Nicholson Baker
AUTHOR

Nicholson Baker

Literature & Fiction | Politics & Social Sciences | History
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I've written eighteen books, plus an art book (The World on Sunday) that I published with my wife Margaret Brentano. The most recent one is Finding a Likeness: How I Got Somewhat Better at Art (2024). Before that came Baseless (2020), about Cold War secrets, and before that was Substitute (2016), about working as a substitute teacher in Maine schools. Some earlier books are The Anthologist (2009), a novel about a poet trying to write an introduction to an anthology of rhyming verse; A Box of Matches (2004), about getting up early and making a fire; Human Smoke (2008), a bestselling attempt to look at the beginning of World War II in a new way, and U and I (1991), about the vagaries and jealousies of the writing life. My first novel, The Mezzanine, about a man riding an escalator on his lunch hour, came out in 1988 and has been translated into more than fifteen languages. Vox (1992), was a phone-sex novel, and I've produced two other erotic jamborees: The Fermata, about time-stopping (1994); and House of Holes, about a surreal resort (2011). My book Double Fold, about libraries (2001), won a National Book Critics Circle Award. Occasionally I write for magazines. I was born in New York City and grew up in Rochester, New York. At Haverford College I majored in English. I live in Maine, near Bangor, with my wife; we have two grown children.
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The Best Fiction Podcasts for Listeners Who Love a Good Story

You can’t beat a good story. Luckily, humans are great at storytelling, and the best fiction podcasts are all the proof that the modern listener requires. Get the popcorn ready; it’s storytime.

Featured Article: The Best Fiction Podcasts for Listeners Who Love a Good Story

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  • Human Smoke cover art

    • Human Smoke

    • The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization
    • Written by: Nicholson Baker
    • Narrated by: Norman Dietz
    • Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
    • Release date: 2008-08-20
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 9 ratings

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  • The Fermata cover art

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  • Vox cover art

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  • Baseless cover art

    • Baseless

    • My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information Act
    • Written by: Nicholson Baker
    • Narrated by: Nicholson Baker
    • Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins
    • Release date: 2020-07-21
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 3 ratings

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  • House of Holes cover art

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  • Traveling Sprinkler cover art

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  • Substitute cover art

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