David Grann Biography

David Grann is an American journalist, a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, and a best-selling author.

Grann has a reputation as a “workhorse reporter”, which has made him a popular journalist who “inspires devotion in readers that can border on the obsessive.”

His first book, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, was published by Doubleday in February 2009. After its first week of publication, it debuted on The New York Times bestseller list at #4

David Grann Age

David Grann was born in Westport, Connecticut, United States on March 10, 1967. As of 2019, he is 52 years of age. He is an American Citizen.

David Grann Family

Grann was born on March 10, 1967, in Westport, Connecticut to Phyllis E. Grann and Victor Grann. Phyllis is the former CEO of Putnam Penguin and the first woman CEO of a major publishing firm. His father Victor is an oncologist and Director of the Bennett Cancer Center in Stamford, Connecticut. He has two siblings–Edward and Alison.

David Grann Wife

In 2000 Grann married Kyra Darnton, a television producer, and daughter of John Darnton. Together, the couple has two children currently resided in New York City.

Grann graduated from Connecticut College in 1989 with a B.A. in Government. He received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship and conducted research in Mexico, where he began his career as a freelance journalist. He received a master’s degree in international relations from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in 1993. At that point primarily interested in fiction, Grann hoped to develop a career as a novelist

David Grann Career

His journalism career began after he was hired in 1994 as a copy editor at The Hill, a Washington, D.C.-based newspaper covering the United States Congress. The same year, he earned a master’s degree in creative writing from Boston University, where he taught courses in creative writing and fiction.

He was named The Hill’s executive editor in 1995. In 1996, Grann became a senior editor at The New Republic. He joined The New Yorker in 2003 as a staff writer. He was a finalist for the Michael Kelly Award in 2005

In 2009 he received both the George Polk Award and Sigma Delta Chi Award for his New Yorker piece “Trial By Fire”, about Cameron Todd Willingham. It has been described as the first thoroughly documented case of the execution of an innocent man under the modern American judicial system.

Another New Yorker investigative article, “The Mark of a Masterpiece”, raised questions about the methods of Peter Paul Biro, who claimed to use fingerprints to help authenticate lost masterpieces. Biro sued Grann and The New Yorker for libel, but the case was summarily dismissed. The article was a finalist for the 2010 National Magazine Award.

The Lost City of Z

Grann’s 2009 non-fiction book The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon recounts the odyssey of the notable British explorer. Captain Percy Fawcett who, in 1925, disappeared with his son in the Amazon while looking for the Lost City of Z.

For decades, explorers and scientists have tried to find evidence of both his party and the Lost City of Z. Grann also trekked into the Amazon. In his book, he reveals new evidence about how Fawcett died and shows that “Z” may have existed.

The book was optioned by Brad Pitt’s Plan B production company and Paramount Pictures. It was adapted into a feature film of the same name and released in the US in 2017.

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, is an anthology of twelve previously published Grann essays, was published in March 2010.

In March 2014, he was working on a new book about the Osage Indian murders, “one of the most sinister crimes in American history.”His book Killers of the Flower Moon: An American Crime and the Birth of the FBI was published in 2017.

Chronicling “a tale of murder, betrayal, heroism and a nation’s struggle to leave its frontier culture behind and enter the modern world.” It was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award. The book was also later adapted for a film by Martin Scorsese in 2017.

David Grann Net Worth

He has managed to keep his personal information off the limelight. It is not entirely clear about his estimated net worth. However, some sources have stated that his net worth can be estimated to be around $5 Million.

David Grann Awards

• Thomas J. Watson Fellowship (1989)
• Michael Kelly award, finalist (2005)
• George Polk Awards (2009)
• Samuel Johnson Prize, shortlist (2009)
• National Magazine Awards, finalist (2010)
• National Book Award, finalist (2017)

David Grann Books

His books include:

• The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. Doubleday. 2009.
• The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession. Doubleday. 2010.
• Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. Doubleday. 2017.
  The White Darkness. Doubleday. 2018. Based on the New Yorker article of the same name.

David Grann Twitter

Tweets by DavidGrann