Caleb Carr is the author of the Alienist books. Included here is basic information about Mr. Carr along with an overview of his education and career. Also included is information on what Mr. Carr is reported to be working on at the present time.
Date of Birth: August 2, 1955
Place of Birth: New York City, NY, USA
Parents: Lucien Carr and Francesca von Hartz1
Siblings: Simon Carr (older brother) and Ethan Carr (younger brother)1
Currently Resides: On a farm estate called "Misery Mountain". It is located near Cherry Plain, a town in Rensselaer County, NY.2
Caleb Carr was raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan2 and received his primary and secondary education at two local private schools, St. Luke's School and Friends Seminary.3 After graduating from secondary school, Mr. Carr spent two years at Kenyon College in Ohio1,3 before returning to New York to complete a Bachelor of Arts in History at New York University.3,4 Following the conferral of his degree in 1977, he was employed at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York where he eventually gained a position as a special editorial assistant for the journal Foreign Affairs Quarterly.3,4 Upon leaving the organization, he spent the 1980s working as a freelance journalist covering Central America.3
These experiences influenced the first of Mr. Carr's non-fiction books, America Invulnerable: The Quest for Absolute Security from 1812 to Star Wars (1989), which he co-wrote with his friend and mentor, James Chace.3 His subsequent non-fiction publications have also focused on military history and national security, and include a biography of Frederick Townsend Ward, The Devil Soldier: The American Soldier of Fortune Who Became a God in China (1992), and an examination of the history of terrorism, The Lessons of Terror: A History of Warfare Against Civilians (2002). In addition, Mr. Carr is the editor of Random House's Modern Library War Series5 and is a contributing editor to MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History.3,4
Mr. Carr has also been employed in fields outside of academia and journalism. Whilst freelancing in the 1980s, he worked in the film industry and the theatre.3 His work in the film industry continued into the 1990s, and he was involved with several TV mini series and films as a presenter, an executive producer, and a writer.3,7 Most notably, he wrote The Warlord: Battle for the Galaxy (1998), and was credited as a co-writer for Exorcist: The Beginning and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist in 2004 and 2005, respectively.7 Also in the 1990s, Mr. Carr started working as a librettist with composer Ezequiel Viñao on Merlin, an opera based on the Arthurian legends.3 In 2005, Mr. Carr also tried his hand at politics; he ran as a Democrat for the Rensselaer County Legislature but was not successful.6
Despite these varying areas of interest, Mr. Carr is best known for his fiction. Although he has described his first novel Casing the Promised Land (1980) as "roman à clef nonsense"8, his subsequent works have been highly successful. Starting in 1994 with The Alienist, he has gone on to write other bestselling novels including The Angel of Darkness (1997) and The Italian Secretary: A Further Adventure of Sherlock Holmes (2005). In 1999, Mr. Carr also wrote a serial for Time magazine, Killing Time, which was later published in book form. All four of these works have been well received, although the Alienist novels have been his most successful: The Alienist received considerable critical acclaim and spent six months on the New York Times bestseller list, while The Angel of Darkness received even greater acclaim and outsold The Alienist.3
At the present time, it is understood that Mr. Carr is continuing his work on the Ezequiel Viñao opera, Merlin, along with various other "creative projects" including a third Alienist novel.3,9 He has also taught military history studies at Bard College in recent years10 and he continues to write on topics relating to politics, military affairs, and criminal psychology for a variety of different publications.3
1. Ascher-Walsh, Rebecca, "Carr Talk", Entertainment Weekly 17 October 1997. Link.
2. Wadler, Joyce, "Caleb Carr: Rebuilding the Past in Words and Wood", The New York Times 12 May 2005. Link.
3. TLØN EDITIONS, "About Caleb Carr" 2007. Link.
4. Purdy, Matthew, "ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE WITH: Caleb Carr; Writing to Flee the Past", The New York Times 19 May 1994. Link.
5. Modern Library, "About Modern Library: The Modern Library Board Members" 2007. Link.
6. York, Jessica, "New York election results", Bennington Banner 10 November 2005.
7. IMDb, "Caleb Carr" 2008. Link.
8. Carr, Caleb, "Customer Review" 15 Dec. 1999. Link.
9. Naparstek, Ben, "Carr trouble", The Age 6 November 2005. Link.
10. Bard College, "About Bard" 2007. Link.