Art Buchwald

Arthur "Art" Buchwald (born October 20, 1925) is an American humorist best known for his long-running column in The Washington Post newspaper, which concentrates on political satire and commentary. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Outstanding Commentary in 1982 and in 1986 was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

Biography

Art Buchwald is the son of Joseph Buchwald, a curtain manufacturer, and has three sisters Alice, Edith and Doris. He grew up in a residential community in the Queens Borough of New York City. He did not graduate high school, and left home to join the Marines when he was 17.

Related Topics:
Curtain - Queens - New York City - High school - Marines

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From October 1942 to October 1945, he served with the U.S. Marine Corps, attached to the Fourth Marine Air Wing. He spent two years in the Pacific Theater and was discharged from the service as a sergeant.

Related Topics:
Pacific Theater - Sergeant

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On his return, Buchwald enrolled at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles on the G.I. Bill. At USC he was managing editor of the campus magazine Wampus; he also wrote a column for the college newspaper, the Daily Trojan.

Related Topics:
University of Southern California - G.I. Bill - Magazine - Newspaper

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In 1948 he left USC, without earning a degree, and bought a one-way ticket to Paris. Eventually, Buchwald got a job as a correspondent for Variety Magazine in Paris. In January 1949, he took a sample column, on which he had been working, to the offices of the European edition of The New York Herald Tribune. Titled Paris After Dark, it was filled with scraps of offbeat information about Parisian nightlife. Buchwald was hired and joined the editorial staff. His column caught on quickly, and Buchwald followed it in 1951 with another column, Mostly About People. They were fused into one under the title Europe?s Lighter Side.

Related Topics:
Paris - ''Variety'' Magazine - The New York Herald Tribune - Nightlife

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Buchwald?s columns soon began to recruit readers on both sides of the Atlantic. On August 24, 1959, TIME magazine, in reviewing the history of the European edition of The Herald Tribune, reported that Buchwald?s column had achieved an "institutional quality." The column in which Buchwald explains Thanksgiving Day to the French people in 1953 is reprinted every November with ceremonial regularity.

Related Topics:
August 24 - 1959 - ''TIME'' magazine - Thanksgiving Day

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Buchwald returned to the United States in 1962 and is at present syndicated by Tribune Media Services. His column appears in some 300 newspapers.

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Buchwald has written some 30 books, including Leaving Home (Putnam, 1994); I?ll Always Have Paris (Putnam, 1995); I think I Don?t Remember (Putnam, 1987); and Stella in Heaven: Almost a Novel (Putnam, 2000).

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Buchwald has three children and currently lives in Washington, D.C.

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In 2000, at age 74, Buchwald suffered a stroke that left him in the hospital for over 2 months. With much therapy, he has since largely recovered.KLO

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