- Deborah Harkness
-
Deborah Harkness (born 1965) is an American scholar, novelist and wine enthusiast. She is a well-regarded historian of science and medicine, specializing in the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries.[1] Harkness has published two works of history, John Dee's Conversations with Angels: Cabala, Alchemy and the End of Nature (1999) and The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution (2007).[2] Her recent novel A Discovery of Witches, a tale of magic, science and history, has become a bestseller[3] and was named to Amazon's Best Books of February 2011 List.[4] She is also the author of the award-winning wine blog, Good Wine Under $20.[5]
Contents
Biography
Born in 1965, Harkness grew up near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of an American-born father and a British-born mother.[6] She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College (B.A., 1986), Northwestern University (M.A., 1990) and the University of California at Davis (Ph.D., 1994).[7]
She lives in Southern California.[8]
Work
Deborah Harkness is a professor of history at the University of Southern California.[9]
In 2011, she published her first work of fiction, A Discovery of Witches, which debuted at No. 2 on the New York Times bestseller hardcover fiction list,[10] and has been sold in at least 34 countries.[11]
The first of a trilogy, A Discovery of Witches was called "a sophisticated fairy tale for adults" by the San Antonio Express News.[12] It tells the story of an unwilling, modern-day witch who inadvertently calls up an ancient enchanted manuscript at Oxford University's Bodleian Library[13] thereby attracting the unwelcome notice of a host of magical creatures who live among humans, including other witches, daemons, and a 1,500 year-old French vampire.[14]
Some elements of this novel sprang directly from Harkness' own life: she has spent many hours engaged in research in the Bodleian Library's Reading Room, and in the course of her own research, Harkness discovered an ancient—and long-lost—book of spells, the Book of Soyga.[15]
Bibliography
Novel
A Discovery of Witches (2011)
Books
The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution (2007)
John Dee's Conversations with Angels: Cabala, Alchemy, and the End of Nature (1999)
Awards
Harkness' faculty profile on the University of Southern California's website lists the following honors and awards:
Highly Commended, Longman-History Today Awards Book Prize, Spring 2009
Recipient of National or International Prize in Discipline, Pfizer Award for Best Book in the History of Science, History of Science Society, Fall 2008
Recipient of National or International Prize in Discipline, John Best Snow Prize for Best Book in British Studies, North American Conference on British Studies, Fall 2008
Prize for Best Book, Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies, Spring 2008
Huntington Library Research Fellowship Recipient, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, 2006–2007
Guggenheim Fellowship Recipient, John S. Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, 2004–2005
Residency at the National Humanities Center, National Humanities Center, John E. Sawyer Fellow, 2004–2005
NIH/NSF Career Development Award, National Science Foundation Senior Scholar's Award, 2001–2002
Recipient of National or International Prize in Discipline, Derek Price Award for Best Article, History of Science Society, 1998
American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship Recipient, ACLS Fellowship, 1997–1998
Huntington Library Research Fellowship Recipient, NEH Fellowship, Huntington Library, 1997–1998
Recipient of National or International Prize in Discipline, Nelson Prize for Best Article, Renaissance Society of America, 1997
Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, U.S. Department of Education, 1989–1993
Fulbright Award, Fulbright Fellowship to the United Kingdom, 1991–1992
References
Bennett, Steve. "A potent spell cast: Debut novel about witches, vampires thoroughly engaging," San Antonio Express News, February 12, 2011
Gressit, Kit-Bacon. "SoCal scholar bounds into the supernatural," North County Times, February 20, 2011
Hernandez-Vogt, Persephone. "Discovery of a writer: alum pens a preternatural tale," The Mount Holyoke News, February 24, 2011
Kindle: Best Books of February 2011, amazon.com, Feb. 2011. Retrieved 6/10/2011
McGee, Celia. "Bewitched, Bothered and Bedeviled," O, The Oprah Magazine, February 2011
Pelligrino, Nicky. "Deborah Harkness: Once bitten . . . ," New Zealand Herald, April 11, 2011
Schulessler, Jennifer. "Inside the List," The New York Times, Feb. 25, 2011
Timberg, Scott. "Deborah Harkness' 'A Discovery of Witches' started with airport bookstores," Los Angeles Times, April 10, 2011
University of Southern California, Faculty Profile, "Deborah Harkness"
External links
Official Deborah Harkness website
Deborah Harkness Faculty Profile, University of Southern California
- Good Wine Under $20 blog
- ^ http://themhnews.org/2011/02/books/discovery-of-a-writer-alum-pens-a-preternatural-tale The Mount Holyoke News, February 24, 2011
- ^ http://www.nctimes.com/entertainment/books-and-literature/article_3a8bb6fc-5418-5135-a883-249694c5c179.html North County Times, February 20, 2011
- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/books/review/InsideList-t.html The New York Times, February 25, 2011
- ^ http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000654911 amazon.com Feb. 2011
- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/books/review/InsideList-t.html The New York Times, February 25, 2011
- ^ Los Angeles Times, April 10, 2011
- ^ http://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/faculty-and-staff/faculty.cfm?pid=1003333&CFID=1561299&CFTOKEN=91826354 University of Southern California
- ^ Los Angeles Times, April 10, 2011
- ^ North County Times, February 20, 2011.
- ^ The New York Times, February 25, 2011
- ^ Pellegrino, Nicky (April 11, 2011). "Deborah Harkness: Once bitten ...". The New Zealand Herald. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10718563. Retrieved September 27, 2011.
- ^ San Antonio Express News, February 12, 2011
- ^ McGee, February 2011,
- ^ North County Times, February 20, 2011
- ^ North County Times, February 20, 2011
Categories:- 1965 births
- Living people
- Historians of science
- American medical historians
- American novelists
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