Stephen Fried

Who is this?

Stephen Fried is an American investigative journalist, non-fiction author, and lecturer who teaches at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania. His first book, Thing of Beauty: The Tragedy of Supermodel Gia (Pocket), a biography of model Gia Carangi and her era, was published in 1993. He has since written Bitter Pills: Inside the Hazardous World of Legal Drugs (Bantam 1998), an investigation of medication safety and the pharmaceutical-industrial complex; The New Rabbi (Bantam 2002), which weaves the dramatic search for a new religious leader at one of the nation's most influential houses of worship with a meditation on the author's Jewish upbringing; Husbandry (Bantam 2007), a collection of essays on marriage and men; Appetite for America: Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the Wild West—One Meal at a Time (Bantam 2010), the bestselling biography of restaurant and hotel entrepreneur Fred Harvey; and RUSH: Revolution, Madness & the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father (Crown 2018). In 2015, he co-authored the New York Times bestseller A Common Struggle: A Personal Journey Through the Past and Future of Mental Illness and Addiction (Blue Rider 2015) and Profiles in Mental Health Courage (Dutton 2024) with former Congressman and mental health advocate Patrick J. Kennedy. Fried is also an award-winning writer, a two-time recipient of the National Magazine Award, and has written for Vanity Fair, GQ, Rolling Stone, Glamour, Smithsonian, Parade, Ladies' Home Journal and Philadelphia magazine, where he was also editor-in-chief in 1999 and 2000. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, author Diane Ayres.

Career

1. 1958
   Born
2. 2010
   Won Athenaeum Literary Award

Trivia

• •Place of birth: Harrisburg
• •Citizenship: United States
• •Known as: essayist, biographer, journalist