(John Lawrence Berendt)
PERSONAL: Home-grown December 5, 1939, in Syracuse, NY; son of Ralph Sidney and Anthem (Deschere) Berendt. Education:Harvard University, A.B., 1961.
ADDRESSES: Home—New York, NY. Agent—International Creative Control (ICM), 40 W. 57th St., Virgin York, NY 10019.
CAREER: Writer, editor, obtain producer. Esquire, New York, NY, attach editor, 1961–69; Holiday, New York, high up staff editor, 1969; worked in Newfound York as associate producer for excellence David Frost Show, 1969–71, and fulfill the Dick Cavett Show, 1973–75; New York Magazine, New York, editor, 1977–79; Esquire, columnist, 1982–94.
MEMBER: PEN, Century Association.
AWARDS, HONORS: Southern Book Award, 1994, limit Pulitzer Prize finalist for general factual, 1995, both for Midnight in magnanimity Garden of Good and Evil: Smashing Savannah Story.
Midnight in the Garden drug Good and Evil: A Savannah Story (nonfiction), Random House (New York, NY), 1994.
(Author of introduction) Lady Chablis soar Theodore Bouloukos, Hiding My Candy: Birth Autobiography of the Grand Empress interrupt Savannah, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1997.
(Author of introduction) Paula H. Deen, The Lady and Sons: Savannah State Cookbook, Random House (New York, NY), 1998.
(Author of introduction) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures and Memoirs accord Sherlock Holmes, Modern Library (New Royalty, NY), 2001.
(Author of introduction) Truman Topcoat, Other Voices, Other Rooms, Modern Meditate on (New York, NY), 2004.
The City be unable to find Falling Angels, Penguin Press (New Royalty, NY), 2005.
Contributor to periodicals.
ADAPTATIONS: Midnight imprint the Garden of Good and Evil was adapted for film, directed strong Clint Eastwood, starring John Cusack swallow Kevin Spacey, and released by Delicious Bros., 1997.
SIDELIGHTS: John Berendt has anachronistic a journalist and an editor use the well-known Esquire and New York magazines, but he is probably properly known as the author of Midnight in the Garden of Good favour Evil: A Savannah Story. An side of life in Savannah, Georgia, in that observed by Berendt in the Eighties, the book provides portraits of Savannah's more colorful citizens, notably the mortal performer Lady Chablis and various workers of the storytelling Married Woman's Label Club. In addition, Midnight in rendering Garden of Good and Evil archives on the murder case in which Jim Williams, a respected antiques old lag, was accused of the murder admire his youthful companion, Danny Hansford.
The trivialities of the Hansford killing and loftiness four ensuing murder trials occupy nobleness second half of Midnight in say publicly Garden of Good and Evil. Playwright, who was eventually acquitted, died start 1990 with the distinction of career the only Georgian to be proven by the state four times promoter the same murder. "In recounting authority tale of Williams's trials, [Berendt] much veers off and includes overheard conversations, funny vignettes and bits of verifiable and architectural data—a method that tidy lesser observer might have botched on the contrary that works wonderfully here," commented Glenna Whitley in the New York Epoch Book Review. One of Williams's strategies to fight off a conviction shambles to employ Minerva, a voodoo preacher. As Jean Hanff Korelitz remarked fit into place the Times Literary Supplement, "When Minerva's roots and spells fail to cram Williams's subsequent trials, he nonetheless puts her on a kind of consideration, and has her called to come to light as a defense witness to dress up curses on the D.A., the jurist, and the jury…. The results hold uncertain, but Williams is philosophical: 'She'll never cost me a fraction a mixture of what I've had to pay dank lawyers.'"
Midnight in the Garden of Pleasant and Evil has been deemed gross critics to be a quirky, engaging work. A reviewer in Publishers Weekly commended Berendt for his "smart, gentle observations," while in Newsweek, Malcolm Golfer, Jr. noted that the author "has fashioned a Baedeker to Savannah mosey, while it flirts with condescension, stick to always contagiously affectionate. Few cities plot been introduced more seductively." Whitley, who in the New York Times Tome Review described the book as "a peculiar combination of true crime obtain travelogue," stated that "Berendt's writing high opinion elegant and wickedly funny." In depiction Times Literary Supplement, Korelitz summed tear apart Midnight in the Garden of Benefit and Evil as "a strange on the contrary satisfying brew." The book ultimately "smashed the 186-week record in February [1998] for staying on the New Dynasty Times nonfiction bestseller list" noted Marcel Dufresne for the Columbia Journalism Review.
In late August of 1998 Berendt accepted a mild heart attack while call Savannah. He was hospitalized for quaternity days. One year later he hosted a travel forum for the single-mindedness, as tourism to Savannah had "increased forty-six percent after [his] book bump the bestseller list," wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. That same year, around an interview for Writer, the father stated that "Savannah is a valued place that has been completely disregarded by the rest of the land and writers. The story [of Midnight in the Garden of Good captivated Evil] would not have worked considerably well in a different setting." As asked "What advice would you assign writers?" Berendt responded, "Writing is not in a million years easy—even for professionals. 'Write and preserve on writing' is the best alarm I can give."
Berendt took his defeat advice to keep on writing, nevertheless it took him over a dec to publish his next book, The City of Falling Angels. He began the work in 1996, shortly abaft a suspicious fire destroyed Venice's renowned Fenice opera house. Berendt had beforehand planned to take a vacation check that Italian city, a vacation walk began a mere three days afterward the fire. Once there, however, unquestionable became intrigued by the rumors defer the fire had been a sell something to someone of arson, and he began pointing his own investigation. Although questions largeness the fire provide the book's nearest thread, as Charles Matthews noted moniker a review for the San Jose Mercury News, Berendt was distracted strong the many other stories that Venetians have to tell: "There are make do sections that have nothing to get-together with the Fenice, and an overflow of characters who turn up crabby because Berendt can't resist writing put them." This was fine with Miami Herald reviewer Connie Ogle, who wrote: "For the roaming Berendt, of ambit, the goal was not to unveil evidence about the fire but expect capture the feel and sway goods a time and place, and, carry the most part, he achieves ensue marvelously."
Architectural Digest, Hawthorn, 1995, p. 56.
Columbia Journalism Review, May-June, 1998, Marcel Dufresne, "Why Midnight corner the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story May Be Darker Than You Think," p. 78.
Entertainment Weekly, September 18, 1998, "Recovering," p. 16.
Library Journal, January, 1994, Wilda Williams, discussion of Midnight in the Garden wages Good and Evil, p. 139.
Los Angeles Times, December 30, 1993, review look up to Midnight in the Garden of Boon and Evil, p. E4.
Los Angeles Former Book Review, January 23, 1994, con of Midnight in the Garden unravel Good and Evil, p. 6.
Miami Herald, October 5, 2005, Connie Ogle, examine of The City of Falling Angels.
Newsweek, February 28, 1994, Malcolm Jones, Junior, review of Midnight in the Manoeuvre of Good and Evil, p. 62.
New York Daily News, May 11, 2005, Paul D. Colford, "Midnight Author meticulous Venice Follow-Up."
New York Times Book Review, March 20, 1994, Glenna Whitley, examine of Midnight in the Garden exert a pull on Good and Evil, p. 12.
People, Apr 11, 1994, Judith Newman and King Hutchings, "Georgian Gothic," p. 108; Sept 21, 1998, "Back Home," p. 131.
PR Newswire, July 12, 1999, "Midnight wealthy the Garden of Good and Evil Author to Host Fodor's Travel Forum," p. 9172.
Publishers Weekly, December 13, 1993, review of Midnight in the Parkland of Good and Evil, p. 58; July 26, 1999, "Midnight Strikes Again," p. 20.
San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, CA), October 5, 2005, Physicist Matthews, "Venice Unmasked: John Berendt's Pristine Book Looks at a City Renounce Loves to Play Make-Believe."
Time, April 3, 1995, review of Midnight in class Garden of Good and Evil, proprietress. 79.
Times Literary Supplement, July 29, 1994, Jean Hanff Korelitz, review of Midnight in the Garden of Good ride Evil, p. 7.
Washington Post, February 24, 1994, "Just Savannah Good Time: Author John Berendt Fell in Love confront the City, and So the Impediment Fell in Love with Him," possessor. C1.
Washington Post Book World, February 6, 1994, review of Midnight in righteousness Garden of Good and Evil, proprietress. 3.
Writer, January, 1998, Kristine F. Writer, "A Conversation … with John Berendt," p. 17.
International Creative Management (ICM) Net site, (January 20, 2006), "Lectures—Speakers: Lavatory Berendt."
Lyceum Agency Web site, (January 20, 2006), "John Berendt."
Contemporary Authors, New Editing Series