Harr, Jonathan 1948–

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Harr, Jonathan 1948–

PERSONAL: Born 1948, in WI; father, a foreign service officer; married; wife's name Diane (an art teacher). Education: Attended College of William and Mary, until 1968; also attended Marshall University and Brandeis University. Hobbies and other interests: Cooking.

ADDRESSES: Home—68 Lyman Rd., Northampton, MA 01060. Office—26 Center, Northampton, MA 01060.

CAREER: Journalist and author. Volunteers in Service to America, Washington, DC, volunteer in Appalachia, beginning 1968; Advocate, New Haven, CT, former journalist; New England Monthly, former staff writer; Smith College, Northampton, MA, part-time faculty member, 1991.

AWARDS, HONORS: National Book Critics' Circle Award for nonfiction, 1995, and National Book Award nomination, both for A Civil Action.

WRITINGS:

A Civil Action (nonfiction), Random House (New York, NY), 1995.

The Lost Painting, Random House (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to magazines, including New Yorker and New York Times Magazine.

ADAPTATIONS: A Civil Action was adapted by Steven Zaillian as a film starring John Travolta, 1998; it was adapted as an audio book read by Alan Sklar, Random House Audio Publishing Group, 1995.

SIDELIGHTS: When journalist Jonathan Harr decided to research and write a book about a toxic waste lawsuit back in 1986, he expected to spend about two years on it. Although much of the work was done by then, the case was still in court for many more years, and so Harr continued to update the manuscript for A Civil Action, which was finally published at trial's end in 1995. The result proved well worth the effort. Harr ended up producing an award-winning book about corporate misdoings, the flaws of the judicial system, the egos of attorneys, and the victims who end up paying the highest costs of all—their lives. The case in question involved two companies—W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods—accused of contaminating the water supply of Woburn, Massachusetts, where the impoverished, largely minority residents were experiencing an inordinately high cancer rate. Enter rich, hotshot attorney Jan Schlichtman, who was hired by several Woburn families to sue the corporations. Determined to win his case, Schlichtman became obsessed with it, eventually spending his personal income, going bankrupt, and even becoming so stressed that he contemplated suicide. Eventually, the case was settled out of court for eight million dollars; however, once the money was divided among the Woburn residents, it proved to be meager compensation for all their grief and medical expenses.

A Civil Action, which focuses mainly on Schlichtman's personal crusade, also relates the strategies of the attorneys defending the corporations. "I knew I didn't want to write a book about toxic waste and dead children," Harr explained in a Publishers Weekly article, "… I wanted to write about lawyers and the law, about people and how they work." Reviewers found A Civil Action to be a remarkable page-turner that conveys considerable drama. According to Washington Monthly reviewer Timothy Noah, "Harr's book is more than just a page-turner. It's a subtle and edifying tale about how even the 'best' lawsuits—those where the plaintiffs are battling a clear injustice—can create misery." Becoming a much-discussed case study, A Civil Action was heavily reviewed by law journals across the country, while it also became a popular best seller because, as Gene Lyons pointed out in Entertainment Weekly, it is "as engaging as the most ingenious thriller." Booklist contributor Gilbert Taylor wrote that Schlichtman is "drawn as vividly as a character in a mystery novel."

Harr repeated his technique for his next book, The Lost Painting, the story of the loss and rediscovery of The Taking of Christ, a rare painting by sixteenth-century Italian painter Caravaggio. Only a few of Caravaggio's paintings are known to have survived into modern times, and several, including The Taking of Christ, have disappeared over the intervening years. Harr relates the story from beginning to end, including covering the life of the artist himself, a tragic figure who lived on the edges of society and died young, the graduate student Francesca Cappelletti, who determines to find the artwork, and Marchesa Mattei, "an eccentric descendant of one of Caravaggio's Roman patrons," according to Donna Seaman in Booklist. The much-yellowed and neglected canvas is eventually found at the home of a Jesuit priest who did not realize what he had.

The Lost Painting, like A Civil Action, is a nonfiction work made highly dramatic by the author's narrative skills, according to critics. For example, an Economist writer declared it to be "as perfect a work of narrative nonfiction as you could ever hope to read." A Kirkus Reviews critic concluded: "Harr provides a fascinating glimpse into the insular world of art history and art restoration. He also delivers an entertaining cast of characters."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Grossman, Lewis A., and Robert G. Vaughn, A Documentary Companion to "A Civil Action": With Notes, Comments, and Questions, revised edition, Foundation Press (New York, NY), 2002.

PERIODICALS

Audubon, March-April, 1996, Jack Beatty, review of A Civil Action, p. 120.

Booklist, September 1, 1995, Gilbert Taylor, review of A Civil Action, p. 9; October 1, 2005, Donna Seaman, review of The Lost Painting, p. 4.

Boston College Third World Law Journal, winter, 1997, Marya Rose, review of A Civil Action, pp. 133-153.

Boston Phoenix, August 18, 1995, Dan Kennedy, "Don't Quote Me: Toxic Trial—Jonathan Harr Talks about His Heartbreaking Legal Thriller."

California Lawyer, December, 1998, Jonathan S. Shapiro, review of review of A Civil Action, p. 60.

Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, September 12, 1995, Gregg Easterbrook, review of A Civil Action, p. 2.

Colorado Lawyer, February, 1996, Allen Sparkman, review of A Civil Action, p. 48.

Commonweal, November 3, 1995, Suzanne Keen, review of A Civil Action, p. 18.

Connecticut Bar Journal, August, 1996, Alan R. Spirer, review of A Civil Action, pp. 311-312.

Cornell Law Review, May, 1996, Robert F. Blomquist, review of A Civil Action, pp. 953-988.

Economist, November 26, 2005, "The Discovery of Temptation: Caravaggio," p. 98.

English Journal, December, 1997, Marilyn K. Buehler, review of A Civil Action, p. 87.

Entertainment Weekly, September 22, 1995, Gene Lyons, review of A Civil Action, p. 73; October 18, 1996, Matthew Flamm, "Yet Another Cover-up," p. 71; November 4, 2005, Gregory Kirschling, review of The Lost Painting, p. 79.

Environmental Claims Journal, autumn, 1996, Michael San Quinn, review of A Civil Action, pp. 165-172.

Environmental Forum, March-April, 1997, Ivie B. Higgins, review of A Civil Action, p. 14.

Federal Lawyer, June, 1996, Vanessa Ibsch, review of A Civil Action, pp. 54-55.

Florida Bar Journal, February, 1996, Patrick J. Toomey, Jr., review of A Civil Action, p. 70; June, 1996, Steven P. Cullen, review of A Civil Action, p. 116.

George Washington Law Review, April, 2000, Joshua E. Gardner, review of A Civil Action, pp. 547-571.

Georgia Bar Journal, April, 1996, Kenneth S. Canfield, review of A Civil Action, p. 43.

Journal of Legal Studies Education, winter-spring, 1996, Tony McAdams, review of A Civil Action, pp. 97-102.

Judicature, May-June, 1996, Stephen B. Burbank, review of A Civil Action, p. 318.

Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2005, review of The Lost Painting, p. 1012.

Law Institute Journal, June, 1996, David Hodgkinson, review of A Civil Action, p. 92.

Legal Management, March-April, 1997, Jay Strother, review of A Civil Action, p. 104.

Legal Times, October 2, 1995, Andrew Houlding, review of A Civil Action, p. 58.

Library Journal, September 15, 1995, Susan Pierce Dyer, review of A Civil Action, p. 83; November 15, 2005, Marcia Welsh, review of The Lost Painting, p. 66.

Los Angeles Daily Journal, December 18, 1995, review of A Civil Action, p. 13.

Main Bar Journal, July, 1996, S. Peter Mills, review of A Civil Action, p. 208.

Massachusetts Law Review, September, 1996, Stephen I. Lipman, review of A Civil Action, pp. 138-139.

Modern Law Review, July, 1996, Michael I. Krauss, review of A Civil Action, pp. 628-630.

Natural Resources and Environment, summer, 1996, Kenneth F. Gray, review of A Civil Action, p. 63.

Nevada Lawyer, January, 1997, Robert Chaires, review of A Civil Action, pp. 27-28.

New Jersey Law Journal, February 26, 1996, Lewis Goldshore and Marsha Wolf, review of A Civil Action, p. S3.

Newsweek, October 2, 1995, Sharon Begley, review of A Civil Action, p. 89.

New York Law Journal, September 19, 1995, Eric Schneider, review of A Civil Action, p. 2.

New York Times, September 13, 1995, Richard Bernstein, review of A Civil Action, p. C17; October 1, 1998, Julie Michaels, "It Was a Dark and Stormy Rewrite …," p. F12.

New York Times Book Review, September 10, 1995, Gregg Easterbrook, review of A Civil Action, p. 13.

People, November 20, 1995, David Ellis, "Talking with … Jonathan Harr," p. 36.

Practical Lawyer, October, 1996, Charles Alan Wright, review of A Civil Action, p. 86.

Progressive, December, 1998, Ruth Conniff, review of A Civil Action, p. 38.

Public Health Reports, January-February, 1998, Leonard Glantz, review of A Civil Action, p. 87.

Publishers Weekly, June 5, 1995, Norman Oder, review of A Civil Action, p. 24; July 17, 1995, review of A Civil Action, p. 215; October 3, 2005, review of The Lost Painting, p. 63.

Seattle University Law Review, fall, 1999, Jerome P. Facher, "The View from the Bottomless Pit: Truth, Myth, and Irony in 'A Civil Action,'" pp. 243-281; fall, 1999, Kevin E. Mohr, "Legal Ethics and 'A Civil Action'," pp. 283-349; fall, 1999, Michael B. Keating, "The Woburn Case: Is There a Better Way?," pp. 351-354.

Spectator, March 16, 1996, Jake Michie, review of A Civil Action, p. 32.

Tennessee Bar Journal, January-February, 1997, Ernest A. Petroff, review of A Civil Action, p. 31.

Time, October 2, 1995, R.Z. Sheppard, review of A Civil Action, p. 84.

Washington Monthly, September, 1995, Timothy Noah, review of A Civil Action, p. 50.

Whole Earth, summer, 1997, Lexi Rome, review of A Civil Action, p. 81.

Wisconsin Lawyer, December, 1997, Kurt R. Anderson, review of A Civil Action, p. 33.