Stacy Schiff is the author of Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Saint-Exupéry, a Pulitzer Prize finalist; A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, winner of the George Washington Book Prize and the Ambassador Book Award; Cleopatra: A Life, winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for biography; and The Witches: Salem, 1692.
Schiff has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and named a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres by the French Government, she lives in New York City.
A GREAT IMPROVISATION (2005): ---
SAINT-EXUPERY (1994): ---
VERA (1999): ---
ACCLAIM FOR STACY SCHIFF: ---
"Schiff's sentences are magnificent, deceptively complex, full of
insight and fact and distance and wry humor, so that every page is
a kind of mini feast."--Anita Shreve, -
"Superb, spirited, enthralling. For anyone who enjoys a fascinating
life-story well told, this is a book not to be missed."--David
McCullough, -
"This is a book to savor. Schiff has given a genuine jolt to the
recent surge of interest in Franklin, along the way demonstrating
why she is generally regarded as one of the most gifted
storytellers writing today."--Joseph J. Ellis, -
"What a brilliant book. Stacy Schiff has written a
masterpiece."--Amanda Foreman, -
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Schiff (Vera [Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov]) offers another fine biography here. Though few reliable records remain regarding the Egyptian queen, this book peels back the layers of mystery surrounding Cleopatra and attempts to reveal a legend in her own time. While Schiff takes a few liberties by ascribing emotion to her subject, she demonstrates an immense amount of research. Her narrative does not so much bring forward anything new about Cleopatra as it presents her to the contemporary reader in a more accessible and, indeed, engrossing way. The results complement Diana Preston's Cleopatra and Antony: Power, Love, and Politics in the Ancient World, which examined the reality behind the first "celebrity couple," also with an eye to contemporary readers. -VERDICT With her new book, Schiff showcases her skill at capturing a life. Her prose is elegant but easy to read and briskly paced. In spite of extensive research, Schiff's projection of emotions and motivations onto her subject tilts the results more toward pop history than real scholarship. Undergraduates, lovers of biography or ancient history, and those seeking an introduction to Cleopatra will delight in this take on the near-mythical last queen of Egypt. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/10.]-Crystal Goldman, San Jose St. Univ. Lib., CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
A GREAT IMPROVISATION (2005): ---
SAINT-EXUPERY (1994): ---
VERA (1999): ---
ACCLAIM FOR STACY SCHIFF: ---
"Schiff's sentences are magnificent, deceptively complex, full of
insight and fact and distance and wry humor, so that every page is
a kind of mini feast."--Anita Shreve, -
"Superb, spirited, enthralling. For anyone who enjoys a fascinating
life-story well told, this is a book not to be missed."--David
McCullough, -
"This is a book to savor. Schiff has given a genuine jolt to the
recent surge of interest in Franklin, along the way demonstrating
why she is generally regarded as one of the most gifted
storytellers writing today."--Joseph J. Ellis, -
"What a brilliant book. Stacy Schiff has written a
masterpiece."--Amanda Foreman, -
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