Rebecca Mead (born 24 September 1966) is an English writer and journalist.
Early life and education
Rebecca Mead was born in London, England.
When she was three years old she relocated with her family to the seaside town of
Weymouth in
Dorset
Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...
, where she grew up.
Mead's father was a
civil servant
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...
.
As a teenager she became interested in
left-wing politics
Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...
.
Mead studied English literature at the
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
.
After graduating from Oxford she won a full scholarship to study for a
master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...
in journalism at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
.
Career
While at NYU, Mead was employed as an
intern
An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used to practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and g ...
by ''
New York Magazine
''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, with a particular emphasis on New York City.
Founded by Clay Felker and Milton Glaser in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'' a ...
''.
After graduation the magazine employed her as a fact checker.
After a few years she was promoted to features writer.
She joined ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'' as a staff writer in 1997.
Mead published ''My Life In Middlemarch'' (''The Road to Middlemarch'' in the UK) in 2014. A personal study of
George Eliot
Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...
's
best-known novel, it received mixed reviews.
Personal life
Mead was naturalised as an American citizen in 2011
and moved back to the United Kingdom in 2018.
Bibliography
Books
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Essays, reporting and other contributions
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[Online version is titled "A hip-hop interpretation of the Founding Fathers".]
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[Online version is titled "Happy ugly feet".]
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[Title in the online table of contents is "Marlis Petersen ends on a high note".]
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[Title in the online table of contents is "'Custody,' a film of Family Court".]
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[Online version is titled "A protest musical for the Trump era".]
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[Online version is titled "When kids philosophize".]
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[Online version is titled "Terence Davies’s poetic melancholy".]
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[Online version is titled "Joanna Hogg's self-portrait of a lady".]
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[Title in the online table of contents is " Harris Reed’s gender-fluid fashion".]
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[Online version is titled "Transforming trees into skyscrapers".]
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[Online version is titled "Anish Kapoor's material values".]
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[Online version is titled "Oldest living aristocratic widow tells all".]
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[Title in the online table of contents is "Ridding the National Portrait Gallery of its gentlemen's-club vibe".]
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[Online version is titled "Menopause is having a moment".]
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;Bibliography notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mead, Rebecca
1966 births
20th-century English journalists
20th-century English women writers
21st-century English journalists
21st-century English women writers
Alumni of the University of Oxford
English emigrants to the United States
English women journalists
Living people
New York (magazine) people
New York University alumni
People from Weymouth, Dorset
Naturalized citizens of the United States
The New Yorker staff writers
Writers from London
English women memoirists