Philipp Blom

Philipp Blom (b.1970) is a historian, novelist, journalist and translator. He was born in Hamburg, Germany, and studied in Vienna and Oxford. He holds a DPhil in Modern History from Oxford University. After living and working in London and Paris he now lives in Vienna.

His historical works include "To Have and To Hold", [To Have and to Hold - An Intimate History of Collectors and Collecting, Allen Lane/Penguin, London, 2002] a history of collectors and collecting, and "Encyclopédie" [Encyclopédie - The Triumph of Reason in an Unreasonable Age, Fourth Estate, London, 2004] (US edition: "Enlightening the World"), a history of the Encyclopaedia by Diderot and d'Alembert that sparked the Enlightenment in France. A cultural history of the era 1900 to 1914 in the Europe and the United States is due to be published in August 2008. [The Vertigo Years - Change and Culture in the West, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2008]

Blom has published two novels: "The Simmons Papers" [The Simmons Papers, Faber & Faber, London, 1995; German edition Die Simmons Papiere, Berlin Verlag, Berlin, 1997] and "Luxor" (in German). [Luxor, Tisch 7, Cologne, 2006]

He has also published an authoritative guide to Austrian wines, "The Wines of Austria", [The Wines of Austria, Faber & Faber, London, 2000; reissued by Mitchell Beazley, London, 2006] and an English translation of Geert Mak's "Amsterdam" (1999).

As a journalist, Blom has written for the "Times Literary Supplement", "The Financial Times", "The Independent", "The Guardian", and the "Sunday Telegraph" in Britain, for various German-language publications ("Neue Züricher Zeitung", "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung", "Die Zeit", "Süddeutsche Zeitung", "Financial Times Deutschland", "Berliner Zeitung", "Der Standard", "Die Tageszeitung"), and for "Vrij Nederland" in the Netherlands, as well as for other magazines and journals, the BBC, and German radio stations. He currently hosts a live cultural programme, "Von Tag zu Tag", on station Ö1 on Austrian National Radio.

Recently, Blom has written the libretto for an opera, "Soliman", a project with the composer Joost van Kerkhooven, and has provided translations for stage productions ("The Producers" for the Etablissement Ronacher, and "La Colombe" [a Gounod opera] for the Schonbrunn Theatre, Vienna).

Publications in chronological order

Blom, Philipp. The Simmons Papers, Faber & Faber, London, 1995
Blom, Philipp. Die Simmons Papiere, Berlin Verlag, Berlin, 1997
Blom, Philipp. The Wines of Austria, Faber & Faber, London, 2000
Blom, Philipp. To Have and to Hold, Allen Lane/Penguin, 2002 (Translations and foreign editions: USA, Brazil, South Korea, Germany, France)
Blom, Philipp. Encyclopédie, Fourth Estate, London 2004 (Foreign editions: USA, Brazil, Spain, Germany)
Blom, Philipp. Luxor, Tisch 7, Cologne, 2006
Blom, Philipp. The Wines of Austria, Mitchell Beazley, London, 2006
Blom, Philipp. The Vertigo Years, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2008 (Foreign editions: USA, Canada, Germany, Spain, Netherlands)

External links

* [http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/blomp/havehold.htm Reviews of "To Have and To Hold"]
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2004/08/29/boblo229.xml&sSheet=/arts/2004/08/29/botop.html Review of "Encyclopedie"] , "The Telegraph", 8 August 2004
* [http://oe1.orf.at] [http://www.amheath.com/authors/author.html?_a=author.show&id=53 Philipp Blom at A M Heath & Co Literary Agents]