Dr. Neil Baldwin

Neil Baldwin was born in New York City and grew up there, attending the Horace Mann School. He was a Visiting Student at the University of Manchester, England, and received his B.A. in History from the University of Rochester and his Ph.D. in Modern American Poetry from the State University of New York at Buffalo. His doctoral dissertation, a complete descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts and letters of William Carlos Williams in the collections of SUNY/Buffalo and Yale University, was published by G. K. Hall and Company in 1978. From July 1989 through December 2003, he was Executive Director of the National Book Foundation, sponsor of the prestigious National Book Awards, and educational outreach efforts across America. His new work in progress is The American Revelation: Ten Ideals That Shaped Our Country From The Puritans To The Cold War, to be published in May 2005 by St. Martin's Press. Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass-Production of Hate, published by PublicAffairs in November 2001, was a Finalist for the 2001-2002 National Jewish Book Award in History. The paperback, including a new Afterword, was published in January 2003. Legends of the Plumed Serpent (PublicAffairs, 1998) was chosen as one of the ten best nonfiction titles of the year by the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and Publishers Weekly. It was the culmination of ten years of research and field-trips to Mexico, exploring the history, symbolism and iconography of Quetzalcoatl (The Plumed Serpent) in Mesoamerican and Mexican life, literature and culture over three thousand years. His biography of Thomas Edison (Hyperion, 1995) was reissued in June 2001 by the University of Chicago Press. It was named one of the ten best books of the year by Business Week Magazine. His biography of Man Ray (Clarkson Potter, 1988) was reissued in January 2001 by Da Capo Press in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the artist's death. His screenplay for the documentary Man Ray: Prophet of the Avant - Garde, based upon his book and produced by Mel Stuart Productions, appeared on WNET/13 in April 1997 as part of the "American Masters" series. The film was nominated for an Emmy Award and also received a Gold Hugo Award at the Chicago Film Festival. Dr. Baldwin's biography of William Carlos Williams, To All Gentleness, was published by Atheneum in 1984 and received the 'Hands Across the Sea Award' from the British-American Union. He is the co-editor of a collection of interviews with National Book Award Winners, The Writing Life (Random House, 1996).

Dr. Baldwin is the author of three volumes of poetry published by the Salt-Works Press, and three textbooks. From 1974-1982, he edited and published The Niagara Magazine , a journal of contemporary poetry. He has taught literature and creative writing at the City College of New York, Hunter College, Baruch College, The New School University, Fordham University, and New York University, where he created a graduate seminar called "What Was Modernism?" Prior to stepping down from the helm of the National Book Foundation, Dr. Baldwin worked in the non-profit field for three decades. From 1984-1989, at The New York Public Library, he was Manager of the Annual Fund, and then Co-Director of The Campaign for the Library.