Eric Lax is an American author who has written books on modern medicine, four books on

Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...

including a biography, and a personal memoir ''Faith: Interrupted'' about his loss of Christian faith.

Biography

Lax was raised in an Episcopalian family and graduated from Hobart College in 1966 with a major in English. Upon graduating, he joined the

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F ...

serving in Chuuk and the

Caroline Islands The Caroline Islands (or the Carolines) are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea. Politically, they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the ce ...

in the western

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

. After completing his two-year placement, he worked in

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

on the Peace Corps staff in a capacity that allowed him to travel to more than 40 countries.William Smith Centennial :: William Smith Leaders : Eric Lax ’66
/ref> He left the Peace Corps in 1970 to pursue writing full-time, and his interest in

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

led to his first book, ''On Being Funny: Woody Allen and Comedy'' in 1975, which was part biography of

and part general treatise on comedy. Lax also interviewed Groucho Marx for ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

'' during the veteran comedian's 1972 trip to perform in

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

. In 1984, Lax wrote ''Life and Death on 10 West'' about the bone marrow transplantation ward at the

UCLA Medical Center Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (also commonly referred to as ''UCLA Medical Center'', "RRMC" or "Ronald Reagan") is a hospital located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles, in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, United ...

, which was headed at the time by his college classmate Robert Peter Gale. It was recognized by ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'' as one of the Notable Books of the Year and received an award from the Leukemia Society of America. Lax's books include ''The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat'', about the development of penicillin; ''Woody Allen: A Biography'' and ''Conversations with Woody Allen'', which comprises 40 years of interviews with Allen. With Ann M. Sperber, he is the co-author of ''Bogart''. In addition to writing his books, Lax has written articles that have appeared in several periodical publications including ''

The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', '' Esquire'', the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'', ''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...

'', '' Vanity Fair'', ''

'', ''

The Washington Monthly ''Washington Monthly'' is a bimonthly, nonprofit magazine of United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C. The magazine is known for its annual ranking of American colleges and universities, which serves as an alterna ...

'' and ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. He has worked as a contributing editor of ''

Esquire magazine ''Esquire'' is an American men's magazine. Currently published in the United States by Hearst Communications, it also has more than 20 international editions. Founded in 1933, it flourished during the Great Depression and World War II under t ...

''. He is a past president of

PEN Center USA PEN Center USA was a branch of PEN, an international literary and human rights organization. It was one of two PEN International Centers in the United States, the other being the PEN America in New York City. On March 1, 2018, PEN Center USA unifi ...

, is currently a Vice President of

PEN International PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internatio ...

and a member of the board of ''The Los Angeles Review of Books''.

Personal life

In 1982, Lax married Karen Alden Sulzberger, daughter of the late Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

and sister of current ''Times'' publisher

Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. Arthur Ochs "Pinch" Sulzberger Jr. (born September 22, 1951) is an American journalist. Sulzberger was the chairman of The New York Times Company from 1997 to 2020, and the publisher of '' The New York Times'' from 1992 to 2018. Early life a ...

in an Episcopal ceremony officiated by Bishop Harold B. Robinson. They have two sonshttps://www.imdb.com/name/nm1404168/ accessed 16 February 2008 and live in

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...

Bibliography

*(1969) ''The U.S. Overseas: Pinpoints on the Pacific'', Time Life Books, New York, pages 130-131, Library of Congress CC number 69-16543. *(1975) ''On Being Funny: Woody Allen and Comedy'', Charterhouse, New York, . *(1984) ''Life and Death on 10 West'', 267 pp., Times Books, . *(1991) ''Woody Allen: A Biography'', 439 pp., Alfred A. Knopf Inc. (New York). *(1992) ''Woody Allen: A Biography'' 2nd Ed., 439 pp., Vintage Books. *(1996) ''Paul Newman: A Biography'', 192 pp., Turner Publishing, . *(1997) with Ann M. Sperber, ''Bogart'', 676 pp., Morrow, . *(1998) ''Newman: Paul Newman - A Celebration'', Pavilion, . *(2000) ''Woody Allen: A Biography'' 3rd Ed., 439 pp., Da Capo Press, . *(2004) "The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat: The Story of the Penicillin Miracle", Henry Holt, *(2004) ''The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat: The Story of the Penicillin Miracle'', 389 pp., Little Brown, . *(2005) "The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat: The Story of the Penicillin Miracle"', 308 pp.,Owl Books/Henry Holt, *(2007) ''Conversations with Woody Allen: His Films, the Movies, and Moviemaking'', 416 pp., Knopf, . *(2009) ''Conversations with Woody Allen: His Films, the Movies, and Moviemaking. Updated and expanded'', 416 pp., Knopf, *(2010) ''Faith, Interrupted'', Knopf *(2011) "Faith Interrupted", Vintage *(2013) “Radiation: What It Is, What You Need to Know”, with Robert Peter Gale, MD,Ph.D, 274 pp., Knopf *(2013) "Radiation: What It Is, What You Need to Know," 274 pp., Vintage Books *(2017) ''Start to Finish: Woody Allen and the Art of Moviemaking'',368 pp. Knopf, *(2017) "Start to Finish: Woody Allen and the Art of Moviemaking"' 368 pp., Vintage,

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lax, Eric Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American biographers Hobart and William Smith Colleges alumni Sulzberger family