Richard M. Levine is an American journalist and author.[1] He is best known for Bad Blood: A Family Murder in Marin County, his 1982 book about the murders of Jim and Naomi Olive.[2][3]
Richard M. Levine | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | June 19, 1942 Brooklyn, New York |
| Occupation | Journalist and author |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Wesleyan University, BA, 1963 Columbia University, MA, 1966 |
| Website | |
| richardmichaellevine | |
Bad Blood received positive reviews. Greil Marcus, writing in Rolling Stone, argued that "from the beginning of this tale through to its aftermath, the people caught up in its momentum are thrown back on themselves. That is what makes the story Bad Blood has to tell so terrible, and so compelling"[4] Kirkus Reviews wrote that it was a "chilling, fascinating reconstruction" and "a first-class study of a set of American dreams gone wrong."[2] The New York Times, while slightly less enthusiastic, praised "the richness of its detail and the remarkable intimacy with which we get to know its characters."[5]
Early life and education edit
Born June 19, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York, Richard Michael Levine was the eldest of three children of businessman Bernard Levine and homemaker Gertrude Cohen Levine. The family moved to Great Neck on Long Island when he was a child, and he graduated from Great Neck North High School in 1959.[6] He attended Wesleyan University, graduating with a BA in literature in 1963. He continued his education at the Russian Institute of Columbia University, where he received his MA in Slavic languages and literature in 1966.[7] While at Columbia, he received a Fulbright scholarship, which enabled him to study at the University of Warsaw and the University of Krakow (now Jagiellonian University) in Poland.[6]
Career edit
Levine has contributed to Rolling Stone, New York, Painted Bride Quarterly, Esquire, Mother Jones, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Magazine, and The New York Times.[6][8][9][10][11][12] His 1969 essay "Jesse Jackson: Heir to Dr. King?," published in Harper's Magazine," has been reprinted numerous times.[6] In addition to being a freelance journalist, he has been a contributing editor and columnist at Esquire, as well as a staff writer and editor at Newsweek and the Saturday Review.[7] He has also taught at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1977, he was awarded an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellowship.[13] His mentors have included American journalist and historian David Halberstam and author/editor Willie Morris.[6]
In 2015, Levine published a book of poetry and a book of short stories.[14][15] He was a 2016 finalist for the Lascaux Prize in Poetry[16] and the Eric Hoffer Book Award in Fiction.
Personal life edit
Levine is married to poet and writer Lucille Lang Day, and they live in Oakland, California.[17]
Books edit
- Bad Blood: A Family Murder in Marin County (Random House, 1982). ISBN 0394508874
- Catch and Other Poems (Scarlet Tanager Books, 2015). ISBN 978-0976867647
- The Man Who Gave Away His Organs: Tales of Love and Obsession at Midlife (Capra Press, 2015). ISBN 978-1592661046
References edit
- ^ "Richard Michael Levine - Nonfiction, Fiction, Poetry". www.richardmichaellevine.com.
- ^ a b "BAD BLOOD: A Family Murder in Marin County by Richard Levine | Kirkus Reviews" – via www.kirkusreviews.com.
- ^ "A Local Murder". October 21, 2008.
- ^ Admin, G. M. (October 21, 2014). "Richard M. Levine, 'Bad Blood' (11/82)".
- ^ Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (November 11, 1982). "Books Of The Times" – via NYTimes.com.
- ^ a b c d e "Richard Michael Levine Presented with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award". Marquis Who's Who. Retrieved 2020-04-07.
- ^ a b "Richard Michael Levine". www.pw.org. Retrieved 2020-02-17.
- ^ Levine, BY Richard M. (November 16, 1986). "Murder, They Wrote" – via NYTimes.com.
- ^ Levine, Richard M. "Life After Flashdance | Esquire | JANUARY 1981". Esquire | The Complete Archive.
- ^ LLC, New York Media (September 6, 1971). "New York Magazine". New York Media, LLC – via Google Books.
- ^ Jones, Mother (June 12, 1994). "Mother Jones Magazine". Mother Jones – via Google Books.
- ^ "Richard Michael Levine". November 17, 2015.
- ^ "Richard Levine | Alicia Patterson Foundation". aliciapatterson.org.
- ^ "Meet Author & Writer Richard Michael Levine". www.bookpleasures.com.
- ^ "Poetry Flash > calendar > Richard Michael Levine and Marilyn Stablein". www.poetryflash.org.
- ^ "Contest Results | The Lascaux Review".
- ^ "Lucille Lang Day". www.lucillelangday.com. Retrieved 2020-01-21.