Russell
Martin is an award-winning, internationally published author
of two critically acclaimed novels, The Sorrow of Archaeology and Beautiful Islands, as well as many nonfiction books, and has written for Time, the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, and National Public Radio. His nonfiction book Beethoven's Hair, a United States bestseller and a Washington Post Book
of the Year, has been published in twenty-one translated
editions and is the subject of a Gemini-award-winning film
of the same name. His books have been optioned by Robert Redford’s
Wildwood Enterprises, the Denver Center Theatre Company,
Mike Jacobs, Jr. Productions, and New World Television. He is, says Kirkus Reviews, “first
and foremost a masterful storyteller.”
With Lydia Nibley, he is the co-creator of the original television pilot, Rise; his highly acclaimed book, Picasso's War, has been published in seven international editions; Out of Silence, was named by the Bloomsbury Review as
one of fifteen best books of its first fifteen years of publication,
and A Story That Stands Like A Dam: Glen Canyon and the Struggle for the Soul of the West, won the Caroline Bancroft History Prize.
When he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Colorado College
in 1995, the citation read, in part, “Mr. Martin offers to general
audiences precise and accurate, but highly readable, studies
of extraordinarily complex issues. He does more: he sees beyond
what is already known; he moves beyond synthesis to new insights.
His work is disciplined, analytical, and creative. It is also profoundly
humane.”
He is based in Los Angeles, often works on location, and welcomes every opportunity to spend time in Barcelona.
