Barbara Probst Solomon
Encyclopedia
Barbara Probst Solomon is an American author, essayist and journalist. Her published works include two novels, two volumes of memoirs, and a book of collected essays. Solomon is the United States cultural correspondent for Spain's "newspaper-of-record", El País of Madrid. Most recently, Solomon has been awarded the 25th Francisco Cerecedo Prize by the Association of European Journalists in Spain http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/arts/18arts-SPANISHPRIZE_BRF.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=Barbara%20probst%20solomon&st=cse&oref=slogin. The prize, which comes with an award of $36,000, is the most prestigious journalism prize in that country, and Solomon is the first North American to receive it. She accepted the award from Prince Felipe at a gala in Madrid.
In January 2008, Solomon was part of President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
"dream team" of 14 international experts in Madrid, a team that included Professors Joseph Stiglitz, Jeremy Rifkin
and Nicholas Stern
. In 2007 Solomon received the United Nations/Women Together Award which pays tribute "to a group of women who share...a commitment to their work, and a devotion to making the world a better place." http://www.slc.edu/news-events/2007-2008/2007-08-01-1.php. She is a member of the Graduate Faculty of Sarah Lawrence College
, and currently serves as Distinguished Visiting Professor at the International University Menendez Pelayo in Spain http://www.uimp.es/.
, she met those French and Spanish students who were later to become the young intellectual rebels so significant is shaping contemporary Europe.
In 1948, Solomon and Barbara Mailer (the sister of Norman Mailer
) aided Paco Benet in the rescue of two Spanish students being held in the Franco gulag near Madrid, where they were used as slave labor to build Francisco Franco's future tomb, The Valley of the Fallen/Valle de los Caídos. One of the students, Nicolas Sanchez Albornoz http://www.uji.es/infoinst/actes/honoris/albornoz.html was the son of the historian Claudio Sanchez Albornoz, the president of the Spanish Republic in Exile. Solomon and Paco Benet, brother of the Madrid novelist Juan Benet
, spent five years together, mainly in Paris, where Benet and Solomon edited the resistance magazine Peninsula together.
When Solomon returned to New York she enrolled in the School of General Studies at Columbia University http://www.gs.columbia.edu/home.asp, where she received her BS with honors in Spanish in 1960.
Solomon's father, J. Anthony Probst, was Woodrow Wilson
's youngest campaign manager before he served in the United States Army
during World War I. He was gassed in the trenches while stationed in France as a private, resulting in a three year stay in an American army hospital there. Probst's cousin, the Austrian writer Joseph Roth
, was a soldier serving on the German/Austrian side. Probst returned to New York after the war to become a successful lawyer. Later he bought the Self Winding Clock Company http://www.telechron.com/nawcc.html from Standard Oil
, which was affiliated with Western Union
.
Solomon's mother, Frances Kurke Probst, worked as a middy blouse model during World War I; after her marriage she attended Columbia University and became an artist. She was a student of Julio de Diego (May 9, 1900 - August 22, 1979) http://www.caldwellgallery.com/dediego.html. Her art and work were much influenced by that of Kurt Schwitters
.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-probst-solomon
Carolyn See of The New York Times, in her review of Solomon's 1983 Short Flights, said, "This is a remarkable memoir." Solomon's other work include the essay collection Horse-Trading and Ecstasy (1989), the novel Smart Hearts in the City (1992) and the American edition of Operation Ogro: The Execution of Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco (Quadrangle, 1975) Operación Ogro
.
Solomon has just completed a new novel, The King of Paris, about Vichy France
; the first chapter appears in The Reading Room: Writing of the Moment/7-Summer 2007 http://www.readingroomjournal.com/.
Her essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Review of Books http://www.nybooks.com/authora/212, The Wall Street Journal, The [Huffington Post], The New Yorker, New York Sun, http://www2.nysun.com/article/71867, Slate http://www.slate.com/id/2169420/, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Harpers, Doubletake, Vogue, The New Republic, Cambio 16, Dissent, Partisan Review, L'infini (Gallimard), L'Evenement du Jeudi and Letras Libres.
Stanley Crouch
, writing in The All-American Skin Game, comments, "Barbara Probst Solomon's famous essay about the posthumous, high-handed editing down of The Garden of Eden mightily shook Scribner
's voodoo Hemingway industry when it was published in a 1987 issue of The New Republic
. That investigative essay impressed the way first-class detective work always does, supplying the pleasure of witnessing the covers pulled off a serious fraud. But her 1992 novel, Smart Hearts in the City, is a banana peel that can slide us out of our customary disappointment with the short range and the low ambition of contemporary American fiction....The mulatto textures of Katy Becker's world and the many, many ways in which Barbara Probst Solomon has elevated her epic sense of Americana into literature, subtle to raw, is an achievement that should take a lasting place in the writing about the riddle of the human spirit as expressed within the context of this polyglot nation's bittersweet and stinking little secrets."
for its contribution to modern culture.
, Norman Mailer
, Saul Bellow
and Donald Maggin, and continues to serve as publisher and editor-in-chief. The Reading Rooms goal is to feature work by both well-known and emerging writers.
In 2005 Solomon became the first North American and second woman to receive the Premio Antonio de Sancha awarded annually by the Association of Madrid Editors to a person distinguished for upholding universal cultural and literary values. Previous recipients include Jack Lang
, former French Minister of Culture; Julio María Sanguinetti Coirolo
, past President of Uruguay
; actress Nuria Espert; Federico Mayor Zaragoza,former director general of UNESCO
; and the Prix Goncourt
winner Amin Maalouf
.
Most recently in May 2007, Solomon received the United Nations/Women Together Award, which honors women who "share a dedication to stand out in their individual activities, a commitment to their work, and a devotion to making the world a better place. Their efforts have made them symbols, icons and examples to the women of this century, giving hope for the future and creating a legacy for the next generations." In addition to Solomon, the 2007 awardees included artist Louise Bourgeois
, Spanish television journalist Rosa Maria Calaf, Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi
, Spanish economist Isabel Estape, theatrical and television producer Francine LeFrak, Wangari Maathal, the first African woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize, and Vasundhara Raje
, the first woman Chief Minister of the State of Rajasthan.
In January 2008, Solomon was part of President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party . He was elected for two terms as Prime Minister of Spain, in the 2004 and 2008 general elections. On 2 April 2011 he announced he will not stand for re-election in 2012...
"dream team" of 14 international experts in Madrid, a team that included Professors Joseph Stiglitz, Jeremy Rifkin
Jeremy Rifkin
Jeremy Rifkin is an American economist, writer, public speaker, political advisor and activist. He is the founder and president of the Foundation On Economic Trends...
and Nicholas Stern
Nicholas Stern
Nicholas Herbert Stern, Baron Stern of Brentford, Kt, FBA is a British economist and academic. He is IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government, Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics , and 2010 Professor of Collège de...
. In 2007 Solomon received the United Nations/Women Together Award which pays tribute "to a group of women who share...a commitment to their work, and a devotion to making the world a better place." http://www.slc.edu/news-events/2007-2008/2007-08-01-1.php. She is a member of the Graduate Faculty of Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...
, and currently serves as Distinguished Visiting Professor at the International University Menendez Pelayo in Spain http://www.uimp.es/.
Biography
Born in New York City, Solomon is unusual for a writer from her generation in that her interests, from the beginning, were global. A graduate of the Dalton School in New York City, after World War II she bypassed college in America to go to Europe. At the SorbonneSorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
, she met those French and Spanish students who were later to become the young intellectual rebels so significant is shaping contemporary Europe.
In 1948, Solomon and Barbara Mailer (the sister of Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
) aided Paco Benet in the rescue of two Spanish students being held in the Franco gulag near Madrid, where they were used as slave labor to build Francisco Franco's future tomb, The Valley of the Fallen/Valle de los Caídos. One of the students, Nicolas Sanchez Albornoz http://www.uji.es/infoinst/actes/honoris/albornoz.html was the son of the historian Claudio Sanchez Albornoz, the president of the Spanish Republic in Exile. Solomon and Paco Benet, brother of the Madrid novelist Juan Benet
Juan Benet
-Early life:Benet was born in Madrid. At the start of the Spanish Civil War, his father died, and he left for San Sebastian with his family to find refuge. They stayed there until 1939, when they returned to the capital. In 1944, he completed his high school education and in 1948 he entered into...
, spent five years together, mainly in Paris, where Benet and Solomon edited the resistance magazine Peninsula together.
When Solomon returned to New York she enrolled in the School of General Studies at Columbia University http://www.gs.columbia.edu/home.asp, where she received her BS with honors in Spanish in 1960.
Solomon's father, J. Anthony Probst, was Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
's youngest campaign manager before he served in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
during World War I. He was gassed in the trenches while stationed in France as a private, resulting in a three year stay in an American army hospital there. Probst's cousin, the Austrian writer Joseph Roth
Joseph Roth
Joseph Roth, born Moses Joseph Roth , was an Austrian journalist and novelist, best known for his family saga Radetzky March about the decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and for his novel of Jewish life, Job as well as the seminal essay 'Juden auf Wanderschaft' translated in...
, was a soldier serving on the German/Austrian side. Probst returned to New York after the war to become a successful lawyer. Later he bought the Self Winding Clock Company http://www.telechron.com/nawcc.html from Standard Oil
Standard Oil
Standard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...
, which was affiliated with Western Union
Western Union
The Western Union Company is a financial services and communications company based in the United States. Its North American headquarters is in Englewood, Colorado. Up until 2006, Western Union was the best-known U.S...
.
Solomon's mother, Frances Kurke Probst, worked as a middy blouse model during World War I; after her marriage she attended Columbia University and became an artist. She was a student of Julio de Diego (May 9, 1900 - August 22, 1979) http://www.caldwellgallery.com/dediego.html. Her art and work were much influenced by that of Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters was a German painter who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography and what came to be known as...
.
Writing Life
Solomon is a regular correspondent for The Huffington Post.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-probst-solomon
Books
Solomon's books include the novel The Beat of Life (1969, 2nd edition 1999, Great Marsh Press) and her memoir Arriving Where We Started (revised edition 1999), which won the Pablo Antonio de Olavide prize in Barcelona "for being the best, most literary account of the intellectual resistance to Franco." http://www.greatmarshpress.com/Carolyn See of The New York Times, in her review of Solomon's 1983 Short Flights, said, "This is a remarkable memoir." Solomon's other work include the essay collection Horse-Trading and Ecstasy (1989), the novel Smart Hearts in the City (1992) and the American edition of Operation Ogro: The Execution of Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco (Quadrangle, 1975) Operación Ogro
Operación Ogro
Operación Ogro was the name given by ETA to the assassination of Luis Carrero Blanco the Prime Minister of Spain in 1973...
.
Solomon has just completed a new novel, The King of Paris, about Vichy France
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
; the first chapter appears in The Reading Room: Writing of the Moment/7-Summer 2007 http://www.readingroomjournal.com/.
Her essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Review of Books http://www.nybooks.com/authora/212, The Wall Street Journal, The [Huffington Post], The New Yorker, New York Sun, http://www2.nysun.com/article/71867, Slate http://www.slate.com/id/2169420/, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Harpers, Doubletake, Vogue, The New Republic, Cambio 16, Dissent, Partisan Review, L'infini (Gallimard), L'Evenement du Jeudi and Letras Libres.
Stanley Crouch
Stanley Crouch
Stanley Crouch is an American music and cultural critic, syndicated columnist, and novelist, perhaps best known for his jazz criticism, and his novel Don't the Moon Look Lonesome?- Biography :...
, writing in The All-American Skin Game, comments, "Barbara Probst Solomon's famous essay about the posthumous, high-handed editing down of The Garden of Eden mightily shook Scribner
Scribner
-Media:* Charles Scribner's Sons, also known as Scribner, New York City publisher* Scribner's Magazine, pictorial published from 1887–1939 by Charles Scribner's Sons, then merged with the Commentator which continued until 1942...
's voodoo Hemingway industry when it was published in a 1987 issue of The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
. That investigative essay impressed the way first-class detective work always does, supplying the pleasure of witnessing the covers pulled off a serious fraud. But her 1992 novel, Smart Hearts in the City, is a banana peel that can slide us out of our customary disappointment with the short range and the low ambition of contemporary American fiction....The mulatto textures of Katy Becker's world and the many, many ways in which Barbara Probst Solomon has elevated her epic sense of Americana into literature, subtle to raw, is an achievement that should take a lasting place in the writing about the riddle of the human spirit as expressed within the context of this polyglot nation's bittersweet and stinking little secrets."
Film Documentary
The film When the War Was Over http://www.greatmarshpress.com/, her memoir-documentary based on Arriving Where We Started, which premiered in 1999 on PBS and on Canal Plus in Europe, won the Lancelot Law Whyte Award at Boston UniversityBoston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
for its contribution to modern culture.
Awards and Activism
In 2002 she started the literary journal The Reading Room: Writing of the Moment http://www.greatmarshpress.com/, with the founding Board of Larry RiversLarry Rivers
Larry Rivers was an American artist, musician, filmmaker and occasional actor. Rivers resided and maintained studios in New York City, Southampton, New York and Zihuatanejo, Mexico.-Biography:...
, Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
, Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow was a Canadian-born Jewish American writer. For his literary contributions, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts...
and Donald Maggin, and continues to serve as publisher and editor-in-chief. The Reading Rooms goal is to feature work by both well-known and emerging writers.
In 2005 Solomon became the first North American and second woman to receive the Premio Antonio de Sancha awarded annually by the Association of Madrid Editors to a person distinguished for upholding universal cultural and literary values. Previous recipients include Jack Lang
Jack Lang (French politician)
Jack Mathieu Émile Lang is a French politician. A member of the Socialist Party, he served as France's Minister of Culture from 1981 to 1986 and 1988 to 1992, and as Minister of Education from 1992 to 1993 and 2000 to 2002. He was also the Mayor of Blois from 1989 to 2000...
, former French Minister of Culture; Julio María Sanguinetti Coirolo
Julio María Sanguinetti Coirolo
Julio María Sanguinetti Coirolo is a Uruguayan politician, lawyer and journalist, as well as a former President of Uruguay for the Partido Colorado.A lawyer and journalist by profession, he was born into a middle-class family of Italian origin...
, past President of Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
; actress Nuria Espert; Federico Mayor Zaragoza,former director general of UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
; and the Prix Goncourt
Prix Goncourt
The Prix Goncourt is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year"...
winner Amin Maalouf
Amin Maalouf
Amin Maalouf , born 25 February 1949 in Beirut, is a Lebanese-born French author. Although his native language is Arabic, he writes in French, and his works have been translated into many languages. He received the Prix Goncourt in 1993 for his novel The Rock of Tanios...
.
Most recently in May 2007, Solomon received the United Nations/Women Together Award, which honors women who "share a dedication to stand out in their individual activities, a commitment to their work, and a devotion to making the world a better place. Their efforts have made them symbols, icons and examples to the women of this century, giving hope for the future and creating a legacy for the next generations." In addition to Solomon, the 2007 awardees included artist Louise Bourgeois
Louise Bourgeois
Louise Joséphine Bourgeois , was a renowned French-American artist and sculptor, best known for her contributions to both modern and contemporary art, and for her spider structures, titled Maman, which resulted in her being nicknamed the Spiderwoman...
, Spanish television journalist Rosa Maria Calaf, Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi
Shirin Ebadi
Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer, a former judge and human rights activist and founder of Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. On 10 October 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially women's,...
, Spanish economist Isabel Estape, theatrical and television producer Francine LeFrak, Wangari Maathal, the first African woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize, and Vasundhara Raje
Vasundhara Raje
Vasundhara Raje was the Chief Minister of Rajasthan state of India from December 2003 till December 2008. She is the first woman Chief Minister of Rajasthan.- Early life :...
, the first woman Chief Minister of the State of Rajasthan.