Beau Friedlander

Beau Friedlander is an American writer, publisher, and media consultant. He was the founder of Context Books, an award-winning small press, and editor-in-chief at Air America and has garnered notoriety as a provocateur for progressive causes.

First published in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, most notably in the May Anthology of Oxford and Cambridge Poetry edited by Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney (under the name E.B. Friedlander), Friedlander’s writing has appeared in many publications, including Harper's Magazine, The New York Times,[1] Time, the Los Angeles Times, The Paris Review, Lapham's Quarterly, and the Huffington Post, where he is a regular contributor.[2]

Education

Beau Friedlander received a B.A. in Literature and Languages from Bennington College, a M.A. in English Romanticism from Oxford University and a M. Phil. in Comparative Literature and Scandinavian Studies from Columbia University.[3]

Career

In 1998, Friedlander started Context Books, an independent press. He was twenty-seven.[4]

In 1999, Friedlander and Context Books came to public attention when he acquired a manuscript from Theodore J. Kaczynski, the Unabomber. The book, in which Kaczynski argued that he was not insane, as his family had claimed during his trial, was ready to be published by Context Books [5] when Kaczynski refused to paraphrase some letters which he did not own the copyright to. The book was never published because of these copyright issues.[6]

Context Books published several award-winning works of literary fiction by authors including David Means, David Marshall Chan, and Daniel Quinn. Nonfiction authors included Derrick Jensen and John Bonifaz. The publishing house won several national awards, including The Los Angeles Times Book Prize (2000) for Assorted Fire Events.[7]

The New York Times singled out two of the anti-war books published by Context, stating they, “emerged from and then codified opposition to the war in Iraq.”

The first of these books was War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know by William Rivers Pitt. It was published in at least 10 languages in editions worldwide, and became an international bestseller—including an appearance on the New York Times extended bestseller list.[8]

Target Iraq by Norman Solomon and Reese Erlich was a national bestseller.[9] It was cited by whistleblower Katharine Gun as a catalyst in her decision to leak a 2003 NSA memo revealing illegal activity on the part of the United States to create diplomatic pressure to generate support for the war.[10]

In 2008, Friedlander became the editor-in-chief at Air America, the progressive radio network with hosts Rachel Maddow, Al Franken, Randi Rhodes and Marc Maron among others.[8]

Beau Friedlander’s writing has appeared in Harper's Magazine, The New York Times, Time, the Los Angeles Times, Lapham's Quarterly, The Paris Review, The Huffington Post, the Air America website, The Dominion, as well as several anthologies and journals.[8]

Glenn Beck Controversy

Friedlander was at the center of controversy on the internet in 2010 when he publicly offered to broker a deal for $100,000 on the Huffington Post for anyone who could produce a sex tape of Glenn Beck.[11] Despite his initial stated intention for the article to be a satire in the context of Andrew Breitbart's offer of $100,000 for an archive of progressive listserv messages, the article created a firestorm which led to the Huffington Post's pulling the article and requiring Friedlander's posts to be reviewed by an editor before being publicly viewable.

Friedlander later posted an apology, stating: "I was actually trying to mimic what I saw as the way right wingers go about these matters, and by misapprehending the way they do things, I went too far. (I offered to broker a deal for anyone who had damaging media pertaining to Glenn Beck.) First, I owe Glenn Beck an apology. I crossed the line. On the off chance something comes in over the transom...scratch that; I'll delete the email account. Problem solved. I meant to tilt at a windmill in the post, and I planted my lance in the dirt."[12]

Books

Friedlander has co-written several books including Uncle Charlie with Marc Asnin (2012),[13] Swiped: How to Protect Yourself in a World Full of Scammers, Phishers, and Identity Thieves with Adam Levin (2015),[14] and The Butler's Child, an autobiography by Lewis M. Steel (2016).[15]

Board Memberships

He became a board member of the Evergreen Review in 2011.[16]

Personal life

Born Edward Booth Friedlander, Beau Friedlander is originally from Redding, Connecticut (Beau is a family nickname). He lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He is divorced, with two children.

References
  1. "Georgia's Shaky Voting System". The New York Times. The New York Times. 13 November 2018. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  2. "Beau Friedlander Author Archive on the Huffington Post".
  3. Johnson, Dennis Loy (4 August 2002). "Beau Regardless of the Others". mobylives.com. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
  4. John, Warren St. (8 June 2003). "Enlisting the Stars to Tilt at the Right". The New York Times. The New York Times. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
  5. Carvajal, Doreen (1999-10-01). "Media Talk; Publisher Cautious on Unabomber's Book". Business Day. The New York Times. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
  6. "National News Briefs; Unabomber's Book". Archives. The New York Times. 1999-11-05. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
  7. "2000 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winners". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on July 4, 2011. Retrieved July 22, 2011.
  8. "Blogger Profile: Beau Friedlander". Michael Moore.com. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
  9. "San Francisco Chronicle Best-Sellers". Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  10. Schwarz, John (31 August 2019), "The Best Movie Ever Made About the Truth Behind the Iraq War is "Official Secrets"", The Intercept, retrieved 2019-10-09
  11. "Huffington Post and the Would-Be Glenn Beck Sex Tape". The New York Observer. Retrieved September 14, 2014.
  12. "Glenn Beck Sex Tape Column Yanked". CBS News. Retrieved September 14, 2014.
  13. https://www.amazon.com/Uncle-Charlie-Marc-Asnin/dp/8869651770
  14. https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-61039-587-8
  15. http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-250-07300-6
  16. http://www.evergreenreview.com/b/contact/
  1. Official website
  2. Interview with WNYC
  3. Interview with KERA
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