Alex Beam | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1954 (age 70–71)[1] |
| Occupation | Journalist andcolumnist |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Phillips Exeter Academy,[2] |
| Employer | The Boston Globe |
Alex Beam (born Jacob Alexander Beam in 1954)[1][5] is an Americanwriter andjournalist. He retired as acolumnist forThe Boston Globe in 2012, but still contributes to the paper's op-ed page. He has worked atNewsweek andBusinessWeek,[6] where his tenure included stints asMoscow andBoston bureau chief,[7][8] before joiningThe Boston Globe. Beam is the author of two novels and five non-fiction books, two of which wereNew York Times Notable Books.
Beam grew up inWashington, D.C.[8] His father,Jacob D. Beam, was a diplomat.[7][5] Beam attendedPhillips Exeter Academy,[2] where he was foreign correspondent for the twice-weekly school newspaper,The Exonian, and graduated fromYale University[3] in 1975.[4] He is married to Kirsten Lundberg. He is a churchgoer.[9] His sonChristopher Beam is a journalist and screenwriter in Los Angeles.[citation needed]
He helped establish a small weekly newspaper in Ludlow, Vermont,The Black River Tribune. Beam worked atNewsweek andBusinessWeek,[6] where his tenure included service as Moscow andBoston[7] bureau chief,[8] before joiningThe Boston Globe.
His twice-weekly column for theGlobe has appeared since 1987. He was a John Knight Journalism Fellow atStanford University in 1996–1997.[8] In addition to his journalistic work, Beam is the author of two novels set in Russia—Fellow Travelers (1987) andThe Americans Are Coming! (1991), both published bySt. Martin's Press.
Beam has also published five works of non-fiction.Gracefully Insane: Life and Death Inside America's Premier Mental Hospital, which explored the history ofMcLean Hospital, was published in January 2002. His second non-fiction book, about the Great Books movement,A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books, appeared in 2008. Both were named Notable Books in the annual list compiled byThe New York Times Book Review.American Crucifixion: The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church came out in 2014, followed byThe Feud; Vladimir Nabokov, Edmund Wilson and the End of a Beautiful Friendship.[10] Random House publishedBroken Glass: Mies Van Der Rohe, Edith Farnsworth, and the Fight Over a Modernist Masterpiece in March, 2020.[11][12]
For a time, Beam wrote a weekly blog about the game ofsquash forVanity Fair's online edition.[13]
In December 2010, Beam wrote an article in theGlobe aboutLiverpool Football Club's supporters, criticizing them for continuing to mourn the deaths of 96 supporters during theHillsborough disaster, which he called a "riot." He also referred to the city as "doggy" and "grotty."[14]
TheGlobe later issued a correction to the online version of the article, acknowledging that the disaster was not a riot, and that the official investigation blamed poor crowd control and inadequate stadium design.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
