Peter S. Prescott

Peter Sherwin Prescott (born July 15, 1935 in New York , † April 23, 2004 ibid) was an American literary critic . From 1971 to 1991 he was the chief reviewer for Newsweek .

life and work

He was the son of literary critic Orville Prescott , longtime chief reviewer of the New York Times , and his wife Lilias Ward-Smith Prescott. After attending the elite boarding school Choate , he studied at Harvard and the Sorbonne . He then worked from 1958 to 1967 as an editor at EP Dutton . He began his literary criticism career at the age of 14 when the New York Times printed his review of a nonfiction book about baseball .

From 1964 he published regular reviews for Women 'Wear Daily , switched to Look in 1968 at the invitation of William Atwood and finally to Newsweek in 1971 , where he was the chief literary critic until his retirement in 1991. In addition to his literary works, he has published autobiographical books about his time in Choate ( A World of Our Own, 1970) and Harvard ( A Darkening Green, 1974) as well as a report on the American juvenile prison system ( The Child Savers, 1981).

In 1978 he was awarded the George Polk Award in the literary criticism category.

Works (selection)

• A World of Our Own: Notes on Life and Learning in a Boys' Preparatory School . Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, New York 1970.
• Soundings: Encounters with Contemporary Books . Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, New York 1972.
• A Darkening Green: Notes from the Silent Generation . Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, New York 1974.
• The Child Savers: Juvenile Justice Observed . Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1981.
• Never in Doubt: Critical Essays on American Books, 1972–1985 . New York, Arbor House 1985.
• Encounters with American Culture . 2 volumes. Transaction Publishers, Brunswick NJ 2006.

Web links

• Douglas Martin: Peter Prescott, 68, Author And Newsweek Book Critic ( New York Times obituary , April 24, 2004).