Michael Lesy

Biography
Dr. Michael Lesy, professor of literary journalism, received a B.A. in theoretical sociology at Columbia University, an M.A. in American social history at the University of Wisconsin, and a Ph.D. in American cultural history at Rutgers University. He has published eleven books of history, biography, and narrative non fiction. Many of his books have been based on historic photographs, gathered in archives; several have been based on oral histories, gathered during fieldwork. Professor Lesy’s first book, Wisconsin Death Trip, has remained in print since 1973. Professor Lesy’s most recent book, Murder City (2007), grew out of a Hampshire College Tutorial. Professor Lesy’s books have been made into operas, plays, dance performances, and films. In 2007, the United States Artists Foundation named Professor Lesy its first Simon Fellow.

Professor Lesy is currently on sabbatical.

Current Projects
Professor Lesy will take a sabbatical during the Fall 2009 semester to work on his next book, Repast: Dining Out at the Dawn of the American Century 1900-1910. The book is based on the Buttolph Menu Collection.

You may view the Buttolph Menus through the New York Public Library's media gallery:

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?keyword=The+Buttolph+Menu+Collection

Fall 2010
IA-0236-1 The Practice of Literary Journalism

IA-0276-1 The Past Recaptured: Photographs, Facts, and Fictions, 1890-1910

Spring 2010
IA-0236-1 The Practice of Literary Journalism

IA-0264-1 The Past Remembered: Photographs, Facts and Fictions 1935-1943

Spring 2009
IA-0236-1 Practice of Literary Journalism

IA/HACU/SS-0264-1 The Past Recaptured: Photographs, Facts and Fictions, 1935-1943

Fall 2008
IA-0236-1 The Practice of Literary Journalism

IA/HACU/SS-0276-1 The Past Recaptured: Photographs, Facts and Fictions, 1935-1943

View course description here: The Past Recaptured: Photographs, Facts, and Fictions

Recent Articles
"The Glass Menagerie". THE NATIONAL, a Dubai newspaper. January,2009. Link to: www.thenational.ae/article/20090109/REVIEW/403425669/1008

"William van der Weyde and the American Morality Play". APERTURE MAGAZINE. Spring 2009. Link to: www.aperture.org/magazine/backissues/aperture-194.html

"Visual Literacy". The Journal of American History. June 2007

"The Writing of Photographic History". This paper served as the keynote speech for the Hasselblad Foundation's International Photography Symposium, held at the University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden, on October 15, 2009.

Books
Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties (2007)

Angel's World: The New York Photographs of Angelo Rizzuto (2006)

Long Time Coming: A Photographic Portrait of America (2002)

Dreamland: America at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century (1997)

Rescues: The Lives of Heroes (1991)

Bearing Witness: A Photographical Chronicle of American Life 1860-1945 (1985)

Time Frames: The Meaning of Family Pictures (1980)

Forbidden Zone (1987)

Visible Light (1985)

Real Life: Louisville in the Twenties (1976)

Wisconsin Death Trip (1973)

Interviews with Michael Lesy
"Stalking the Crowded City, A Loner with a Lens." New York Times. December 17, 2005

A piece by John Strausbaugh about Michael Lesy's book Angel's World :                                                                        http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/17/arts/design/17lesy.html?_r=1&amp;scp=2&amp;sq=stalking%20the%20city&amp;st=cse

Identity Theory. September 16, 2003

Robert Birnbaum interviews Michael Lesy: http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/birnbaum125.php