American journalist (1963–2021)
Thomas Vinciguerra (October 8, 1963 – February 22, 2021) was an American journalist, editor, and author. A founding editor of The Week magazine, he published about popular culture, nostalgia and other subjects in The New York Times ,[1] [2] The Wall Street Journal , The New Yorker and GQ .[3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [1] [2]
Background
Thomas Viniguerra was born on October 8, 1963. His parents William Vinciguerra and Aurora Locicero were public school teachers in Levittown, New York for four decades.[8] Raised in Garden City, New York , he attended Columbia College , where he was an editor of the Columbia Daily Spectator and was involved with The Varsity Show . Graduating in 1985 with a BA in history, he continued studies on campus, receiving his MS from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism the following year. While at the Journalism School he refounded the Philolexian Society , Columbia's oldest student organization; he was subsequently designated its "Avatar." In 1990, he received an MA in English from the Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences .[1] [9]
Career
From 1987 to 1998, Vinciguerra served as an editor at Columbia College Today , the college's alumni publication.[1] [10] [11] He joined The Week upon inception in 2001 through 2010.[4] [5] [1] [2] Subsequently, he was executive editor of Indian Country Today Media Network.[1]
Vinciguerra was editor of Conversations with Elie Wiesel (Schocken, 2001) and Backward Ran Sentences: The Best of Wolcott Gibbs from The New Yorker (Bloomsbury, 2011).[12] Book critic Jonathan Yardley of The Washington Post selected Backward Ran Sentences as one of his 11 best books of 2011.[13] In November 2015, he published the original volume Cast of Characters: Wolcott Gibbs , E.B. White , James Thurber and the Golden Age of the New Yorker (W.W. Norton ), which chronicles the early years of the New Yorker magazine.[14] [15] [16] [17] He appeared on the History Channel , NY1 , Fox News , John Batchelor Show , and the Leonard Lopate Show , among other venues.[18]
His newspaper writings on popular culture covered a variety of topics, with frequent articles on both Star Trek [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] and James Bond .[25] [26] [27] Vinciguerra also wrote obituaries, including for Sean Connery ,[28] Rodney Dangerfield ,[29] John Ashberry ,[30] Leka Zogu [31] and others. He also wrote at least two articles on the topic of obituary writing.[32] [33]
Death and legacy
Thomas Vinciguerra died at the age of 57 on February 22, 2021.[7] [1] He is buried at Pine Lawn Memorial Park in Farmingdale, NY.
Ronald Wilmer, Columbia Class of 1986, wrote:
Tom, who was a graduate of Columbia College, the Journalism School and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, was a valued member of the Columbia community. He frequently contributed to Columbia Magazine and Columbia College Today ... Late last year, Columbia University Press published Tom’s last book: an anthology, which he edited, called A Community of Scholars: Seventy-Five Years of The University Seminars at Columbia. It’s a fitting final work for a writer who earned three degrees at Columbia.[1]
Audere magazine remembered Vinciguerra as "Embracing his Weird":
Vinciguerra’s writing talents were spectacular and effortless, but he veered to the obscure. During his college years, at Columbia, he enthusiastically revived the long-dead "Philolexian" debating society, which thanks to his enthusiastic, not entirely un-weird efforts, survives to this day. Indeed, Vinciguerra embraced his own weirdness without apology. When Time Magazine published an anonymous photograph of him during the 1980s and called him a "trekkie," he sternly wrote them a correction: he was a "trekker," he insisted, not a "trekkie," a distinction that only a trekkie could possibly have known.[2]
Works
Books:
Books Edited:
A Community of Scholars: Seventy-Five Years of The University Seminars at Columbia (2020)[34]
Articles:
References
^ a b c d e f g h
Wilmer, Ronald (March 2021). "Columbia Mourns Loss of Devoted Alumnus & Gifted Writer Tom Vinciguerra" . Columbia Journalism School. Retrieved 6 March 2021 .
^ a b c d
" 'Oblivioni' Remembers Thomas Vinciguerra" . Audere Magazine . Chickadee Prince Book. 6 March 2021. Retrieved 6 March 2021 .
^ "Thomas Vinciguerra | W. W. Norton & Company" . Books.wwnorton.com . Retrieved 2016-01-18 .
^ a b
"About Thomas Vinciguerra" . Nieman Reports. 10 November 2015. Retrieved 2 August 2020 .
^ a b c
"Thomas Vinciguerra" . Penguin Random House. Retrieved 2 August 2020 .
^
"Thomas Vinciguerra" . Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 2 August 2020 .
^ a b
Maslin, Michael (24 February 2021). "Thomas Vinciguerra: 1963 – 2021" . Ink Spill. Retrieved 24 February 2021 .
^
Murphy, Bridget (22 February 2016). "Aurora Vinciguerra Dies; Levittown Teacher Was 86" . NewsDay . Retrieved 25 February 2021 .
^
"Thomas Vinciguerra '85CC, '86JRN, '90GSAS: Contributing Writers" . Columbia University Magazine . Columbia University. Retrieved 2 August 2020 .
^ "Thomas Vinciguerra - WikiCU, the Columbia University wiki encyclopedia" . Wikicu.com . Retrieved 2016-01-18 .
^ "Thomas J. Vinciguerra '85: Inimitable Writer, Colleague and Friend" . Columbia College Today . 2021-06-11. Retrieved 2023-01-13 .
^ "Backward Ran Sentences" . Writersreps.com . Retrieved 2016-01-18 .
^
Yardley, Jonathan (9 December 2011). "Books" . The Washington Post . Retrieved 24 February 2021 .
^ "Cast of Characters | W. W. Norton & Company" . Books.wwnorton.com . 2015-11-15. Retrieved 2016-01-18 .
^ Maslin, Michael . "Inkspill - New Yorker Cartoonists News" . Retrieved 2016-01-18 .
^
Thomas Vinciguerra (2016). Cast of Characters: Wolcott Gibbs, E. B. White, James Thurber, and the Golden Age of the New Yorker . National Geographic Books. ISBN 9780393240030 .
^
Thomas Vinciguerra; Wolcott Gibbs (2011-10-18). "Backward Ran Sentences: The Best of Wolcott Gibbs from the New Yorker: Thomas Vinciguerra: Bloomsbury USA" . Bloomsbury.com . Retrieved 2016-01-18 .
^
"Thomas Vinciguerra" . Writers Reps.
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2009-03-18). "Getting Their Kirk On" . The New York Times . ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2007-12-16). "Nobody Knows the Tribbles He's Seen" . The New York Times . ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2016-09-08). "Opinion | Who Stole My 'Star Trek'?" . The New York Times . ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2012-03-28). "A 'Trek' Script Is Grounded in Cyberspace" . The New York Times . ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2006-12-03). " 'Star Trek,' the Forgotten Frontier: 1970s Animation" . The New York Times . ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2006-10-08). "There Are No Small Parts, Only Long Memories" . The New York Times . ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2019-12-27). "50 Years Later, This Bond Film Should Finally Get Its Due" . The New York Times . ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ "Opinion | Bond. James Bond. Husband" . The New York Times . 2018-04-26. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2008-11-22). "Cool Under Pressure" . The New York Times . ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2020-11-01). "Sean Connery: From Tentative Secret Agent to Suave Bond" . The New York Times . ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2004-10-10). "Somehow He Never Got 'No Respect' " . The New York Times . ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2017-09-12). "John Ashbery, Poet, in All His Hunky Glory" . The New York Times . ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2011-12-21). "Thomas Vinciguerra: It's Not Good to be the King" . Wall Street Journal . ISSN 0099-9660 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2014-08-16). "Opinion | The Obituary Lottery" . The New York Times . ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2016-01-30). "Opinion | How to Speak of the Dead" . The New York Times . ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^
Vinciguerra, Thomas (November 2020). Thomas Vinciguerra (ed.). A Community of Scholars: Seventy-Five Years of The University Seminars at Columbia . Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231552912 . Retrieved 24 February 2021 .
External links