Mark Stevens (born August 14, 1951) is an American writer who was co-awarded the 2005

Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography The Pulitzer Prize for Biography is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. The award honors "a distinguished and appropriately documented biography by an American author." Award winners receive ...

with Annalyn Swan for ''De Kooning: An American Master''. His book with Swan also received the

National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography The National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, established in 1983, is an annual American literary award presented by the National Book Critics Circle The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) is an American nonprofit organization (501 ...

in 2004 and a

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Since 1980, the ''Los Angeles Times'' has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The ''Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize currently has nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award added in 1991), his ...

in 2005. During his writing career, Stevens was an art critic for ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

'', ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...

'' and ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

'' between the 1970s to 2000s. Other publications by Stevens include a 1981 work on

Richard Diebenkorn Richard Diebenkorn (April 22, 1922 – March 30, 1993) was an American painter and printmaker. His early work is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1960s he began ...

's art and a 1984 book called ''Summer of the City''.

Early life and education

On August 14, 1951, Stevens was born in New York City. For his post-secondary education, Stevens received a Bachelor of Arts from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 1973 and a Master of Arts from King's College in 1975.

Career

Stevens began his writing career as a freelancer in 1975 before becoming an art critic for ''

'' in 1977. He remained at Newsweek until August 1988 while expanding his writings with ''

'' and '' Vanity Fair''. At ''The New Republic'', Stevens started critiquing art in 1986 before continuing his art critic career with ''

'' in 1996. Stevens remained with the magazine until his resignation in 2007. Outside of art, Stevens published a work about

's artworks in 1981. In 1984, he released his first book ''Summer of the City'' in 1984 while writing for Newsweek. In 1989, Stevens and his wife Annalyn Swan signed with ''

Bantam Books Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin Jr., Sidney B. K ...

'' for a future biography about

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning ( , ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. Born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, he moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a US citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married pa ...

. After spending ten years on the writing process, ''de Kooning: An American Master'' was released in 2004 by ''

Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Blanche Knopf and Alfred A. Knopf Sr. in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers ...

''. In 2008, Stevens and Swan reached a deal with Knopf for a future

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...

biography. The resulting work, ''Francis Bacon: Revelations'', was published in 2021 with

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

(UK) and

Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Blanche Knopf and Alfred A. Knopf Sr. in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers ...

(US).

Awards and honors

In 2004, Stevens and Swan won the

with ''De Kooning: An American Master''. The following year, Stevens and his wife won the 2005

and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography with their De Kooning book. Their book also received the

Ambassador Book Award The Ambassador Book Award (1986–2011) was presented annually by the English-Speaking Union. It recognized important literary and non-fiction works that contributed to the understanding and interpretation of American life and culture. Winners of ...

in the Biography & Autobiography category that year. During 2007, Stevens was a fellow at the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stevens, Mark 1951 births American writers American art critics Newsweek people The New Republic people Vanity Fair (magazine) people Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners Living people Princeton University alumni Alumni of King's College, Cambridge National Book Critics Circle Award winners