Julia Flynn Siler | |
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| Spouse | Charles (Charlie) Siler |
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Julia Flynn Siler is an AmericanNew York Times best-selling author and journalist. Siler has written multiple non-fiction novels and worked as a correspondent forBusinessWeek magazine andThe Wall Street Journal.
Siler was born inPalo Alto, California in 1960. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and received a bachelor's degree in American Studies fromBrown University in 1982, a master's fromColumbia University's Graduate School of Journalism in 1985, and an M.B.A. fromNorthwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management in 1991.[1][2] While on assignment in London forBusinessWeek magazine, she did additional postgraduate work at theLondon School of Economics.[1] She was a staff correspondent forBusinessWeek magazine in Los Angeles, Chicago, and London, and a staff writer forThe Wall Street Journal in London. She has been a longtime contributor toThe Wall Street Journal from the San Francisco Bay Area.[3]
In 2004, Siler wrote a front-page article forThe Wall Street Journal titled "Inside a Napa Valley Empire, a Family Struggles With Itself" about how brothersRobert andPeter Mondavi's past battles imperiled the Robert Mondavi wine empire in California.[4] In 2007, Siler publishedThe House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty, a nonfiction account of four generations of theMondavi family.[3]The House of Mondavi concerns a repeating pattern of sibling conflict in a family wine business. The book details the 2004 board coup that led to the breakup and the forced sale of the publicly traded Robert Mondavi company.[3]The House of Mondavi revealed that patriarch Robert Mondavi's philanthropic gifts to theUniversity of California at Davis and elsewhere had led to a personal financial crisis for the company, which was one of the factors leading to its $1 billion takeover.[5]
The book was a finalist for aGerald Loeb Award for distinguished business and financial journalism in the category of business books in 2008.[6] It was also aJames Beard Foundation finalist that year in the category of books on wine and spirits.[7]BusinessWeek picked it as one of the top ten business books of the year for 2007.[8]New York Times wine writer Eric Asimov wrote about it: “Call it Greek tragedy or Shakespearean drama, Biblical strife, Freudian acting out or even soap opera. You wouldn’t be exaggerating, and you wouldn’t be wrong."[9] It also received criticism for focusing on the salacious.[10]
In 2011, Siler publishedLost Kingdom: Hawaii's Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and America's First Imperial Adventure, a narrative history of the overthrow ofHawaii'sQueen Liliuokalani.Lost Kingdom was a 2011 Northern California bestseller.[11] It was also aNew York Times bestseller.[12] InFortune magazine, Nin-Hai Tseng wrote “The story of an island grappling to hold onto traditions in the face of burgeoning capitalist powers... Siler gives us a riveting and intimate look at the rise and tragic fall of Hawaii’s royal family."[13]
In May 2019, Alfred A. Knopf, a Penguin Random House imprint, publishedThe White Devil’s Daughters: The Women Who Fought Slavery in San Francisco’s Chinatown, a narrative history of the trafficking of Asian girls and women that flourished in the West during the first hundred years of Chinese immigration. The book focuses on San Francisco’s Occidental Mission Home, a “safe house” that opened in 1874 for enslaved and vulnerable Chinese women and girls. The book also shines a light on Donaldina (Dolly) Cameron, who rescued more than 60 mostly Chinese girls, women and babies to a shelter in San Anselmo.[14]
Siler “vividly recounts a shocking episode from America’s past in this gripping history,” wrotePublishers Weekly. "It will fascinate readers interested in the history of women, immigration, and racism.”[15] In its starred review,Kirkus Reviews calledThe White Devil's Daughters "An accessible, well-written, riveting tale of a dismal, little-known corner of American history."[16]The White Devil's Daughters was selected as an Editors' Choice pick by theNew York Times Book Review.[17] TheCommonwealth Club of California namedThe White Devil's Daughters as a finalist for a 2019 California Book Award,[18] and The California Independent Bookseller Alliance granted 2019 "Golden Poppy" awards toThe White Devil's Daughters in the non-fiction and regional categories.[19]
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