviewing the book in the Wall Street Journal, Rinker Buck wrote, "'The Last Pirate of New York' is history-lite at its best, and readers will finish it with a satisfaction deeply relevant today. The truth about America's past—the greasy pole of making a living, the lovable felons, the Barnum-esque self-promoters—is a lot more interesting and useful to know than those patriotic fairy tales we were fed in school."[37] On CBS This Morning, host Jeff Glor said, "I'm not sure there's a better nonfiction writer in America than Rich Cohen."[38]

Movies and television[]

On February 26, 2007, Paramount Pictures 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.[39] He has worked on the Starz series Magic City, and is currently developing a project for HBO.[40]

Cohen is co-creator, with Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger and Terence Winter, of the HBO series Vinyl.[41]

Awards[]

  • 2002 Great Lakes Book Award (General Nonfiction), Lake Effect[42]
  • 2006 ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for Music Writing (Special Recognition), Machers and Rockers[43]
  • 2006 New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Sweet and Low[44]
  • 2006 Salon Book Award (Nonfiction), Sweet and Low[45]
  • 2012 San Francisco Chronicle 100 Best Books of the Year (Nonfiction), The Fish That Ate the Whale[46]
  • 2012 Booklist Editor's Choice (Biography), The Fish That Ate the Whale[47]
  • 2013 Bank Street CBC Best Children's Book of the Year (Age 9-12), Alex and the Amazing Time Machine[48]
  • 2016 Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year (Nonfiction), The Sun & The Moon & The Rolling Stones[49]

Bibliography[]

  • Tough Jews : Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams (1998)
  • The Avengers: A Jewish War Story (2000)
  • Lake Effect (2002)
  • Machers and Rockers: Chess Records and the Business of Rock & Roll (2004)
  • Sweet and Low: A Family Story (2006)
  • Israel Is Real: An Obsessive Quest to Understand the Jewish Nation and Its History (2009)
  • The Fish That Ate The Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King (2012)
  • Alex and the Amazing Time Machine (juvenile) with ill. by Kelly Murphy (2012)
  • Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football (2013)
  • The Sun & The Moon & The Rolling Stones (2016)
  • The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse (2017)
  • The Last Pirate of New York: A Ghost Ship, a Killer, and the Birth of a Gangster Nation (2019)
  • Pee Wees: Confessions of a Hockey Parent (2021)

Ghostwritten

  • When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead by Jerry Weintraub with Rich Cohen (2010)
  • Unstoppable: My Life So Far by Maria Sharapova with Rich Cohen (2017)

References[]

  1. ^ Tim Goodmen, "'Vinyl': TV Review", Billboard, February 2, 2016.
  2. ^ "Machers And Rockers by Rich Cohen". Barnes and Noble. Retrieved March 20, 2008.
  3. ^ Cohen, Rich, "King and I", Rolling Stone, November 14, 1996.
  4. ^ Lovett, Ken, "Daily Politics: Steve Cohen Lands", New York Daily News, September 20, 2011.
  5. ^ Ledbetter, C. S., "The Education of A Writer", Author's Desktop, Random House, retrieved 3-20-2008.
  6. ^ Cohen, Richard, Lake Effect: A Memoir, New York: Knopf, 2001. p. 180.
  7. ^ NPR Staff, "Tina Brown's Must-Reads: Hidden Lives", Morning Edition, January 22, 2013.
  8. ^ Patrick, Vincent (April 12, 1998). "This You Call A Stick-up?". The New York Times. Retrieved March 20, 2008.
  9. ^ Jack Kroll, "Welcome to the Kosher Nostra", Newsweek, April 20, 1998.
  10. ^ Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (April 16, 1998). "Hardly 'Our Crowd': A Jewish Underworld". The New York Times. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
  11. ^ Cohen, Rich (September 11, 2000). "A Final Mission". Newsweek. Retrieved March 20, 2008.
  12. ^ Publishers Weekly, "The Avengers: A Jewish War Story", July 17, 2000
  13. ^ Goldsmith, Martin, "Fighters and Fugues", The Washington Post, September 24, 2000
  14. ^ American Booksellers Association, "Great Lakes Book Award Winners Announced", August 29, 2002.
  15. ^ Newsweek, "Sweet and Low", April 17, 2006
  16. ^ Powers, Katherine, "Today's business world is cut-throat but often hilarious", The Washington Post, June 18, 2006.
  17. ^ Barlow, John (April 10, 2006). "Sweet and Sour Dreams". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 20, 2008.
  18. ^ Kakutani, Michiko (April 4, 2006). "Problems That Come in Little Packets". The New York Times. Retrieved March 20, 2008.
  19. ^ Miller, Laura (December 14, 2006). "Best Nonfiction of 2006". Salon. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
  20. ^ Horwitz, Tony (July 26, 2009). "A Land and a People". The New York Times. Retrieved July 26, 2009.
  21. ^ Nelson, Sara (May 21, 2009). "The 13 Hottest Summer Reads". Newsweek. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
  22. ^ Margolin, Elaine (July 24, 2009). "Reality Checks". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
  23. ^ Jennifer Schuessler, "Inside the List", The New York Times Book Review, April 23, 2010.
  24. ^ Grushkin, Daniel (June 7, 2012). "Book Review: 'The Fish That Ate the Whale,' by Rich Cohen". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved July 2, 2012.
  25. ^ Lewis, Mark (September 16, 2012). "Banana Republican: 'The Fish That Ate the Whale,' by Rich Cohen". The New York Times. Retrieved September 16, 2012.
  26. ^ Hartman, Chris (October 18, 2012). "Book Review: The Fish That Ate the Whale". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved October 18, 2012.
  27. ^ Auley, James (July 21, 2012). "The Life and Times of America's Banana King". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
  28. ^ Margolin, Elaine (June 28, 2012). "The Fruits of His Labor". The Jerusalem Post Magazine. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
  29. ^ "Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football", Kirkus, October 15, 2013.
  30. ^ Kevin Nguyen, "Monsters", Grantland, November 5, 2013.
  31. ^ Joseph Epstein, "Book Review: 'Monsters' by Rich Cohen", The Wall Street Journal, October 25, 2013.
  32. ^ "Best Sellers Hardcover Nonfiction". The New York Times November 24, 2013.
  33. ^ The Sun and the Moon and the Rolling Stone, Penguin Random House Website. Accessed 2016-01-03.
  34. ^ "Warring Stones", The Times (U.K.), April 2, 2016.
  35. ^ Kirkus, "The Sun and the Moon and the Rolling Stones", April 19, 2016.
  36. ^ The Sun and the Moon and the Rolling Stone, Penguin Random House Website. Accessed 2016-04-08.
  37. ^ Ruck, Rinker (June 28, 2019). "New York's Original Gangster: The Last Pirate of New York by Rich Cohen". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 2, 2019.
  38. ^ CBS This Morning, Jeff Glor; CBS-TV, June 29, 2019.
  39. ^ Fleming, Michael and McClintock, Pamela, "Scorsese, Monahan ready to 'Play,'" Variety, February 26, 2007.
  40. ^ Daniel Brook, "Jewish Gangsters Get Their Museum", The Forward, April 13, 2012
  41. ^ Tim Goodmen, "'Vinyl': TV Review", Billboard, February 2, 2016.
  42. ^ "Great Lakes Book Award Winners Announced". bookweb.org. August 29, 2002. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
  43. ^ "38th Annual ASCAP Deems Taylor Award Winners Announced". ASCAP.com. October 12, 2005. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
  44. ^ "100 Notable Books of the Year". The New York Times. December 4, 2006. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
  45. ^ Laura Miller (December 14, 2006). "Best Nonfiction of 2006". Salon. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
  46. ^ John McMurtrie (February 11, 2013). "Best books of 2012: 100 recommended books". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
  47. ^ "The Fish That Ate the Whale". American Library Association. 2012. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
  48. ^ "Alex and the Amazing Time Machine". MacMillan. Retrieved January 19, 2019. Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year (bottom of page)
  49. ^ "The Sun The Moon and the Rolling Stones, Best Books of 2016". Kirkus Reviews. May 1, 2016. Retrieved January 19, 2019.

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