Jonathan Lethem Writer - Born February 19, 1964 · Brooklyn, New York, USA

Birth name Jonathan Allen Lethem

Height 5′ 9″ (1.75 m)

Mini Bio Jonathan Lethem was born on February 19, 1964 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He is a writer and actor, known for Motherless Brooklyn (2019), A Scanner Darkly (2006) and As She Climbed Across the Table. He has been married to Amy Barrett since 2004. He was previously married to Shelley Jackson and Julia Rosenberg.

Family

Spouses

Amy Barrett (2004 - present)

Julia Rosenberg (2000 - ?) divorced

Shelley Jackson (1987 - 1993) divorced

Trivia

He grew up on Dean Street in Brooklyn, New York, and returned to live there after many years in San Francisco, three blocks from the townhouse where he spent his childhood.

The April 21, 1997, issue of Newsweek included Lethem as one of "100 People for the New Century" -- a list in which he was the only novelist.

American novelist and short story writer, winner of many awards, including the National Book Critic's Circle Award for his 2000 novel Motherless Brooklyn.

American novelist and short story writer, winner of the World Fantasy Award, the Gold Dagger, and the National Book Critic's Circle Award.

Attended Bennington College at the same time as Bret Easton Ellis, novelist Jill Eisenstadt, novelist Joseph Clark, novelist Donna Tartt, and scriptwriter Matthew Weiss.

Winner of Gold Dagger for Crime Writing in 2000

Has a brother and a sister, both younger. His sister Mara is a photographer. His brother Blake is a graffiti artist.

He is a fan of baseball.

Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, vol. 138, pages 283-286. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.

Quotes

[of his time spent in Berkeley, California:] "If you asked me then, I would have said I'd be working at bookstores until I was 45. You have to understand -- all my heroes were dark horses. They all had embattled careers because of genre prejudice, something I've had the good fortune to be spared. It's like I'm standing on their shoulders. I sort of feel Philip K. Dick died for my sins."

I grew up in a very borderline Brooklyn neighborhood. It was in decline in the early '70s, and has very slowly been gentrified. My parents were part of the first wave: bohemians, radicals and artists, the typical people who reclaim borderline neighborhoods.

Jonathan Allen Lethem (born February 19, 1964) is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. His first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was published in 1994. In 1999, Lethem published Motherless Brooklyn, a National Book Critics Circle Award-winning novel that achieved mainstream success. In 2003, he published The Fortress of Solitude, which became a New York Times Best Seller. In 2005, he received a MacArthur Fellowship. Since 2011, he has taught creative writing at Pomona College.