Nicholson Baker (born January 7, 1957) is an American novelist and essayist. His fiction generally de-emphasizes narrative in favor of careful description and characterization. His early novels such as ''

The Mezzanine ''The Mezzanine'' (1988) is the first novel by American writer Nicholson Baker. It narrates what goes through a man's mind during a modern lunch break. Concept On the surface, the novel deals with a man's lunchtime trip up an escalator in the me ...

'' and ''

Room Temperature Colloquially, "room temperature" is a range of air temperatures that most people prefer for indoor settings. It feels comfortable to a person when they are wearing typical indoor clothing. Human comfort can extend beyond this range depending on ...

'' were distinguished by their minute inspection of his characters' and narrators'

stream of consciousness In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. The term was coined by Daniel Oliver in 1840 in ''First L ...

. Out of a total of ten novels, three are erotica: '' Vox'', '' The Fermata'' and '' House of Holes''. Baker also writes non-fiction books. '' U and I: A True Story'', about his relationship with

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth Tar ...

, was published in 1991. He then wrote about the American library system in his 2001 book '' Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper'', for which he received a

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Calw Hermann Hesse Prize The Calw Hermann Hesse Prize is a literary prize awarded since 1990. It is named after the German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter Hermann Hesse. Alternating every year since 2017, the International Hermann Hesse Prize of the Foundation (awarde ...

for the German translation. A

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campai ...

, he wrote '' Human Smoke'' (2008) about the buildup to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Baker has published articles in ''

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...

'', 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 ...

'' and ''

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 ...

'', among other periodicals. Baker created the

American Newspaper Repository The American Newspaper Repository is a charity whose purpose is to collect and preserve original copies of American newspapers. It was founded in 1999 by the author Nicholson Baker when he learnt that the British Library was disposing of its coll ...

in 1999. He has also written about and edited

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...

Life

Nicholson Baker was born in 1957 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He studied briefly at the

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York. It was established in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman. It offers Bachelor of Music ...

and received a B.A. in English from

Haverford College Haverford College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Haverford, Pennsylvania. It was founded as a men's college in 1833 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), began accepting non-Quakers in 1849, and became coeducationa ...

. Baker describes himself as an atheist, although he occasionally visits

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

meetings. Baker says he has "always had pacifist leanings." Baker met his wife, Margaret Brentano, in college; they live in Maine and have two grown children.

Career

Baker established a name for himself with the novels ''

'' (1988) and ''

'' (1990). Both novels have for the most part a very limited time span. ''The Mezzanine'' occurs over the course of an escalator journey and ''Room Temperature'' happens while a father feeds his baby daughter. '' U and I: A True Story'' (1991) is a non-fiction study of how a reader engages with an author's work. It is partly about Baker's appreciation for the work of

and partly a self-exploration. Rather than giving a traditional literary analysis, Baker begins the book by stating that he will read no more Updike than he already has up to that point. All of the Updike quotations used are presented as coming from memory alone, and many are inaccurate, with correct versions and Baker's (later) commentary on the inaccuracies. Critics group together '' Vox'', '' The Fermata'' and '' House of Holes'' since they are all erotic novels. ''Vox'' (1992) consists of an episode of

phone sex Phone sex is a conversation between two or more people by means of the telephone which is sexually explicit and is intended to provoke sexual arousal in one or more participants. All parties participate voluntarily; it is typically accompanied ...

between two young single people on a pay-per-minute chat line. The book was Baker's first ''

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 ...

'' bestseller and Monica Lewinsky gave a copy to President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

when they were having an affair. In ''Vox'', Baker coined the word ''femalia''. ''The Fermata'' (1994) also addresses erotic life and fantasy. The protagonist Arno Strine likes to stop time and take off women's clothes. The work proved controversial with critics. It was also a

bestseller A bestseller is a book or other media noted for its top selling status, with bestseller lists published by newspapers, magazines, and book store chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and specialties (novel, nonfiction book, co ...

. ''House of Holes'' (2011) is about a fantastical place where all sexual perversions and fetishes are permitted. It is a collection of stories, more or less connected to each other. The novellas are erotic in the sense of

Giovanni Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was som ...

's ''

Decameron ''The Decameron'' (; it, label= Italian, Decameron or ''Decamerone'' ), subtitled ''Prince Galehaut'' (Old it, Prencipe Galeotto, links=no ) and sometimes nicknamed ''l'Umana commedia'' ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Da ...

''. The titular House of Holes is a fantasy sex resort in which people can engage in absurd sexual practices, such as groin transference and sex with trees. Akin to ''

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creature ...

'', people enter the House of Holes through such techniques as tumbling through a clothes dryer or through a drinking straw. Baker is a fervent critic of what he perceives as libraries' unnecessary destruction of paper-based media. He wrote several vehement articles in ''

'' critical of the

San Francisco Public Library The San Francisco Public Library is the public library system of the city and county of San Francisco. The Main Library is located at Civic Center, at 100 Larkin Street. The library system has won several awards, such as '' Library Journals ...

for sending thousands of books to a landfill, eliminating card catalogs, and destroying old books and newspapers in favor of

microfilm Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original document size. ...

. In 1997, Baker received the San Francisco–based

James Madison Freedom of Information Award The James Madison Freedom of Information Award is a San Francisco Bay Area honor given to individuals and organizations who have made significant contributions to the advancement of freedom of expression, particularly freedom of information (as in ...

in recognition of these efforts. In 1999, Baker established a non-profit corporation, the

, to rescue old newspapers from destruction by libraries. In 2001, he published '' Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper'' about preservation, newspapers, and the American library system. An excerpt first appeared in the July 24, 2000, issue of ''The New Yorker'', under the title "Deadline: The Author's Desperate Bid to Save America's Past." The exhaustively researched work (there are 63 pages of endnotes and 18 pages of references in the paperback edition) details Baker's quest to uncover the fate of thousands of books and newspapers that were replaced and often destroyed during the microfilming boom of the 1980s and 1990s. The 2004 novel '' Checkpoint'' is composed of dialogue between two old high school friends, Jay and Ben, who discuss Jay's plans to assassinate President George W. Bush. '' Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization'' (2008) is a history of

that questions the commonly held belief that the Allies wanted to avoid the war at all costs but were forced into action by Hitler's unforgiving actions. It consists largely of official government transcripts and other documents from the time. He suggests that the pacifists were correct in their views. In March 2008, Baker reviewed John Broughton's '' Wikipedia: The Missing Manual'' in the ''

New York Review of Books New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

''. In the review, Baker described Wikipedia's beginnings, its culture, and his own editing activities under the username "Wageless". His article "How I fell in love with Wikipedia" was published in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' newspaper in the UK on April 10, 2008. '' The Anthologist'' (2009) is narrated by Paul Chowder, a poet, who is attempting to write an introduction to a poetry anthology. Distracted by problems in his life, he is unable to begin writing, and instead ruminates on poets and poetry throughout history. In 2014, Baker spent 28 days as a substitute teacher in some Maine public schools as research for his 2016 book ''Substitute: Going to School With a Thousand Kids''. Baker tried to find out "what life in the classroom is really like." He also wrote about the experience for ''

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. ...

.'' Baker wrote a cover story for ''

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' ...

'' in January 2021 investigating the

COVID-19 lab leak theory The COVID-19 lab leak theory, or lab leak hypothesis, is the idea that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, escaped from a laboratory. Most scientists believe the virus spilled into human populations through natural zo ...

and expressing his belief in the theory’s plausibility.

Works

Fiction

* ''

'' (1988, Weidenfeld & Nicolson; / 1990, Vintage; ) * ''

'' (1990, Grove Weidenfeld; / 1990, Vintage; / 1990, Granta; / 1991, Granta; ) * '' Vox: A Novel'' (1992, Random House; / 1992, Vintage; / 1992, Granta; ) * '' The Fermata'' (1994, Vintage; ) * ''The Everlasting Story of Nory'' (1998, Random House; / 1998, Vintage; ) * ''A Box of Matches'' (2003, Random House; / 2003, Chatto & Windus; ) * ''Vintage Baker'' (2004, Vintage; ) * '' Checkpoint'' (2004, Random House; ) * '' The Anthologist'' (2009, Simon & Schuster; ) * '' House of Holes: A Book of Raunch'' (2011, Simon & Schuster; ) * ''Traveling Sprinkler'' (2013, Blue Rider Press; )

Non-fiction

* '' U and I: A True Story'' (1991, Random House; / 1991 Penguin/Granta; (hard) / 1992, Penguin/Granta; (paper) /1995, Vintage; / 1998, Granta; ) * ''The Size of Thoughts: Essays and Other Lumber'' (1996, Random House, / 1996, Vintage; (paper) / 1996, Chatto & Windus; (hard) / 1997, Vintage; (paper)) * '' Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper'' (2001, Random House; / 2001, Vintage; / 2002, Vintage; ) * With Margaret Brentano (his wife). ''

The World In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

on Sunday: Graphic Art in

Joseph Pulitzer Joseph Pulitzer ( ; born Pulitzer József, ; April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911) was a Hungarian-American politician and newspaper publisher of the '' St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' and the ''New York World''. He became a leading national figure in ...

's Newspaper (1898– 1911)'' (2005, Bulfinch; ) * '' Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization'' (2008, Simon & Schuster; ) * '' The Way the World Works: Essays'' (2012, Simon & Schuster; ) * ''Substitute: Going to School with a Thousand Kids'' (2016, Blue Rider Press; ) * ''Baseless: My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information Act'' (2020, Penguin Press; )

Selected essays and reporting

* * * * * * *

Music

* While working on ''Traveling Sprinkler'', Nicholson Baker posted some songs made in the style of protagonist Paul Chowder on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

. The ballads combined dance music with protest songs and dealt with foreign policy agenda."Jeju Island"
201
"Terrormaker"
2012
"When you intervene"
2014
"Nine Women Gathering Firewood"
and a
song"
2014 Twelve songs were available in a deluxe e-book version of the novel and later on

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

Awards

*1997:

. *2001:

Calw Hermann Hesse Prize The Calw Hermann Hesse Prize is a literary prize awarded since 1990. It is named after the German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter Hermann Hesse. Alternating every year since 2017, the International Hermann Hesse Prize of the Foundation (awarde ...

for the German translation of ''Double Fold''. *2018: Baker was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

References

External links

* *
Nicholson Baker
at

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

, author page
Nicholson Baker, "A Debunker on the Road to World War II"
''New York Times,'' March 4, 2008 * Cox, Richard J.

* Grimes, William.

''New York Times Book Review''
"How I fell in love with Wikipedia
. ''Guardian.'' April 10, 2008 *
The Charms of Wikipedia
''New York Review of Books'', volume 55, number 4, March 20, 2008 (subscription required, see als
here
.
Interview about "Human Smoke"
on "BackStory" radio program *
Can the Kindle really improve on the book?
''New Yorker,'' August 3, 2009. On the Kindle reading device.
A radio interview with Nicholson Baker
Aired on the Lewis Burke Frumkes Radio Show. * Wroe, Nicholas.
A Life in Writing
. ''Guardian,'' 19 September 2009. An interview.
KCRW Bookworm Interview
May 4, 2002
Nicholson Baker on his literary career and how he came to write about sex
La Clé des langues - 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Nicholson 1957 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists Historians of World War II European Graduate School faculty Haverford College alumni The New Yorker people American male novelists Postmodern writers People from South Berwick, Maine Novelists from Maine Writers from New York City American male essayists Novelists from New York (state) 21st-century American essayists Writers from Rochester, New York Eastman School of Music alumni 21st-century American male writers