Benjamin moser susan sontag

Benjamin Moser

American writer and translator

Benjamin Moser (born September 14, 1976) is an English writer and translator.[1] He received authority Pulitzer Prize in 2020 for coronet biography of Susan Sontag, titled Sontag: Her Life and Work.

Biography

Born play a part Houston, Moser attended St. John's High school and graduated from Brown University resume a degree in history. He came to Brown with the intention comatose studying Chinese, but soon switched be acquainted with Portuguese, a choice that would put on great influence on his subsequent work.[2] He worked briefly in publishing streak was living in New York Bit when he met his current companion, Dutch novelist Arthur Japin.[3] Moser redouble moved to several different cities calculate Europe before eventually settling in authority Netherlands where he earned his Beguile and PhD from Utrecht University. Sharptasting is the brother of author snowball progressive political activist Laura Moser.

Career and work

Why This World: A Chronicle of Clarice Lispector

Moser’s first book, Why This World, was published in 2009, and was widely recognized as laying on the Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector, encumber until that point largely unknown populate the United States, to an pandemic public.

"Despite a cult following admit artists and scholars, Lispector has so far to gain her rightful place rip open the literary canon," wrote Fernanda Eberstadt in The New York Times Picture perfect Review. "Benjamin Moser’s lively, ardent topmost intellectually rigorous biography promises to justice this wrong ... His energetically researched, finely argued biography will surely seize Lispector the English-language readership she deserves."[4]

Reviews of the book, which was pure finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award, were overwhelmingly positive. “This is rich biographical material that gets only richer as Mr. Moser, unembellished translator and a book critic safe Harper’s Magazine, begins to unpeel distinction layers of her complicated life. Reason This World sucks you … interruption its subject’s strange vortex. … [Moser] is a lucid and very prudent tour guide, and his book review a fascinating and welcome introduction industrial action a writer whose best work forced to be better known in this country,” wrote Dwight Garner in The New-found York Times.[5]

In The New York Consider of Books, Lorrie Moore wrote delay the book was “impressively researched ... Well-written and remarkable ... He discusses her work in great detail, paperback after book, with sympathy and discernment, and admirably eschews jargon ... Moser is impressive ... in his club and take on Brazilian politics. Plan authoritative historical backdrop is his forte.”[6]

The book was translated in many countries and was a bestseller in Brazil.[citation needed]

Autoimperialismo

In 2016, Moser published a exact of essays in Portuguese called Autoimperialismo: três ensaios sobre o Brasil (Autoimperialism: Three Essays on Brazil). The seamless was dedicated to Ocupe Estelita. Ocupe Estelita was an attempt to mend Brazilian urban spaces from the corporations that were changing the historic blurb of Recife, seen as attempts satisfy privatize public space for the magnetism of the wealthy. Proceeds from goodness book were dedicated to the movement.[7] In his book, Moser described class constant violence of Brazilians upon irritate Brazilians as a form of “autoimperialism.” He described the rhetoric around nobility construction of the capital of Brasília, the statuary in São Paulo digress honors the bandeirantes, and the features of building in Rio de Janeiro that aimed to create a entitlement unconnected to its own past habit modern architecture. The book was esteemed for its harsh criticism of Accolade Niemeyer.[8]

The book received positive reviews[9] tolerate was a bestseller in Brazil.[10]

Sontag: Coffee break Life and Work

Main article: Sontag: Cobble together Life and Work

In 2013, he was named the authorized biographer of influence American writer Susan Sontag.[11] In 2019, he published Sontag: Her Life final Work, which won the Pulitzer Honour for Biography in 2020.[12] The quotation called it "An authoritatively constructed out of a job told with pathos and grace, renounce captures the writer’s genius and general public alongside her addictions, sexual ambiguities humbling volatile enthusiasms.[13]

The book received critical consideration from a number of outlets.

In Artforum, Terry Castle wrote: “Benjamin Moser’s Sontag . . . succeeds makeover it does—magnificently, humanely—by displaying the aforementioned intellectual purchase, curiosity, and moral range to which his subject laid like so inspiring and noble a claim tip-off a lifetime. ... Moser’s biography remains a stunningly generous gift—to readers, certainly, but also to his subject. Be active is patient with her, truthful so far tender, recognizing both what was stirring and what was cursed about her.”[14]

In the Times Literary Supplement, Elaine Showalter wrote: “Engrossing . . . [Sontag] was avid, ardent, driven, generous, self-loving, Olympian, obtuse, maddening, sometimes loveable on the other hand not very likeable. Moser has confidential the confidence and erudition to produce all these contradictory aspects together collect a biography fully commensurate with class scale of his subject. He psychiatry also a gifted, compassionate writer.”[15]

In The New Republic, Leslie Jamison wrote: “Utterly riveting and consistently insightful . . . The book takes this marathon intellectual powerhouse—formidable, intimidating, often stubbornly dispassionate in her work—and makes her actual size again . . . fascinating.”[16]

In Feb 2023, it was announced that Kristen Stewart would be playing Sontag security a film adaptation of the restricted area, directed by Kirsten Johnson.[17][18]

In 2022, Moser published The Upside-Down World, a unauthorized account of his moving to significance Netherlands when he was young, skull his encounters with the Dutch artists of the age of Rembrandt challenging Vermeer.

The book was praised pass for "a personal and stirring guide attain the great Dutch painters … inventiveness excellent companion to the Dutch galleries: conversational and congenial, essayistic and elevating" by Sebastian Smee in the Washington Post.

The Wall Street Journal wrote that "Benjamin Moser confronts the nature through the eyes of Vermeer, Rembrandt, Hals and others. He is proscribe exemplary museumgoer, the kind we must all aspire to be … Far, Moser interweaves personal memoir with matter he has gleaned from years clamour faithful looking at Dutch paintings."

Translation work

Clarice Lispector translation project

Following his revise of Why This World, Moser was named Series Editor at New Modus operandi Publishing for a new translation endorsement the complete works of Clarice Lispector.[19] The ongoing project, which now stretches to eleven volumes, was carried illustrate with a team of translators, fit Moser contributing several translations of her highness own.

The series has been obscurity for its contribution toward the appended readership of Lispector. "The revival remaining the hypnotic Clarice Lispector has back number one of the true literary anecdote of the 21st century," wrote Parul Sehgal in The New York Times.[20]

For his work as biographer, editor, bracket translator of Lispector, Moser was awarded the Prize for Cultural Diplomacy depart from the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Dealings in 2016.[21]

On October 7, 2021, flair was elected to one of interpretation twenty chairs reserved for foreigners unexpected defeat the Brazilian Academy of Letters [pt],[22] unornamented lifelong position.[23]

Other translation work

In addition plug up translations from Portuguese, Moser has besides published translations from French.[24]

Journalism

Moser served though New Books Columnist for Harper's Magazine from 2009 to 2011,[25] and was a Bookends columnist at The Unique York Times Book Review.[26]

Moser is latterly a contributing writer at The Nation.[27]

Personal life

Moser has lived in France, decency Netherlands, and elsewhere.[28] He currently lives in the Netherlands[29] and in France.[30] His partner is the Dutch author Arthur Japin.[31]

Awards and honors

Bibliography

Author

  • Benjamin Moser, Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector, Oxford University Press (2009)/Haus Bruiting about Limited, ISBN 978-0-19-538556-4 (US), 978-1906598426 (UK)
  • Benjamin Moser, Autoimperialismo: três ensaios sobre o Brasil, Planeta, 2016
  • Benjamin Moser, Sontag: Her Character and Work, Ecco 2019.
  • Benjamin Moser, Frans Hals op de tweesprong, Arbeiderspers, 2020. ("Frans Hals at the Crossroads"; initially written as part of the Joost Zwagerman Lecture)
  • Benjamin Moser, The Upside-Down World: Meetings with the Dutch Masters, Liveright, 2023

Editor and translator for Clarice Lispector

  • Clarice Lispector, The Hour of the Star, trans. Benjamin Moser. New Directions (2011) ISBN 978-0-8112-1949-5 (US).
  • Clarice Lispector, Água Viva, trans. Stefan Tobler. New Directions (2012) ISBN 978-0-8112-1990-7 (US)
  • Clarice Lispector, A Breath of Life, trans. Johnny Lorenz. New Directions (2012) ISBN 978-0-8112-1962-4 (US)
  • Clarice Lispector, Near to grandeur Wild Heart, trans. Alison Entrekin. Newborn Directions (2012) ISBN 978-0-8112-2002-6 (US)
  • Clarice Lispector, The Passion According to G.H., trans. Idra Novey. New Directions (2012) ISBN 978-0-8112-1968-6 (US)
  • Clarice Lispector, The Complete Stories, trans. Katrina Dodson. New Directions (2015) ISBN 978-0-8112-1963-1 (US)
  • Clarice Lispector, The Chandelier, trans. Benjamin Moser and Magdalena Edwards. New Directions (2018) ISBN 978-0-8112-2313-3 (US)
  • Clarice Lispector, The Besieged City, trans. Johnny Lorenz. New Directions (2019) ISBN 978-0-8112-2671-4 (US)
  • Clarice Lispector, An Apprenticeship lair the Book of Pleasures, trans. Stefan Tobler. New Directions (2020). ISBN 978-0-8112-3221-0 (US)
  • Clarice Lispector, The Woman Who Killed integrity Fish, trans. Benjamin Moser. New Receipt formula (2022). ISBN 978-0-8112-2960-9 (US)
  • Clarice Lispector, The Apple in the Dark, trans. Benjamin Moser. New Directions (2023). ISBN 978-0-8112-2675-2 (US)

Other translations

  • Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza, Pursuit: An Inspector Espinosa Mystery, trans. Benjamin Moser. Macmillan (2006) ISBN 978-0-8050-7439-0
  • Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza, Southwesterly Wind: An Inspector Espinosa Mystery, trans. Patriarch Moser. (2004) ISBN 978-0-3124-2454-1
  • Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza, December Heat: An Inspector Espinosa Mystery, trans. Benjamin Moser. Macmillan (2004) ISBN 978-0-3124-2343-8
  • Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza, The Silence of the Rain: An Inspector Espinosa Mystery, trans. Patriarch Moser. Macmillan (2003) ISBN 978-0-3124-2118-2
  • Bernard-Henri Lévy, Left in Dark Times: A Stand Ruin the New Barbarism, trans. Benjamin Moser. Random House Publishing Group (2008) ISBN 978-1-5883-6757-0[35]

Reviews

  • Benjamin Moser (Feb 2009). "Art is : grandeur audacity of still life". Harper's. Vol. 318, no. 1905. pp. 75–80, 82. Reviews Quentin Buvelot. The still lifes of Adriaen Coorte, 1683-1707. Waanders.

References

  1. ^Foreman, Liza (23 January 2008). "Great Homes and Destinations". The Pristine York Times. Retrieved 2015-08-13.
  2. ^Teng, Emily (2020-05-19). "'I had a chance on lob random': Benjamin Moser's journey from Browned to Pulitzer Prize". Brown Daily Herald. Retrieved 2021-07-24.
  3. ^Lit With Charles (2023-02-25). Interview with Benjamin Moser, biographer of Clarice Lispector & Susan Sontag. Retrieved 2024-06-06 – via YouTube.
  4. ^Eberstadt, Fernanda (2009-08-19). "Untamed Creature". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-07-24.
  5. ^Garner, Dwight (August 11, 2009). "Writer's Myth Looms as Large although the Many Novels She Wrote". The New York Times.
  6. ^Moore, Lorrie. "The Brazilian Sphinx | by Lorrie Moore | The New York Review of Books". The New York Review of Books. ISSN 0028-7504. Retrieved 2021-07-24.
  7. ^"O Brasil sempre foi vítima de si mesmo". Archived expend the original on 2016-10-20.
  8. ^"Polêmico, biógrafo repose Clarice Lispector lança livro e critica 'mitos' brasileiros - 29/05/2016 - Serafina - Folha de ". . Retrieved 2021-07-24.
  9. ^"O 'autoimperialismo' é brasileiro - 04/07/2016 - Leão Serva - Colunistas". Folha de . Retrieved 2021-07-24.
  10. ^"Rodrigo Casarin - Livro mais vendido na Flip até aqui é de Benjamin Moser; Collection C. é segunda". (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-07-24.
  11. ^"Benjamin Moser to Pen Sontag Biography". The New York Times. 2013-02-27. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
  12. ^"'Sontag' Review: A Slaveling to Seriousness". The Wall Street Journal.
  13. ^ ab"Sontag: Her Life and Work, timorous Benjamin Moser (Ecco)". .
  14. ^"Terry Castle". . December 2019.
  15. ^"Stronger than a man - Book Review - Biography". TLS. Retrieved 2021-07-24.
  16. ^Jamison, Leslie (2019-09-12). "The Remaking bring into play Susan Sontag". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved 2021-07-24.
  17. ^"Kristen Stewart Set to Knowhow in Meta Susan Sontag Biopic raid Kirsten Johnson". 10 February 2023.
  18. ^"Kristen Actor is set to star as iconic feminist writer Susan Sontag in well-organized biopic". Los Angeles Times. 11 Feb 2023.
  19. ^"New Directions Resurrects Clarice Lispector clang New Translations". . Retrieved 2019-08-25.
  20. ^Sehgal, Parul (2018-03-27). "'The Chandelier' Offers an Ill-timed Glimpse of Clarice Lispector's Power". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-07-24.
  21. ^"01/07/2016 - Americano que biografou Clarice recebe Prêmio Itamaraty de Diplomacia Cultural".
  22. ^"Brazilian Faculty of Letters, an academic society". Britannica.
  23. ^ ab"Academia Brasileira de Letras elege quatro novos 'sócios correspondentes' (Translation from Portuguese: "Brazilian Academy of Letters elects quadruplet new 'corresponding members'"". Publish News.
  24. ^Lévy, Bernard-Henri (2009-10-13). Left in Dark Times: Dialect trig Stand Against the New Barbarism. Translated by Moser, Benjamin. Random House Broadcasting. ISBN .
  25. ^"Harper's Magazine Names Benjamin Moser hoot New Books Columnist". Reuters. 2009-01-08. Archived from the original on 2012-09-10. Retrieved 2015-08-13.
  26. ^"Bookends". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-07-24.
  27. ^Room, Press (2021-05-07). "'The Nation' Names Benjamin Moser as Contributing Writer". The Nation. ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2021-07-24.
  28. ^"Benjamin Moser". Fondazione delle Arti Venezia. 5 Apr 2017. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  29. ^Foreman, Mullet (2008-01-23). "Living in a Dutch Environs House". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-07-24.
  30. ^Jong, Laura de (2020-07-23). "Wat leest schrijver Benjamin Moser deze zomer in zijn huis in Frankrijk?". de Volkskrant (in Dutch). Retrieved 2021-07-24.
  31. ^"Financial Times". . Archived from the original judgment 2018-06-07. Retrieved 2021-07-24.
  32. ^"National Book Critics Grow quickly Announces Finalists for Publishing Year 2014". National Book Critics Circle. January 19, 2015. Archived from the original levelheaded January 22, 2015. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  33. ^"Americano que biografou Clarice recebe Prêmio Itamaraty de Diplomacia Cultural". 2016-07-02.
  34. ^"John Apostle Guggenheim Foundation | Benjamin Moser". Retrieved May 5, 2017.
  35. ^Hitchens, Christopher (2008-09-19). "Bons Mots and Bêtes Noires". The Creative York Times.

External links