James Robert Atlas (March 22, 1949 – September 4, 2019) was a writer, especially of biographies, as well as a publisher. He was the president of Atlas & Company and founding editor of the Penguin Lives Series.

Early life and education

Atlas was born in

Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, ...

to Donald and Nora (Glassenberg) Atlas. His father was a physician and his mother was a homemaker. Atlas graduated in 1967 from high school in Evanston, during the turmoil of the 1960s. He studied at Harvard under Robert Lowell and

Elizabeth Bishop Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American poet and short-story writer. She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the National Book Awar ...

with the intention of becoming a poet. He went to

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and studied under the biographer

Richard Ellmann Richard David Ellmann, FBA (March 15, 1918 – May 13, 1987) was an American literary critic and biographer of the Irish writers James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and William Butler Yeats. He won the U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction for ''Jame ...

, as a Rhodes Scholar. During his time at Oxford he was inspired to become a biographer.

Career

Atlas was a contributor to ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', and he was an editor at ''

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. ...

'' for many years. He edited volumes of poetry and wrote several novels and two biographies. In 2002, he started Atlas Books, which at one time published two series in conjunction with

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...

and

W.W. Norton W. W. Norton & Company is an American publishing company based in New York City. Established in 1923, it has been owned wholly by its employees since the early 1960s. The company is known for its Norton Anthologies (particularly ''The Norton An ...

. In 2007, the company was renamed Atlas & Company, to coincide with the launch of its new list. Atlas joined

Amazon Publishing Amazon Publishing (simply APub) is Amazon's book publishing unit launched in 2009. It is composed of 15 imprints including AmazonEncore, AmazonCrossing, Montlake Romance, Thomas & Mercer, 47North, and TOPPLE Books. Amazon publishes e-books via ...

and Atlas & Company stopped publishing new titles in 2012. Atlas's work appeared in ''

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 ...

'', ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

'', ''

The London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review o ...

'', '' Vanity Fair'', ''Harper's'', ''

New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker' ...

'', and '' Huffington Post''.

Personal life and death

In 1975 he married psychiatrist Dr. Anna Fels. Atlas died in Manhattan, New York on September 4, 2019 from complications of a lung condition. He was survived by his wife and a son, daughter, and grandson.

Works

*''Ten American Poets: An Anthology of Poems'', Cheadle: Carcanet Press, 1973 *''

Delmore Schwartz Delmore Schwartz (December 8, 1913 – July 11, 1966) was an American poet and short story writer. Early life Schwartz was born in 1913 in Brooklyn, New York, where he also grew up. His parents, Harry and Rose, both Romanian Jews, separated when ...

: The Life of an American Poet'', New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1977 (nominated for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

) *''Battle of the Books: The Curriculum Debate in America'', New York: W.W. Norton, 1993 *''Bellow: A Biography'', New York: Random House and London: Faber, 2000 (He is also the editor of

Saul Bellow Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; 10 July 1915 – 5 April 2005) was a Canadian-born American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only w ...

's collection of novels in

Library of America The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors rang ...

) *''My Life in the Middle Ages: A Survivor's Tale'', New York: HarperCollins, 2005 (An adaptation of a series of articles he did for ''

'', and ''The Great Pretender,'' a semi-autobiographical novel about coming of age in the 1960s. He is a longtime board member of the ''

Harvard Advocate ''The Harvard Advocate'', the art and literary magazine of Harvard College, is the oldest continuously published college art and literary magazine in the United States. The magazine (published then in newspaper format) was founded by Charles S. ...

'', which has previously published his work). *, (editor) regarding some global views of America. *''The Shadow in the Garden: A Biographer's Tale'', New York: Pantheon Books, 2017

References

External links

New York Observer article mentions Atlas' postponement of spring 2009 list

Atlas & Co.
* 1949 births 2019 deaths American Rhodes Scholars American book publishers (people) Harvard University alumni Evanston Township High School alumni 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American biographers Writers from Evanston, Illinois The New Yorker people 20th-century American biographers 20th-century American journalists American male journalists 20th-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers {{US-journalist-1940s-stub