TOM REISS is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Black Count and the author of the celebrated international bestseller The Orientalist. His biographical pieces have appeared The New Yorker, The New York Times and other publications. He makes his home in New York City.
Winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Biography!
“Tom Reiss wrings plenty of drama and swashbuckling action out of
Dumas’ strange and nearly forgotten life, and more: The Black
Count is one of those quintessentially human stories of
strength and courage that also sheds light on the flukey historical
moment that made it possible.”
—Time
“A remarkable and almost compulsively researched account…The author
spent a decade on the case, and it shows.”
—Christian Science Monitor
“Fascinating…a richly imaginative biography.”
—New York Times Book Review
"It would take an incredibly fertile mind to invent a character as
compelling, exciting and unlikely as Gen. Alexandre (Alex) Dumas
[hence] you might forget, while reading, that The Black Count is a
work of nonfiction; author Tom Reiss writes with such narrative
urgency and vivid description, you'd think you were reading a
novel…The Black Count reminds us of how essential stories, whether
true or invented, can be.”
—National Public Radio
“Vibrant…Sometimes the best stories are true. This is one of
them.”
—Ebony
“Reiss details the criminal forgetting of Alex Dumas…This
remarkable book stands as his monument.”
—Washington Post
“Superb... as improbable and exciting as [Dumas’s] best books… but
there is much more to this book than that.”
—Newsweek/The Daily Beast
“Lush prose and insightful details make The Black Count one of the
best biographies of 2012…a tale that is as easily engrossing as one
of Dumas’ page-turning and timeless works.”
—Essence
“Impressively thorough…Reiss moves the story on at an entertaining
pace…fascinating.”
—Wall Street Journal
“To tell this tale, Reiss must cover the French Revolution, the
Haitian Revolution, and the rise of Napoleon toward Empire; he does
all that with remarkable verve.”
—Boston Globe
“Fascinating [and] swashbuckling...meticulously evokes the spirit
of Revolutionary and Napoleonic France...Dumas comes across as
something of a superhero...a monument to the lives of both Dumas
and his adoring [novelist] son.”
—The Seattle Times
“A piece of detective work by a prize-winning author...brilliantly
researched.”
—The Daily Mail (U.K.)
“Sometimes real life does, indeed, trump even the wildest of
fiction…With a narrative that is engaging and entertaining, Reiss
sets the literary table for one of the most satisfying adventure
stories of the autumn. Richly detailed, meticulously
researched and beautifully written, this is the unlikely true story
of the man behind one of the greatest books in literature.”
—Tucson Citizen
“Triumphant…Reiss directs a full-scale production that jangles with
drawn sabers, trembles with dashing deeds and resonates with the
love of a son for a remarkable father.”
—The Herald (U.K.)
“Fascinating….Reiss argues that Dumas is an important, criminally
neglected figure [and] it’s difficult to argue with him…A truly
amazing story.”
—NPR.org
“A story that has everything…The Black Count has its own moving
narrative thread, made compelling by Reiss’s impassioned absorption
with the general’s fate.”
—The Literary Review
“A thoroughly researched, lively piece of nonfiction that will be
savored by fans of Alexandre Dumas. But The Black Count needs
no partner: It is fascinating enough to stand on its own.”
—Bookpage
“A compelling new work by literary detective Reiss, author of The
Orientalist, tracks the wildly improbable career of [Count of Monte
Cristo author] Alexandre Dumas’ mixed-race father…Reiss eloquently
argues the General’s case.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Alex Dumas, an extraordinary man whose sensational life had been
largely lost to history solely because of his race, takes the
spotlight in this dynamic tale…Reiss capitalizes on his subject’s
charged personality as well as the revolutionary times in which he
lived to create an exciting narrative.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Thrilling…Reiss makes clear that Alex lived a life as full of
adventure, triumph, and tragic loss as any of his son’s literary
creations…This absorbing biography should redeem its subject from
obscurity.”
—Booklist
“From pike-wielding mobs to prisoners locked in a fortress tower,
The Black Count is as action-packed as The Count of Monte Cristo.
Unlike Dumas’s famous adventure novel, however, Reiss’s incredible
tale is true.”
—Candice Millard, New York Times bestselling author of The River of
Doubt and Destiny of the Republic
“Tom Reiss has literally drilled into locked safes to create this
masterpiece…. His portrait of a man who was arguably our modern
age’s greatest unknown soldier is remarkable.”
—James Bradley, New York Times bestselling author of Flags of Our
Fathers and Flyboys
“A masterful biography, richly detailed, highly researched, and
completely absorbing. The Black Count is a triumph.”
—Amanda Foreman, New York Times bestselling author of A World on
Fire and Georgiana
“It’s hard to imagine a more colorful or engaging subject than the
man who inspired The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three
Musketeers. In the wonderful hands of Tom Reiss, Alex Dumas comes
to vivid life, illuminating far-flung corners of history and
culture. This is a terrific book.”
—Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Lion and
Franklin and Winston
“The Black Count is a dazzling achievement. I learned something new
virtually on every page. No one who reads this magnificent
biography will be able to read The Count of Monte Cristo or any
history of slavery in the New World in the same way again.”
—Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute,
Harvard University
“Rousing and thought-provoking, The Black Count is an
adventure like no other. I marveled at every twist and turn of this
remarkable true story, brought to life with the charm and personal
touch that has become the trademark of Tom Reiss.”
—Laurence Bergreen, New York Times bestselling author of Columbus
and Over the Edge of the World
“A riveting, beautifully written and well-researched story of the
seemingly impossible. It could never have happened in the United
States, and with great skill, Reiss shows how the moment that
produced Alex Dumas was lost with the rise of nineteenth-century
racism.”
—Annette Gordon-Reed, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National
Book Award for
The Hemingses of Monticello
“In the early 1800s, General Alex Dumas was purposefully
disappeared by his enemies, and for too long his story has remained
silenced. The Black Count vividly vindicates the great general,
restoring him to his rightful place at the center of the Age of
Revolution. Carrying us from the plantations of the Caribbean to
Paris, the Alps, and Egypt, Reiss tells an engrossing tale of a
life of social struggle, adventure, and courage—and of the
frustrations and joys of a researcher on the trail of a forgotten
truth.”
—Laurent Dubois, author of Haiti: The Aftershocks of History
“A tale worthy of Dumas himself—of impossible odds, shrinking
before the irresistible forces of daring, ingenuity and
in-your-face talent.”
—Ted Widmer, author of Ark of the Liberties
“The real-life history of General Alex Dumas is as poignant and
swashbuckling a tale as any his novelist son could have
dreamed. Tom Reiss has the dramatist’s sense of setting and
scene, the reporter’s persistence, and the historian’s eye for
truth. Would that the imprisoned Count of Monte Cristo had a
copy of this book!”
—Darrin M. McMahon, author of Enemies of the Enlightenment and
Happiness: A History
“Tom Reiss can do it all: gather startling research and write
inspired prose; find life’s great stories and then tell them with
real brilliance. In The Black Count the master
journalist-storyteller opens the door to the truth behind one of
literature’s most exciting stories, and opens it wide enough to
show the delicate beauty of the lives within.”
—Darin Strauss, National Book Critics Circle Award–winning author
of Half a Life
“Tom Reiss tells this amazing story, largely unknown today, with
verve, style, and a nonpareil command of detail.”
—Luc Sante, author of Low Life, Evidence, and The Factory of
Facts
“The Black Count is a complex work of political and social history
gallantly masquerading as a fantastic adventure story. As he did in
The Orientalist, Tom Reiss has traveled far to stalk a forgotten
legend, and has recovered for us a vivid, dramatic tale that
delights, moves, and inspires.”
—Gideon Lewis-Kraus, author of A Sense of Direction
“The Black Count is totally thrilling—a fascinating, beautifully
written, and deeply researched biography that brings to life one of
history’s great forgotten characters: the swashbuckling,
flamboyant, and romantic mulatto count whose true life belongs in a
Hollywood movie or Alexandre Dumas story.”
—Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Jerusalem: The Biography and
Young Stalin
“Tom Reiss tells the incredible story of Alex Dumas with the same
excitement about uncovering history that he brought to The
Orientalist.”
—Nina Burleigh, New York Times bestselling author of Mirage:
Napoleon’s Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt
“We believe we know the glories of the French Revolution and
the Napoleonic Wars. We believe we understand the horror of slavery
and the oppression of Africans. But what is the relationship
between the grand goal of liberation and the deep tragedy of
racism? As Reiss shows us, answers can be found in the
extraordinary life of a forgotten French hero of the great
revolutionary campaigns—a hero who was black.”
—Timothy Snyder, author of Bloodlands and The Red Prince
“Reiss combines the talent of a thorough English detective with the
literary flair of a French novelist to produce a story that is as
fresh as today’s headlines but as old as the Greek classics.”
—Jack Weatherford, New York Times bestselling author of Genghis
Khan and the Making of the Modern World
“Colorful and utterly captivating . . . This is history that is
vibrant, gripping, and tragic.”
—William Dietrich, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and New York
Times bestselling author of Napoleon’s Pyramids and The Emerald
Storm
More Praise for Tom Reiss
THE ORIENTALIST
"A wondrous tale, beautifully told… mesmerizing, poignant and
almost incredible."
—The New York Times
“Spellbinding history… part detective yarn, part author biography,
part travel saga… completely fascinating.”
—The Dallas Morning News
“Thrilling, novelistic and rich with the personal and
political madness of early twentieth-century
Europe.”
—Entertainment Weekly
"An elaborate wonder-cabinet… as page–turningly compelling as any
fiction."
—The Los Angeles Times
“Exhilarating… an endlessly inventive saga.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“A brainy, nimble, remarkable book.”
—Chicago Tribune
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