David Remnick

Editor

Birthday October 29, 1958

Birth Sign Scorpio

Birthplace Hackensack, New Jersey, U.S.

Age 65 years old

Nationality United States

#23258 Most Popular

1855

Remnick completed a 122-page-long senior thesis titled "The Sympathetic Thread: 'Leaves of Grass' 1855-1865."

Remnick has implied that after college he wanted to write novels, but due to the illnesses of his parents, he needed to get a job.

Wanting to be a writer, he took a job at The Washington Post.

1958

David J. Remnick (born October 29, 1958) is an American journalist, writer, and editor.

1981

He was graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1981 with an A.B. in comparative literature; there he met writer John McPhee, was a member of the University Press Club, and helped found The Nassau Weekly.

1982

Remnick began his reporting career at The Washington Post in 1982 shortly after his graduation from Princeton.

His first assignment was to cover the United States Football League.

1987

In 1987, Remnick married reporter Esther Fein in a Jewish ceremony at the Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan.

1988

After six years, in 1988 he became the newspaper's Moscow correspondent, which provided him with the material for Lenin's Tomb.

1992

Remnick became a staff writer at The New Yorker in September 1992, after ten years at The Washington Post.

1993

He also received the George Polk Award for excellence in journalism in 1993.

1994

He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his book Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire, and is also the author of Resurrection and King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero.

1997

Remnick's 1997 New Yorker article "Kid Dynamite Blows Up", about boxer Mike Tyson, was nominated for a National Magazine Award.

1998

Remnick has been editor of The New Yorker magazine since 1998.

In July 1998, he became editor, succeeding Tina Brown.

Remnick promoted Hendrik Hertzberg, a former Jimmy Carter speechwriter and former editor of The New Republic, to write the lead pieces in "Talk of the Town", the magazine's opening section.

2000

He was named "Editor of the Year" by Advertising Age in 2000.

Before joining The New Yorker, Remnick was a reporter and the Moscow correspondent for The Washington Post.

He also has served on the New York Public Library board of trustees and is a member of the American Philosophical Society.

2003

In 2003, Remnick penned an editorial in The New Yorker in the lead-up to the Iraq War saying "the United States has been wrong, politically and morally, about Iraq more than once in the past... but... a return to a hollow pursuit of containment will be the most dangerous option of all."

In the months leading up to the war, the magazine also published several articles connecting Saddam Hussein to al-Qaida, often relying on unnamed sources, or simply the claims of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, as evidence.

The magazine received some criticism for their journalism during this period.

2004

In 2004, for the first time in its 80-year history, The New Yorker endorsed a presidential candidate, John Kerry.

2005

In 2005, Remnick earned $1 million for his work as the magazine's editor.

2008

The claims that Hussein and al-Qaida had a close operational relationship were false, as confirmed by numerous sources including a U.S military study in 2008.

2009

In May 2009, Remnick was the subject of an extended Twitter thread by former New Yorker staff writer Dan Baum, whose contract with the magazine was not renewed by Remnick.

The tweets, written over the course of a week, described the difficult relationship between Baum and Remnick, his editor.

2010

In 2010, he published his sixth book, The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama.

Remnick was born to a Jewish family in Hackensack, New Jersey, the son of Barbara (Seigel), an art teacher, and Edward C. Remnick, a dentist.

He was raised in Hillsdale, New Jersey, in a Jewish home with, he has said, "a lot of books around."

He attended Yavneh Academy in Paramus.

Remnick was also a childhood friend of comedian Bill Maher.

He attended Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale.

At Pascack Valley High School he studied Russian and was thereby inspired to also study the politics and culture of the USSR.

Remnick's biography of President Barack Obama, The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama, was released on April 6, 2010.

It features hundreds of interviews with friends, colleagues, and other witnesses to Obama's rise to the presidency of the United States.

In 2010, Remnick lent his support to the campaign urging the release of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of adultery and ordering the murder of her husband by her lover.

2014

Remnick provided guest commentary and contributed to NBC coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi Russia, including the opening ceremony and commentary for NBC News.

Remnick is also the host of The New Yorker Radio Hour, produced by WNYC and The New Yorker.

In May 2014, Remnick served as the commencement speaker at the 160th commencement of Syracuse University.