Michael Lesy (born 1945) is an American non-fiction writer.Michael Lesy bio at Encyclopedia.com His books, which combine historical photographs with original writing, include Wisconsin Death Trip (1973), Real Life: Louisville in the Twenties (1976), Bearing Witness: A Photographic Chronicle of American Life (1982), Visible Light (1985), Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties (2007), Repast: Dining Out at the Dawn of the New American Century (with Lisa Stoffer, 2013), Looking Backward: A Photographic Portrait of the World at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century (2017), and Snapshots 1971–77 (September 2021).Snapshots 1971–77 at Amazon
Lesy grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio.Birnbaum, Robert, Interview: Michael Lesy, Identity Theory, September 16, 2003 He received a B.A. in theoretical sociology from Columbia University, an M.A. in American social history from the University of Wisconsin, and a Ph.D. in American cultural history from Rutgers University.Hampshire College faculty page for Michael Lesy He taught at Hampshire College, in Amherst, Massachusetts, from 1990 to 2020, and is a Hampshire emeritus professor of literary journalism.
Wisconsin Death Trip, Lesy's first book, was adapted into a film by James Marsh in 1999.Holden, Stephen, "Film Review: How a Town In Wisconsin Went Mad", The New York Times, December 1, 1999Marcus, Greil, "A Record of Despair Born of a Single Image", The New York Times, November 28, 1999 Ironically, Lesy explained in a 2003 interview, "I wanted to make it a movie. But it cost too much to produce. So it was just a poor man’s way of making a movie in book form." Wisconsin Death Trip was presented on the BBC documentary series Arena in 2000."Arena -Episodes by date" on Arena series website
In 2006 the United States Artists Foundation named Lesy its first Simon Fellow.United States Artists Foundation (2006) "Michael Lesy In 2013 Lesy was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for Photography Studies.Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship for Michael Lesy, 2013
Bibliography Year Title Publisher 1973 Wisconsin Death Trip Pantheon Books 1976 Real Life: Louisville in the Twenties Pantheon Books 1980 Time Frames: The Meaning of Family Pictures Pantheon Books 1982 Bearing Witness: A Photographic Chronicle of American Life Pantheon Books 1985 Visible Light Crown Publishing Group 1987 The Forbidden Zone Farrar, Straus, and Giroux 1991 Rescues: The Lives of Heroes Farrar, Straus, and Giroux 1997 Dreamland: America at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century The New Press 2002 Long Time Coming: A Photographic Portrait of America, 1935-1943 W. W. Norton & Company 2005 Angel's World: The New York Photographs of Angelo Rizzuto W. W. Norton & Company 2007 Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties W. W. Norton & Company 2013 Repast: Dining Out at the Dawn of the New American Century (with Lisa Stoffer) W. W. Norton & Company 2017 Looking Backward: A Photographic Portrait of the World at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century W. W. Norton & Company 2021 Snapshots 1971–77 (September 17 scheduled publication) Blast Books
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