Alpert, Stanley N. 1960-

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Alpert, Stanley N. 1960-

PERSONAL:

Born 1960. Education: State University of New York at Binghamton, B.S.; University of Pennsylvania, J.D.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Office—The Alpert Firm, 85 4th Ave., New York, NY 10003. Agent—Ron Goldfarb, Goldfarb & Associates, 721 Gibbon St., Alexandria, VA 22314. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, lawyer. Southern District of Florida, Miami, law clerk for United States district judge Edward B. Davis; Kaye Scholer, LLP, New York, NY, commercial litigator; United States Department of Justice, assistant United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York and chief of environmental litigation; Weitz & Luxenberg, New York, NY, head of the Environmental Toxic Tort Unit; The Alpert Firm, New York, NY, founder, director.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Henry L. Stimson Medal for Outstanding Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Association of the Bar for the City of New York; two-time winner, Director's Award for Superior Performance, Justice Department.

WRITINGS:

The Birthday Party: A Memoir of Survival, Putnam (New York, NY), 2007.

Also author of Web log, Stanley Alpert's Crime Memoir Blog.

ADAPTATIONS:

The Birthday party: A Memoir of Survival was optioned for a feature film by United Artists.

SIDELIGHTS:

Environmental lawyer Stanley N. Alpert was kidnapped off a New York street in 1998 by a gang who wanted to rob his various bank accounts. Held at gunpoint for the entirety of his thirty-eighth birthday, Alpert did not know whether he would survive the ordeal. If he did, however, he would have evidence to track the gang, for he made careful observations during his captivity. He also made himself remain calm, noting facts and not posing a threat to the seven people who held him hostage. He did get out alive, but when he went to the police with his harrowing tale, they did not believe him at first. Finally, however, he was able to supply the police with enough information to lead them to the gang. In 2007 he recorded this experience in the book The Birthday Party: A Memoir of Survival, "an effective, one-two punch of a memoir," as Booklist contributor Connie Fletcher described it. A Kirkus Reviews critic found the same work "stark and honest," as well as a "textbook outlining how to behave in a similar situation." Similar praise came from a Publishers Weekly reviewer who termed The Birthday Party "an honest, vivid chronicle." Likewise, Peter T. Elikann, writing in the Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly, called the same work "not only a how-to on surviving by one's wits in a perilous situation but also a tribute to the doggedness of the human spirit." New York Times Book Review contributor Mick Sussman noted that Alpert "wins over the reader the same way he did the kidnappers, with the force of his canny, self-assured, bighearted personality."

Alpert told CA: "I was influenced in my writing by the serious work of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and by the dark crime humor of Elmore Leonard. I had not thought of going beyond legal writing until this kidnapping experience gave me a story that just jumped off of the page. I took several writing classes to learn new creative writing skills and then set to long hours of writing, editing, and more editing. It is my hope that this true-to-life, near-death experience will inspire people to live life to the fullest, whether that be by writing or doing something else that fulfills."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES

BOOKS

Alpert, Stanley N., The Birthday Party: A Memoir of Survival, Putnam (New York, NY), 2007.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 15, 2006, Connie Fletcher, review of The Birthday Party, p. 7.

Daily Record (Rochester, NY), April 16, 2007, Peter Elikann, "Federal Prosecutor, Kidnapped, Lives to Tell Harrowing Story."

Entertainment Weekly, January 26, 2007, Vanessa Juarez, review of The Birthday Party, p. 75.

Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 2006, review of The Birthday Party, p. 1107.

Lawyers USA, February 26, 2007, Correy E. Stephenson, "U.S. Attorney Stanley Alpert Pens Memoir about Experience of Being Kidnapped on His Birthday."

Library Journal, February 1, 2007, Deirdre Bray Root, review of The Birthday Party, p. 88.

New York, January 22, 2007, Ben Mathis-Lilley, "You Say It's Your Birthday: Kidnapped at Gunpoint off the Street in the Village; Later Offered Hookers, Marijuana," p. 16.

New York Times, January 25, 1998, "Kidnappers Rob Then Release a Prosecutor."

New York Times, January 24, 2007, William Grimes, "A Hostage Who Stayed a Few Steps Ahead," review of The Birthday Party.

New York Times Book Review, April 22, 2007, Mick Sussman, review of The Birthday Party, p. 22.

New Yorker, February 12, 2007, Paul Rudnick, "Book 'em Party," p. 29.

Publishers Weekly, November 27, 2006, review of The Birthday Party, p. 44.

Reference & Research Book News, May 2007, review of The Birthday Party.

Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly, April 16, 2007, Peter T. Elikann, "Commentary: Federal Prosecutor, Kidnapped, Lives to Tell Harrowing Story."