Neil Baldwin is a poet, critic, cultural historian, biographer, arts executive, and emeritus professor (as of July 1, 2020) in the College of the Arts at Montclair State University."Neil Baldwin". [montclair.edu.] He is the 2024-2026 External Mentor for the National Park Service Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship Program at the Thomas Edison National Historic Park in West Orange, New Jersey; and his work in process is The Solace of Art in Later Life.

Career He was the editor of The Niagara Magazine between 1974 and 1982, and he worked in fundraising for the New York Public Library between 1984 and 1989.

Baldwin was the executive director of the National Book Foundation and sponsor of the National Book Awards for 15 years, from its founding in 1989 until his resignation in 2003.

He is the author of 11 books, including Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate, Edison: Inventing the Century, and Man Ray: American Artist, as well as poetry, criticism and history.

Themes in writings Baldwin describes a common thread in some of his work as follows:

"...my first two subjects were William Carlos Williams, the poet and physician and probably, you could say, the precursor of--of modern poetry in America today. And the second subject was Man Ray, who was the photographer and painter who was also a great American figure. And I viewed Man Ray as a quintessential modernist figure. And what I did was if--William Carlos Williams, I was talking about a genre and the history of a genre. And then I decided the most important thing after that would be to try to define a period as a whole, the modern period as a whole, so Man Ray to me was the metaphor for the modernist period in art."

"And then I thought, 'Well, I've dealt with two highly creative individuals, and I've explored their imaginations.' But I wanted to make the point that creativity and imagination are not the sole province of the artist, the--the humanist thinker. I wanted to show that invention, which was actually defined as an art in Edison's time--it was actually called the art of invention. I wanted to show that the inventive process, the creative process, they all stem from the--the--the deepest core of the imagination in--in a human being, and I wanted to connect all those creative processes in the context of an American vision."

"And if you look at the time frame for these three books--William Carlos Williams, Man Ray, Thomas Edison--they all begin sort of in the last vestiges of the industrial era and the romantic era in culture and they pass through the cataclysm of the wars and they end up sort of on the threshold of--of our day. And so I do think they all connect, even though on first blush it is--it's hard to see the connection, but I think there is a connection."

Media appearances Baldwin has been featured in various media outlets discussing his work. Notably, he appeared on NPR's "Fresh Air" to discuss his book Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate, where he detailed Ford's anti-Semitic writings and their impact.

Bibliography

TitleYearPublisherSubject matterInterviews and articlesTo All Gentleness: William Carlos Williams, the Doctor Poet1984Atheneum BooksWilliam Carlos WilliamsMan Ray: American Artist(Baldwin used this book in writing the screenplay for the PBS American Masters documentary Man Ray: Prophet of the Avant-Garde.)1988Clarkson PotterMan RayEdison: Inventing the Century1995Hyperion BooksThomas EdisonBooknotes interview with Baldwin on Edison, March 19, 1995, C-SPANLegends of the Plumed Serpent: Biography of a Mexican God1998PublicAffairsQuetzalcoatlPresentation by Baldwin on Legends of the Plumed Serpent, December 9, 1998, C-SPANHenry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate2001PublicAffairsHenry Ford, The International Jew, The Dearborn IndependentThe American Revelation: Ten Ideals That Shaped Our Country From the Puritans to the Cold War2006St. Martin's PressJohn Winthrop; The Massachusetts Bay CompanyAfter Words interview with Baldwin on The American Revelation, June 13, 2005, C-SPANThomas Paine; Common SensePierre Eugene du Simitiere; E pluribus unumRalph Waldo Emerson; Self-RelianceJohn L. O'Sullivan; Manifest destinyHenry George; Progress and PovertyJane Addams; Hull HouseIsrael Zangwill; The Melting PotCarter G. Woodson; Association for the Study of African American Life and HistoryGeorge Marshall; The Marshall PlanMartha Graham: When Dance Became Modern2022KnopfMartha Graham

References

External links

Baldwin's blog as Director of Creative Research Center, Montclair State University