Period 1982–present Spouse Steve Kroft Role Author | Name Jennet Conant Subject World War II | |
 | ||
Born Jennet Richards Conant
July 15, 1959 (age 64)
Seoul, South Korea ( 1959-07-15 ) Occupation Non-fiction writer, journalist Alma mater Bryn Mawr College
Haverford College
Columbia University Notable works Tuxedo Park (2002)
109 East Palace (2005)
The Irregulars (2008) Education Bryn Mawr College, Haverford College, Columbia University Books The Irregulars: Roald Da, A Covert Affair: Julia Child and, Tuxedo Park: A Wall Stre, 109 East Palace: Robert O | ||
Author jennet conant discusses her book the irregulars
Jennet Conant (born 15 July 1959) is an American non-fiction author and journalist. She has written four books about World War II, three of which have appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list: Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science that Changes the Course of WWII, 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos, The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington, and A Covert Affair: Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS.
Contents
Biographical Details
Born in Seoul, South Korea and raised in Asia and America, she received a BA degree (cum laude) in Political Theory from Bryn Mawr College in 1982, and double-majored in Philosophy at Haverford College. She completed a master's degree in Journalism from New York City's Columbia University in 1983. She was awarded a John J. McCloy Fellowship to study politics in Germany.
Conant went on to work at Newsweek magazine for seven years, and wrote profiles for Rolling Stone, Spy magazine, and The New York Times. Additionally, she was a contributing editor for Esquire, GQ, and Vanity Fair, from which she resigned to write her first book, Tuxedo Park. Her profile of James Watson, the co-discoverer of the double-helix, was featured in The Best American Science & Nature Writing 2004.
She lives in New York City and in Sag Harbor, New York. She is married to the journalist Steve Kroft. They have one son.
Conant is the granddaughter of James Bryant Conant, noted chemist and President of Harvard University.
Books
Reception
Conant has been widely praised by critics. Kirkus Reviews hailed Tuxedo Park as "Remarkable and remarkably told, as if F. Scott Fitzgerald had penned Batman." Jonathan Yardley in a Washington Post review of The Irregulars said that "As was true of her excellent first book, Tuxedo Park, in The Irregulars she removes the dust of history from a forgotten but important figure to be reckoned with before and during the war."