D. D. Guttenplan

Don David Guttenplan is the editor and former London correspondent of The Nation[1][2] and author of The Holocaust on Trial,[3] a book about the Irving v Penguin Books and Lipstadt libel case.

D. D. Guttenplan
Born
Don David Guttenplan

Portsmouth, Virginia, United States
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
Occupation
Known forEditor of The Nation (2019–present)
Spouse(s)Maria Margaronis
Children3, including Alexander

Early life and education

Guttenplan is of U.S. Jewish origin. He was born in Portsmouth, Virginia[4] and was educated in the Philadelphia and Memphis public school systems before graduating with a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Columbia University in 1978, a degree in English literature from Cambridge University, and a doctorate in history from the University of London.[5]

Career

During the 1980s he worked in New York City politics and in publishing, where his proudest achievements were drafting the bill to name a portion of Central Park "Strawberry Fields", commissioning of a biography of the anarchist Emma Goldman, and the reissue of the WPA Guide to New York City. He was also briefly lead singer for the extremely obscure punk band The Editors, though their paying gigs all came after he left the group to study in Britain. However, the experience was invaluable background for writing pop music reviews in Vanity Fair.

After working as a senior editor at the Village Voice, editing the paper's political and news coverage and writing a cover story exposing the corrupt politics behind the proposed redevelopment of Times Square, his enthusiasm for lost causes led him to New York Newsday, where he wrote a weekly media column and covered the 1988 presidential campaign. His reporting on the 1990 Happy Land Social Club fire in the Bronx won a Page One award from the New York Newspaper Guild and his investigative reporting on New York City's ineffectual fire code was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Following a year as a research fellow at the Freedom Forum Media Studies centre at Columbia, Guttenplan moved to London in 1994. He has taught American History at University College and at Birkbeck College, and is a frequent commentator on American culture and politics on the BBC.

In 2001 Guttenplan's interest in the use of the British libel laws to silence criticism led him to write about the suit brought by British author David Irving, who claimed no Jews were killed in gas chambers at Auschwitz, against American academic Deborah Lipstadt, who had called Irving "one of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocaust denial." Guttenplan's account of the case, The Holocaust on Trial, was described by Ian Buruma in The New Yorker as "a mixture of superb reportage and serious reflection—about the role of Jewish identity politics in the United States, antisemitism in Britain, the historiography of the Cold War, and so on." Neal Ascherson wrote: “Guttenplan sat through every day of the trial, and no wiser, more honest, or more melancholy book will ever be written about it.” The Holocaust on Trial has been translated into German, Italian and Swedish.

When his friend and former teacher Edward Said became too ill to continue lecturing, Guttenplan arranged to film a series of lengthy conversations which, after Said died in 2003, became Edward Said: The Last Interview.[6] The British journal Sight and Sound described the film as "the kind of portrait of an intellectual which is very rare," while the Times (London) called it "enthralling, touching, melancholic and fierce." The New York Times pronounced it "riveting," adding "Edward Said: The Last Interview proves that a couch, a camera and a great mind can be all the inspiration a filmmaker needs.”[7] The 120-minute documentary was freely available as of 2012 but not available as of May 2017.[8]

In June 2009, Guttenplan completed a biography of I. F. Stone, the American journalist, titled American Radical: The Life and Times of I.F. Stone, which was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.[9]

Guttenplan replaced Publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel as Editor of The Nation on June 15, 2019.[10]

Personal life

Guttenplanten lives in north London with his wife, Maria Margaronis and three children, Alexander Guttenplan, Zoe, and Theo. His son Alexander was the captain of Emmanuel College, Cambridge's 2010 winning University Challenge team.[11]

References
  1. The Nation Masthead
  2. "Author Biography: D.D. Guttenplan". The Nation. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
  3. Guttenplan, D.D. (2002). The Holocaust on Trial: History, Justice and the David Irving Libel Case. London: Granta Books. ISBN 1-86207-486-0.
  4. Smith, David (11 April 2019). "The Nation: oldest weekly magazine in the US names new editor". The Guardian U.S. Washington, D.C. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  5. Meyer, Eugene (December 2009). "Fact-Finding and Truth-Seeking - D.D. Guttenplan '78's take on I.F. Stone and himself". Columbia College Today. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  6. Edward Said: The Last Interview (2004) at IMDb
  7. Catsoulis, Jeannette (11 October 2006). "Out of Place – Memories of Edward Said – Edward Said – The Last Interview – Review". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
  8. "Edward Said – The Last Interview – 2003". Archive.org. Archived from the original on 15 January 2012. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
  9. Wheatcroft, Geoffrey (12 June 2011). "American Radical: The Life and Times of IF Stone by DD Guttenplan – review". The Observer. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
  10. Hsu, Tiffany (8 April 2019). "Katrina vanden Heuvel to Step Down as Editor of The Nation". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 April 2019.
  11. Rocker, Simon (8 April 2010). "Questions quiz genius Alex Guttenplan didn't want". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
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