Caroline Alexander (author)

Caroline Alexander is a British author, classicist and filmmaker. She is the author of the best-selling The Endurance, and The Bounty, and other works of literary non-fiction, such as The Way to Xanadu and The War that Killed Achilles. In 2015, she published a new and critically acclaimed translation of Homer's Iliad.[1]

Alexander is writer and producer of critically acclaimed and top grossing documentaries such as The Endurance (based upon her book of the same title), Tiger Tiger,[2] and other feature and IMAX documentaries.

Personal Life and Education

Born in the United States of British parents, Alexander grew up in North Florida, but travelled widely, living in the West Indies, Italy, England, Ireland, and the Netherlands. She began her classical studies at Florida State University in her senior year of high-school. In 1977, among the first class of female Rhodes Scholars, she attended Somerville College, Oxford, taking her degree in Philosophy and Theology.[3]

Between 1982 and 1985, she established a small department of classics at the University of Malawi, in south-central Africa. Following this, she obtained her doctorate in Classics at Columbia University, as a Mellon Fellow in the Humanities.[4]

An avid athlete, Alexander was among the first women admitted to the US National Modern Pentathlon Training program, competing in three national championships[5] for this sport, and was an alternate for the 1982 US World Team.

Career

Alexander began her career as a freelance writer while in graduate school, and subsequently has published widely on subjects ranging from Antarctic exploration, travels in central Africa, tigers, butterfly-poachers, ancient history, lost treasure, Xanadu, and military subjects such as shell shock and blast-induced neurotrauma. She has published two New York Times best-sellers (The Endurance, The Bounty).

Alexander was a Contributing Writer for National Geographic Magazine for many years, and has also written for The New Yorker, Outside and Smithsonian among other publications; her work has appeared in a number of anthologies of literary non-fiction.[6]

Her National Geographic Magazine cover story, “The Invisible War on The Brain,” was praised for exploring the effects of blast-induced trauma on modern soldiers, and nominated for a Kavli Science Journalism Award.

Alexander is a member of the American Philological Association, the Royal Geographical Society, the Explorer's Club, and the Directors Guild of America.

Films
Title Production Company Credits Notes
Tiger, Tiger White Mountain Films/Kennedy Marshall production George Butler producer/director; Caroline Alexander writer/producer 90 minute theatrical documentary and 40 minute IMAX version, following big-cat conservationist Alan Rabinowitz into one of the last tiger habitats, the mangrove forest of the Indian and Bangladesh Sunderbans
The Lord God Bird White Mountain Films Production George Butler producer/director; Caroline Alexander writer 90 minute theatrical documentary about the possible re-discovery of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker
The Endurance White Mountain Films Production George Butler producer/director; Caroline Alexander writer/Executive Producer 90 minute theatrical documentary about Shackleton's 1914 expedition. Released in 2001; National Board of Review Best Documentary and numerous other awards; two hour television version nominated for a British Academy Award, 2000.
Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure White Mountain Films Production George Butler producer/director; Caroline Alexander writer/consultant IMAX film shot on location in the Antarctic. Winner of best Giant Screen Film Award, 2000.
Publications: books
Publisher Year Title Subject Languages Notes
Ecco Press/Vintage Classics 2015 The Iliad: A New Translation. Retells the events of the few weeks in the ten-year war between the invading Achaeans, or Greeks, and the Trojans in the city of Ilion.[7] Translated into English First English edition of the Iliad that is translated by a woman.[8]
Random House/National Geographic Society 2011 Lost Gold of the Dark Ages: War, Treasure and the Mystery of the Saxons A history attempting to shed light on one of England's most mysterious periods. Written in English The book is introduced by one of the experts (Dr. Kevin Leary) who is studying the 1500 pieces of jewelry.[9]
Viking/Faber 2009 The War that Killed Achilles:  The True Story of the Iliad and the Trojan War An interpretation and study of Homer's Iliad. Translated into multiple languages Ken Burns called it "Spectacular and constantly surprising."[10]
Viking/HarperCollins 2003 The Bounty:  The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty A historical examination of the story-myth of the mutiny on the Bounty, a small armed transport vessel. Written in English A New York Times bestseller. National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. New York Times top nine books of 2003.
Knopf/Bloomsbury 1998 The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition Tells the story of the explorer Ernest Shackleton's attempt to be the first to cross Antarctica on foot. Translated into multiple languages A New York Times bestseller
HarperCollins/Bloomsbury 1997 Mrs. Chippy’s Last Expedition, 1914–1915 Journal of Shackleton's Polar-going cat Also published in German and Greek From the perspective of a cat.[11]
Knopf 1995 Battle’s End: A Seminole Football Team Revisited Tutoring Florida State University football players in English Written in English Seems to have only had a printing in 1995.[12]
Orion 1993/Knopf 1994 1993/1994 The Way to Xanadu Travels to the landmarks of  Coleridge's Kubla Khan Written in English A New York Times “Notable Book of the Year.”  Also published in paperback by Phoenix, 1994.
Knopf/Bloomsbury 1989 One Dry Season: In the Footsteps of Mary Kingsley in Equatorial Africa A retracing of Mary Kingsley's travels through of the then French colony Gabon. Written in English A Book of the Month Club selection. Published in paperback by Vintage, 1991; and Phoenix, 1993.

Articles
  • “Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea: In Search of the Places that inspired the Iliad.” (the refugees who carried the Iliad tradition out of Greece). The American Scholar, Summer 2019.
  • “War of Words” (Britain's secret propaganda unit in WW1). Lapham’s Quarterly, Spring 2018.
  • “The Dread Gorgon” (origin of the face of fear.) Lapham’s Quarterly, Summer 2017.
  • “Greece, Gods, and the Great Beyond,” (Ancient Greek quest for immortality). National Geographic Magazine. July 2016.
  • “War Shock: Blast and the Brain” (blast-induced traumatic brain injury). National Geographic Magazine. February 2015.
  • “500 pounds of Stealth” (seeking tigers in the Indian and Bangladesh Sunderbans). Outside Magazine. June 2014.
  • “The Wine-Like Sea” (what did Homer mean?). Lapham’s Quarterly. Summer 2013.
  • “Cry of the Tiger” (the plight of our greatest cat). National Geographic Magazine. December, 2011. Nominated for Overseas Press Club Award.
  • “Gold in the Ground” (discovery of an Anglo-Saxon treasure hoard). National Geographic Magazine. November, 2011.
  • “Shock of War” (WW1 shell-shock and Traumatic Brain Injury). Smithsonian Magazine. September 2010.
  • “The Great Game” (war and sport). Lapham’s Quarterly.  Summer, 2010.
  • “Captain Bligh’s Cursed Breadfruit” (Jamaica's botanical legacy from the Bounty). Smithsonian Magazine. September 2009.
  • “If the Stones Could Speak” (new theories about Stonehenge). National Geographic Magazine, June 2008.
  • “Tigerland” (travels in the Indian Sundarbans). The New Yorker, April 21, 2008.
  • “Making a New World’: Gertrude Bell and the Creation of Iraq” (nation-building in the 1920s). National Geographic Magazine (international editions), March, 2008.
  • “The Face of War” (masks for soldiers mutilated in WW1). Smithsonian Magazine. February 2007.
  • “Murdering the Impossible” (profile of mountaineer Reinhold Messner). National Geographic Magazine, November 2006. National Magazine Award Finalist.
  • “Across the River Styx” (looking for MIA's in Vietnam). The New Yorker, October 25, 2004.
  • “The Wreck of the Pandora” (wreck of the ship carrying the captured mutineers of the Bounty). The New Yorker, August 4, 2003.
  • “Echoes of the Heroic Age”; “Ascent to Glory”; “Alexander the Conqueror” (three part series on the history of ancient Greece). National Geographic Magazine, December 1999 – March 2000.
  • “Shackleton and the Legend of Endurance” (Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914-16 Expedition). National Geographic Magazine, November 1998.
  • “Crimes of Passion” (a butterfly poaching conspiracy). Outside Magazine, January 1996.
  • “Plato Speaks” (the trial of Hastings Banda, dictator of Malawi and ardent classicist). Granta, September 1995.
  • “A Shot in the Night” (death at a girl's camp in Tennessee) Outside Magazine, July 1994.
  • “Little Men” (the mysterious shrunken men of Ecuador). Outside Magazine, April 1994.
  • “An Ideal State” (Plato's Republic in Malawi). The New Yorker, December 16, 1991.
  • “The White Goddess of the Wangora” (the earliest dramatic movie made in Africa). The New Yorker, April 8, 1991.
  • “Vital Powers: a Profile of Daphne Park, O.B.E., C.M.G.” (a profile of one Britain's first female diplomats). The New Yorker, January 30, 1989.
  • “The North Borneo Expedition of 1981” (insect collecting in Borneo). The New Yorker, September 14, 1987.

References
  1. New translation of the Iliad by Caroline Alexander - The Guardian
  2. "TIGER TIGER". A White Mountain Films Production.
  3. "Caroline Alexander | Penguin Random House". PenguinRandomhouse.com.
  4. "Classical Languages Department Visiting Scholar Caroline Alexander". calendar.exeter.edu.
  5. O'Donnell, Patrick (2017). "Classics Equips a Civilized Person for Any Task: An Interview with Caroline Alexander". Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics. 25 (2): 135–174. doi:10.2307/arion.25.2.0135. ISSN 0095-5809.
  6. "Caroline Alexander". HarperCollins Publishers: World-Leading Book Publisher.
  7. Noble, Barnes &. "The Iliad: A New Translation by Caroline Alexander|Paperback". Barnes & Noble. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  8. Homer; Alexander, translated by Caroline (2016-02-09). "New translation of the Iliad by Caroline Alexander – extract". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  9. Alexander, Caroline (2011-10-18). Lost Gold of the Dark Ages: War, Treasure, and the Mystery of the Saxons. National Geographic Books. ISBN 978-1-4262-0884-3.
  10. Noble, Barnes &. "The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War|Paperback". Barnes & Noble. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  11. Noble, Barnes &. "Mrs. Chippy's Last Expedition: The Remarkable Journal of Shackleton's Polar-Bound Cat|Paperback". Barnes & Noble. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  12. Alexander, Caroline (1995). Battle's End: A Seminole Football Team Revisited. ISBN 0679419012.
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