American journalist (1963–2021)
Thomas Vinciguerra (October 8, 1963 – February 22, 2021) was an American journalist, editor, and author. A founding editor of
The Week magazine, he published about popular culture, nostalgia and other subjects in
The New York Times ,
[1]
[2]
The Wall Street Journal ,
The New Yorker and
GQ .
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[1]
[2]
Background
Thomas Viniguerra was born on October 8, 1963. His parents William Vinciguerra and Aurora Locicero were public school teachers in
Levittown, New York for four decades.
[8] Raised in
Garden City, New York , he attended
Columbia College , where he was an editor of the
Columbia Daily Spectator and was involved with
The Varsity Show . Graduating in 1985 with a BA in history, he continued studies on campus, receiving his MS from the
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism the following year. While at the Journalism School he refounded the
Philolexian Society , Columbia's oldest student organization; he was subsequently designated its "Avatar." In 1990, he received an MA in English from the
Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences .
[1]
[9]
Career
From 1987 to 1998, Vinciguerra served as an editor at
Columbia College Today , the college's alumni publication.
[1]
[10]
[11] He joined The Week upon inception in 2001 through 2010.
[4]
[5]
[1]
[2] Subsequently, he was executive editor of
Indian Country Today Media Network.
[1]
Vinciguerra was editor of Conversations with
Elie Wiesel (Schocken, 2001) and Backward Ran Sentences: The Best of
Wolcott Gibbs from The New Yorker (Bloomsbury, 2011).
[12] Book critic
Jonathan Yardley of
The Washington Post selected Backward Ran Sentences as one of his 11 best books of 2011.
[13] In November 2015, he published the original volume Cast of Characters:
Wolcott Gibbs ,
E.B. White ,
James Thurber and the Golden Age of the New Yorker (
W.W. Norton ), which chronicles the early years of the New Yorker magazine.
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17] He appeared on the
History Channel ,
NY1 ,
Fox News ,
John Batchelor Show , and the
Leonard Lopate Show , among other venues.
[18]
His newspaper writings on popular culture covered a variety of topics, with frequent articles on both
Star Trek
[19]
[20]
[21]
[22]
[23]
[24] and
James Bond .
[25]
[26]
[27] Vinciguerra also wrote obituaries, including for
Sean Connery ,
[28]
Rodney Dangerfield ,
[29]
John Ashberry ,
[30]
Leka Zogu
[31] and others. He also wrote at least two articles on the topic of
obituary writing.
[32]
[33]
Death and legacy
Thomas Vinciguerra died at the age of 57 on February 22, 2021.
[7]
[1] He is buried at Pine Lawn Memorial Park in Farmingdale, NY.
Ronald Wilmer, Columbia Class of 1986, wrote:
Tom, who was a graduate of Columbia College, the Journalism School and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, was a valued member of the Columbia community. He frequently contributed to Columbia Magazine and Columbia College Today ... Late last year, Columbia University Press published Tom’s last book: an anthology, which he edited, called A Community of Scholars: Seventy-Five Years of The University Seminars at Columbia. It’s a fitting final work for a writer who earned three degrees at Columbia.
[1]
Audere magazine remembered Vinciguerra as "Embracing his Weird":
Vinciguerra’s writing talents were spectacular and effortless, but he veered to the obscure. During his college years, at Columbia, he enthusiastically revived the long-dead "Philolexian" debating society, which thanks to his enthusiastic, not entirely un-weird efforts, survives to this day. Indeed, Vinciguerra embraced his own weirdness without apology. When Time Magazine published an anonymous photograph of him during the 1980s and called him a "trekkie," he sternly wrote them a correction: he was a "trekker," he insisted, not a "trekkie," a distinction that only a trekkie could possibly have known.
[2]
Works
Books:
Books Edited:
A Community of Scholars: Seventy-Five Years of The University Seminars at Columbia (2020)
[34]
Articles:
References
^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
Wilmer, Ronald (March 2021).
"Columbia Mourns Loss of Devoted Alumnus & Gifted Writer Tom Vinciguerra" . Columbia Journalism School. Retrieved 6 March 2021 .
^
a
b
c
d
" 'Oblivioni' Remembers Thomas Vinciguerra" . Audere Magazine . Chickadee Prince Book. 6 March 2021. Retrieved 6 March 2021 .
^
"Thomas Vinciguerra | W. W. Norton & Company" . Books.wwnorton.com . Retrieved 2016-01-18 .
^
a
b
"About Thomas Vinciguerra" . Nieman Reports. 10 November 2015. Retrieved 2 August 2020 .
^
a
b
c
"Thomas Vinciguerra" . Penguin Random House. Retrieved 2 August 2020 .
^
"Thomas Vinciguerra" . Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 2 August 2020 .
^
a
b
Maslin, Michael (24 February 2021).
"Thomas Vinciguerra: 1963 – 2021" . Ink Spill. Retrieved 24 February 2021 .
^
Murphy, Bridget (22 February 2016).
"Aurora Vinciguerra Dies; Levittown Teacher Was 86" . NewsDay . Retrieved 25 February 2021 .
^
"Thomas Vinciguerra '85CC, '86JRN, '90GSAS: Contributing Writers" . Columbia University Magazine . Columbia University. Retrieved 2 August 2020 .
^
"Thomas Vinciguerra - WikiCU, the Columbia University wiki encyclopedia" . Wikicu.com . Retrieved 2016-01-18 .
^
"Thomas J. Vinciguerra '85: Inimitable Writer, Colleague and Friend" . Columbia College Today . 2021-06-11. Retrieved 2023-01-13 .
^
"Backward Ran Sentences" . Writersreps.com . Retrieved 2016-01-18 .
^
Yardley, Jonathan (9 December 2011).
"Books" . The Washington Post . Retrieved 24 February 2021 .
^
"Cast of Characters | W. W. Norton & Company" . Books.wwnorton.com . 2015-11-15. Retrieved 2016-01-18 .
^
Maslin, Michael .
"Inkspill - New Yorker Cartoonists News" . Retrieved 2016-01-18 .
^
Thomas Vinciguerra (2016). Cast of Characters: Wolcott Gibbs, E. B. White, James Thurber, and the Golden Age of the New Yorker . National Geographic Books.
ISBN
9780393240030 .
^
Thomas Vinciguerra; Wolcott Gibbs (2011-10-18).
"Backward Ran Sentences: The Best of Wolcott Gibbs from the New Yorker: Thomas Vinciguerra: Bloomsbury USA" . Bloomsbury.com . Retrieved 2016-01-18 .
^
"Thomas Vinciguerra" . Writers Reps.
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2009-03-18).
"Getting Their Kirk On" . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2007-12-16).
"Nobody Knows the Tribbles He's Seen" . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2016-09-08).
"Opinion | Who Stole My 'Star Trek'?" . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2012-03-28).
"A 'Trek' Script Is Grounded in Cyberspace" . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2006-12-03).
" 'Star Trek,' the Forgotten Frontier: 1970s Animation" . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2006-10-08).
"There Are No Small Parts, Only Long Memories" . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2019-12-27).
"50 Years Later, This Bond Film Should Finally Get Its Due" . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^
"Opinion | Bond. James Bond. Husband" . The New York Times . 2018-04-26.
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2008-11-22).
"Cool Under Pressure" . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2020-11-01).
"Sean Connery: From Tentative Secret Agent to Suave Bond" . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2004-10-10).
"Somehow He Never Got 'No Respect' " . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2017-09-12).
"John Ashbery, Poet, in All His Hunky Glory" . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2011-12-21).
"Thomas Vinciguerra: It's Not Good to be the King" . Wall Street Journal .
ISSN
0099-9660 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2014-08-16).
"Opinion | The Obituary Lottery" . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^ Vinciguerra, Thomas (2016-01-30).
"Opinion | How to Speak of the Dead" . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-21 .
^
Vinciguerra, Thomas (November 2020). Thomas Vinciguerra (ed.).
A Community of Scholars: Seventy-Five Years of The University Seminars at Columbia . Columbia University Press.
ISBN
9780231552912 . Retrieved 24 February 2021 .
External links