Susan Orlean | |
|---|---|
 Orlean at the 2018 Texas Book Festival | |
| Born | (1955-10-31)October 31, 1955 (age 70) Cleveland, Ohio, United States |
| Occupation | Journalist, author |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | University of Michigan |
| Website | |
| susanorlean | |
Susan Orlean (born October 31, 1955) is an American journalist, television writer, and bestselling author ofThe Orchid Thief andThe Library Book. She has been a staff writer forThe New Yorker since 1992, and has contributed articles to many magazines includingVogue,Rolling Stone,Esquire, andOutside. In 2021, Orlean joined the writing team ofHBO comedy seriesHow To with John Wilson.
Orlean's 1998 non-fiction bookThe Orchid Thief was adapted into the filmAdaptation (2002).Meryl Streep received anAcademy Award nomination for her performance as Orlean.
Orlean born inCleveland, Ohio, and was raised in nearbyShaker Heights,[1] the daughter of Edith (née Gross 1923–2016)[2] and Arthur Orlean (1915–2007).[3] She has a sister and a brother. Her family isJewish. Her mother's family is fromHungary and her father's family fromPoland. Her father was an attorney and businessman.[4]
Orlean graduated from theUniversity of Michigan with honors in 1976,[5][6] studying literature and history. After college she moved toPortland, Oregon, and was planning on going to law school, when she began writing for theWillamette Week.[5]
Orlean has published stories inRolling Stone,Esquire,Vogue,Outside andSpy. In 1982, she became a staff writer for theBoston Phoenix and later a regular contributor to theBoston Globe Sunday Magazine.[5] Her first book,Saturday Night, was published in 1990, shortly after she moved toNew York City fromBoston and began writing forThe New Yorker magazine. She started contributing toThe New Yorker in 1987 and became a staff writer in 1992.[7]
Orlean authored the bookThe Orchid Thief, a profile of Floridaorchid grower, breeder and collectorJohn Laroche. The book formed the basis ofCharlie Kaufman's script for theSpike Jonze filmAdaptation.[8] Orlean (portrayed byMeryl Streep,[9] who won aGolden Globe for the performance) was, in effect, made into a fictional character. The movie portrayed her becoming Laroche's lover and partner in a drug production operation, in which orchids were processed into a psychoactive substance.
In 1998, Orlean's article "Life's Swell" was published inWomen's Outside. The article, a feature on a group of youngsurfer girls inMaui, become the basis of the filmBlue Crush.[9]
In 1999, she co-wroteThe Skinny: What Every Skinny Woman Knows About Dieting (And Won't Tell You!) under her married name, Susan Sistrom. Her previously published magazine stories have been compiled in two collections,The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters with Extraordinary People andMy Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who's Been Everywhere. She also served as editor forBest American Essays 2005 andBest American Travel Writing 2007. She contributed the Ohio chapter inState By State (2008), and in 2011 she published a biographical history of the dog actorRin Tin Tin titledRin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend.[9]
When Orlean's son had a school assignment to interview a city employee, he chose a librarian and together they visited the Studio City branch of theLos Angeles Public Library system which reignited her own childhood passion for libraries.[10] After an immersive project involving three years of research and two years of writing on the 1986 fire at the Los Angeles Central Library,The Library Book was released in October 2018.[11] The book uses the context of the April 1986 fire to explore the role of the public library, who uses them, and the void created if they are lost.[8] Orlean hired a fact-checker to ensure the book was accurate, explaining "I don't want a substantial error that changes the meaning of my book, but I also don't want silly errors".[12] She collaborated on the adaption for television.[13]
In 2021, Orlean joined the writing staff of television seriesHow To with John Wilson for the show's second season onHBO.[14]
Orlean married lawyer Peter Sistrom (1955–2021) in 1983, and they divorced after 16 years of marriage. She was introduced by a friend to author and businessman John Gillespie, whom she married in 2001, and she gave birth to their son in 2004.[9]
She is also step-mother to John's son from his previous marriage.[15]
Orlean is a self-confessed "maniac about architecture."[16] In 2017, she sold aMid-Century Modern home inStudio City, California that was designed by architectRudolph Schindler.[17]
Orlean was aNieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2004.[7][18] She received an honorary Doctor of Human Letters degree from theUniversity of Michigan at the spring commencement ceremony in 2012.[7][5] She was awarded aGuggenheim Fellowship in 2014 in the "General Nonfiction" field of study.[19][20] Orlean was the winner of the 7th AnnualShorty Awards in the Author category, which honors the best social and digital media.[21]
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