Charles Glass
Encyclopedia
Charles Glass is an American
author, journalist, and broadcaster specializing in the Middle East
. He writes regularly for The Spectator
, was ABC News
chief Middle East correspondent from 1983–93, and has worked as a correspondent for Newsweek
and The Observer
. His work has appeared in newspapers and magazines, and on television networks, all over the world.
Glass is the author of Tribes With Flags: A Dangerous Passage Through the Chaos of the Middle East (1991) and a collection of essays, Money for Old Rope: Disorderly Compositions (1992). A sequel to Tribes with Flags, called The Tribes Triumphant, was published by Harper Collins in June 2006. His book on the beginning of the American war in Iraq, The Northern Front, was published in October 2006 by Saqi
. His most recent book, Americans in Paris (Harper Collins), tells the story of the American citizens who chose to remain in Paris when the Germans occupied the city in 1940. He has received awards from the Overseas Press Club and the Commonwealth and George Foster Peabody Awards. http://www.charlesglass.net/profile.html
One of Glass's best known stories was his 1986 interview on the tarmac of Beirut Airport of the crew of TWA Flight 847
after the flight was hijacked. He broke the news that the hijackers had removed the hostages and had hidden them in the suburbs of Beirut
, which caused the Reagan
administration to abort a rescue attempt that would have failed and led to loss of life at the airport. http://www.charlesglass.net/profile.html
Glass himself made headlines in 1987, when he was taken hostage for 62 days in Lebanon
by Shi'a militants, becoming in the process the only Western hostage in Lebanon known to have escaped, which he describes in his book, Tribes with Flags.
on 23 January 1951, and has dual US/UK citizenship. He received a bachelor's degree in philosophy
from the University of Southern California
, then undertook graduate studies at the American University of Beirut
. He lived in Beirut, Lebanon, for six years. He was married to Fiona Ross for seventeen years. He has three sons, one daughter and two stepdaughters and lives variously in France, Italy, Britain and Lebanon.
. He became the network's chief Middle East correspondent, a position he held for ten years, before deciding to freelance. Since then, he has worked for CNN
, ABC, and the BBC
; in print, he has written for The Independent
, Christian Science Monitor, TIME magazine, The Guardian
, Chicago Daily News
, The Daily Telegraph
, The Sunday Telegraph, New Statesman
, Times Literary Supplement, London Review of Books
, Granta
, Harper's Magazine
, and The London Magazine. He is a frequent lecturer on Middle East and international affairs in Britain and the United States.
He is the Books Editor of the Frontline Club
Newsletter in London and has recently become a publisher.
critic to call it "one of the best and most heart-rending documentaries [he had] ever seen."
Iraq: Enemies of the State, made for the BBC, was broadcast around the world six months before Saddam Hussein
's invasion of Kuwait
. He also made Stains of War (1992), and The Forgotten Faithful (1994), which looked at the situation of the Palestinian Christians
who have left the West Bank
.
In 1988, he revealed that Saddam Hussein had developed biological weapons. In 1991, he was the only American television correspondent to enter northern Iraq
to cover the Kurdish rebellion from start to finish. In 1992, he took a hidden camera to East Timor
, occupied by Indonesia
, and filed a report that caused a U.S. Senate committee to vote for a suspension of military aid to Indonesia. In 1993, he covered the Serb
attacks against Bosnia
. http://www.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/glass.charles.html He returned to Iraq in 2003 to cover the American invasion for ABC News and wrote about the war in Harper's magazine.
He won an Overseas Press Club award in 1976 for his radio reporting of the deaths of Palestinians at the Beirut refugee camp at Tel el Zaatar; and he has shared the British Commonwealth and Peabody Awards for documentary films.
In 2011, he initiated his publishing imprint, Charles Glass Books, under the aegis of Quartet Books in London. His first two publications were Stephane Hessel's Time for Outrage! (Indignez-vous!) and D. D. Guttenplan's American Radical: The Life and Times of I. F. Stone.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author, journalist, and broadcaster specializing in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. He writes regularly for The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
, was ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
chief Middle East correspondent from 1983–93, and has worked as a correspondent for Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
and The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
. His work has appeared in newspapers and magazines, and on television networks, all over the world.
Glass is the author of Tribes With Flags: A Dangerous Passage Through the Chaos of the Middle East (1991) and a collection of essays, Money for Old Rope: Disorderly Compositions (1992). A sequel to Tribes with Flags, called The Tribes Triumphant, was published by Harper Collins in June 2006. His book on the beginning of the American war in Iraq, The Northern Front, was published in October 2006 by Saqi
Saqi Books
Saqi Books is an independent UK publisher co-founded in 1984 by author and feminist Mai Ghoussoub to "print quality academic and general interest books on the Middle East". It now claims to be "the UK's largest publisher of Middle Eastern and Arabic titles"...
. His most recent book, Americans in Paris (Harper Collins), tells the story of the American citizens who chose to remain in Paris when the Germans occupied the city in 1940. He has received awards from the Overseas Press Club and the Commonwealth and George Foster Peabody Awards. http://www.charlesglass.net/profile.html
One of Glass's best known stories was his 1986 interview on the tarmac of Beirut Airport of the crew of TWA Flight 847
TWA Flight 847
TWA Flight 847 was an international Trans World Airlines flight which was hijacked by Lebanese Shia extremists, later identified as members of Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad, on Friday morning, June 14, 1985, after originally taking off from Cairo. The flight was en route from Athens to Rome and then...
after the flight was hijacked. He broke the news that the hijackers had removed the hostages and had hidden them in the suburbs of Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, which caused the Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
administration to abort a rescue attempt that would have failed and led to loss of life at the airport. http://www.charlesglass.net/profile.html
Glass himself made headlines in 1987, when he was taken hostage for 62 days in Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
by Shi'a militants, becoming in the process the only Western hostage in Lebanon known to have escaped, which he describes in his book, Tribes with Flags.
Personal life
Glass was born in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
on 23 January 1951, and has dual US/UK citizenship. He received a bachelor's degree in philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
from the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
, then undertook graduate studies at the American University of Beirut
American University of Beirut
The American University of Beirut is a private, independent university in Beirut, Lebanon. It was founded as the Syrian Protestant College by American missionaries in 1866...
. He lived in Beirut, Lebanon, for six years. He was married to Fiona Ross for seventeen years. He has three sons, one daughter and two stepdaughters and lives variously in France, Italy, Britain and Lebanon.
Professional life
Glass began his career in 1973 with ABC News in Beirut, where he covered the Arab-Israeli war in Syria and Egypt with Peter JenningsPeter Jennings
Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings, CM was a Canadian American journalist and news anchor. He was the sole anchor of ABC's World News Tonight from 1983 until his death in 2005 of complications from lung cancer...
. He became the network's chief Middle East correspondent, a position he held for ten years, before deciding to freelance. Since then, he has worked for CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, ABC, and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
; in print, he has written for The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, Christian Science Monitor, TIME magazine, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, Chicago Daily News
Chicago Daily News
The Chicago Daily News was an afternoon daily newspaper published between 1876 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.-History:The Daily News was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty in 1875 and began publishing early the next year...
, The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, The Sunday Telegraph, New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
, Times Literary Supplement, London Review of Books
London Review of Books
The London Review of Books is a fortnightly British magazine of literary and intellectual essays.-History:The LRB was founded in 1979, during the year-long lock-out at The Times, by publisher A...
, Granta
Granta
Granta is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centers on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make real." In 2007, The Observer stated, "In its blend of...
, Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
, and The London Magazine. He is a frequent lecturer on Middle East and international affairs in Britain and the United States.
He is the Books Editor of the Frontline Club
Frontline Club
The Frontline Club is a media club near London's Paddington Station. With a strong emphasis on conflict reporting, it aims to champion independent journalism, provide an effective platform from which to support diversity and professionalism in the media, promote safe practice, and encourage both...
Newsletter in London and has recently become a publisher.
Notable stories
Glass's one-hour documentary on Lebanon, Pity the Nation: Charles Glass's Lebanon, was broadcast in 20 countries, prompting the London Evening StandardEvening Standard
The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
critic to call it "one of the best and most heart-rending documentaries [he had] ever seen."
Iraq: Enemies of the State, made for the BBC, was broadcast around the world six months before Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
's invasion of Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
. He also made Stains of War (1992), and The Forgotten Faithful (1994), which looked at the situation of the Palestinian Christians
Palestinian Christians
Palestinian Christians are Arabic-speaking Christians descended from the people of the geographical area of Palestine. Within Palestine, there are churches and believers from many Christian denominations, including Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholic , Protestant, and others...
who have left the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
.
In 1988, he revealed that Saddam Hussein had developed biological weapons. In 1991, he was the only American television correspondent to enter northern Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
to cover the Kurdish rebellion from start to finish. In 1992, he took a hidden camera to East Timor
East Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
, occupied by Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, and filed a report that caused a U.S. Senate committee to vote for a suspension of military aid to Indonesia. In 1993, he covered the Serb
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
attacks against Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
. http://www.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/glass.charles.html He returned to Iraq in 2003 to cover the American invasion for ABC News and wrote about the war in Harper's magazine.
He won an Overseas Press Club award in 1976 for his radio reporting of the deaths of Palestinians at the Beirut refugee camp at Tel el Zaatar; and he has shared the British Commonwealth and Peabody Awards for documentary films.
In 2011, he initiated his publishing imprint, Charles Glass Books, under the aegis of Quartet Books in London. His first two publications were Stephane Hessel's Time for Outrage! (Indignez-vous!) and D. D. Guttenplan's American Radical: The Life and Times of I. F. Stone.
Works
- Tribes With Flags: A Dangerous Passage Through the Chaos of the Middle East (hardcover and paperback), Atlantic Monthly Press, 1991. ISBN 0-87113-457-8 (Published in the United Kingdom by Secker and Warburg, as well as Picador.)
- Money for Old Rope: Disorderly Compositions (paperback), Picador, 1992. ISBN 0-330-32209-5
- The Tribes Triumphant (hardcover), Harper Collins, 2006
- The Northern Front: An Iraq War Diary (paperback), Saqi Books, 2006
- Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under the Nazi Occupation, 1940-1944 (hardcover), Harper Collins, 2009. ISBN 978-0-00-722853-9 (Available at amazon.co.uk)