33 Facts About Caleb Carr

Caleb Carr was an American military historian and author.

Caleb Carr previously taught military history at Bard College, and worked extensively in film, television, and the theater.

Caleb Carr was born on August 2,1955, in Manhattan, one of three sons born to Beat Generation figure Lucien Caleb Carr and Francesca von Hartz.

Caleb Carr received his primary education from St Luke's School in Greenwich Village and his secondary education from Friends Seminary, in downtown New York City.

Caleb Carr was an excellent student, but he was guilty of pranks like setting off cherry bombs in the school lavatories.

Caleb Carr attended Kenyon College, in Gambier, Ohio, from 1973 to 1975 and returned to New York City in 1975 to complete his education at New York University, where, in 1977, he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in military and diplomatic history.

Caleb Carr did not learn about his father's crime until he was 18.

The frequent presence of Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs in the Caleb Carr home was a "little unnerving".

Likewise, when the family was back in New York City, Caleb Carr spent as much time as possible away from their apartment.

Caleb Carr first went to work for the Council on Foreign Relations after high school as a library assistant, and rose during his college year summers to research assistant.

In 1980, Caleb Carr left Foreign Affairs to fine-tune and publish his first novel, Casing the Promised Land, a coming of age story about three young men in New York City.

In 1991 Caleb Carr published The Devil Soldier: The Story of Frederick Townsend Ward, the American Soldier of Fortune Who Became a God in China, a biography, and the first of his books to receive wide recognition.

Caleb Carr was active in Hollywood in the 1980s and '90s as a screenwriter and producer.

Caleb Carr wrote one movie for television, Bad Attitudes, but the revision and execution of his script deeply disappointed him.

Caleb Carr returned to New York to begin researching and writing what would prove his breakthrough novel, The Alienist, published in 1994.

Caleb Carr sought the counsel, during a series of meetings, with Dr David Abrahamsen, the psychiatrist who examined David Berkowitz after his capture and "unraveled the mind" of the Son of Sam killer.

Caleb Carr sold the movie rights for The Alienist to Paramount based on an early draft of the book.

Caleb Carr was a featured commentator in Ric Burns' 1999 documentary New York: A Documentary History.

Caleb Carr was given partial story credit for the two films eventually produced from the script, Exorcist: The Beginning and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, although, in a subsequent interview with the LA Weekly, Carr emphasized that the movies bore little to no relation to his story.

Caleb Carr published widely recognized essays on the Somalia intervention on the corruption and what he saw as the immorality of the CIA, and the pointlessness of trying to pursue purely "humanitarian" military interventions, which the Clinton administration was trying to establish as a doctrine, along with numerous other security and military policy pieces.

In 2000, Caleb Carr published his next novel, Killing Time, another dystopian tale of the future, this time the near future: 2023.

Caleb Carr was scheduled to appear on February 6,2002, at the Council on Foreign Relations to discuss his book, The Lessons of Terror.

One council member was told there was a scheduling conflict; others alleged not enough members signed up; yet Caleb Carr believed the real reason was due to his criticisms of Henry Kissinger, who was a member of the council.

Caleb Carr furthered his relationship with Bard as a visiting professor of history from 2004 to 2005 teaching courses ranging from World Military History to the History of American Intelligence to the History of Insurgencies and Counter Insurgencies.

Caleb Carr taught a course in Criminal Profiling at John Jay College in Manhattan.

On September 10,2002, Caleb Carr participated in the Bard's Globalization and International Affairs Program panel discussions to mark the events of September 11,2001, discussing the repercussions of the attacks on the World Trade Center, Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and the Pentagon.

In 2005 Caleb Carr published The Italian Secretary, subtitled A Further Adventure of Sherlock Holmes.

Caleb Carr spent several years researching and writing his final novel, Surrender, New York, published August 23,2016, by Penguin Random House.

Caleb Carr consistently kept up his nonfiction writing, on terrorism, especially.

The late 1990s found Caleb Carr expanding his literary repertoire while working as librettist for the opera Merlin, a reinterpretation of the Arthurian legends, with his friend and composer, Ezequiel Vinao.

Caleb Carr lived most of his life on Manhattan's Lower East Side, spending his summers and many weekends at his family's home in Cherry Plain, New York.

Caleb Carr shared his home with his Siberian rescue cat, Masha, for 17 years.

Caleb Carr revealed he was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2024.