Michael Dirda Explained

Michael Dirda
Occupation:	Book critic for the Washington Post
Education:	Oberlin College (BA) Cornell University (MA, PhD)

Michael Dirda (born 1948) is an American book critic, working for the Washington Post. He has been a Fulbright Fellow and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993.

Career

Having studied at Oberlin College for his undergraduate degree in 1970, Dirda earned an M.A. in 1974 and PhD in 1977 from Cornell University in comparative literature. In 1978 Dirda started writing for the Washington Post; in 1993 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his criticism.^[1] Currently, he is a book columnist for the Post.^[2]

In 2002, Dirda was invested as a member of The Baker Street Irregulars.^[3]

Works

Two collections of Dirda's literary journalism have been published:^[4]

• Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000)
• Bound to Please (New York: W. W. Norton, 2005)

He has also written:

• An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland (New York: W. W. Norton, 2003) (autobiography)
• Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life (New York: Henry Holt, 2005)
• Classics for Pleasure (Orlando: Harcourt, 2007)
• On Conan Doyle; or, The Whole Art of Storytelling (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011)
• Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books (New York: Pegasus, 2015)

On Conan Doyle was awarded the 2012 Edgar Award in the Best Critical/Biographical category.^[5] (Reviewer Darrell Schweitzer lauds the book in The New York Review of Science Fiction.^[6])

Family

Dirda lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife, Marian Peck Dirda, a prints and drawings conservator at the National Gallery of Art. They have three sons: Christopher (b. 1984), Michael (b. 1987), and Nathaniel (b. 1990).^[7]

See also

• Ron Charles
• Jonathan Yardley

External links

• • Michael Dirda "Browsings" blog at American Scholar
• Michael Dirda columns at The Washington Post
• Michael Dirda essays and reviews at BarnesandNobleReview.com
• Michael Dirda archive at The New York Review of Books
  • "Book Shopping with the Best-Read Man in America", The Paris Review, November 7, 2012

Notes and References

1. Book: Fischer, Heinz-Dietrich . Complete Biographical Encyclopedia of Pulitzer Prize Winners, 1917–2000 . Fischer, Erika J. . 2002 . The Pulitzer Prize Archive . 16 . K. G. Saur . Munich . 3-598-30186-3 . 58 . 21 January 2010.
2. News: XXX . Washington Post . 25 March 2005 . 5 October 2010 . Michael . Dirda.
3. News: Dirda. Michael. If you love Sherlock Holmes, you'll love this book. The Washington Post. August 16, 2017. January 2, 2019.
4. Web site: Local Author Bibliography: Michael Dirda . Lorain Public Library System . 21 January 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110718150254/http://www.lorain.lib.oh.us/author_bibliography.aspx?PID=71&ID=3 . 18 July 2011 .
5. News: Washington Post's Michael Dirda Wins Edgar Award . 26 April 2012 . The Washington Post . 14 May 2012.
6. Schweitzer, Darrell . January 2012 . On Conan Doyle; or, The Whole Art of Storytelling by Michael Dirda . The New York Review of Science Fiction . 24 . 5 . Dragon Press . Pleasantville, NY . 7.
7. Web site: WOSU Presents Ohioana Authors: Michael Dirda . Ohioana Authors . 12 January 2012.