Marcus, Amy Dockser 1965-

PERSONAL:

Born July 1, 1965, in Boston, MA; daughter of Robert and Golda Dockser; married Ronen Marcus, August 15, 1989; children: Eden, Yuval. Education: Attended Radcliffe College; Harvard University, B.A., 1987.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Needham, MA. Agent—Kris Dahl, ICM, 8825 8th Ave., New York, NY. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

American Lawyer, reporter, 1987-88; Wall Street Journal, Boston, MA, news assistant, 1988-89, staff reporter, 1989—, Middle East correspondent, 1991-98; Money (magazine), Boston, reporter, 2000-02.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Media Awards first place, New York State Bar Association, 1990; Harvard Medical School media fellowship, 2004; Science, Technology, Medical or Environmental Reporting award, Deadline Club, 2004; Eugene S. Pulliam National Journalism Writing Award, 2005; Pulitzer Prize, Columbia University, 2005, for a series of articles for Wall Street Journal about cancer survivors; Investigator Award in Health Policy Research, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2006.

WRITINGS:

The View from Nebo: How Archaeology Is Rewriting the Bible and Reshaping the Middle East, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 2000.

Jerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Viking (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Amy Dockser Marcus is a Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist who has spent several years as a Middle East correspondent. Her books are The View from Nebo: How Archaeology Is Rewriting the Bible and Reshaping the Middle East and Jerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, both of which mine her expertise in the Middle East. The View from Nebo is a controversial volume that looks at biblical teachings in relation to Near Eastern beliefs, rather than considering them literally. She interviewed numerous scholars, historians, and archaeologists for the book, and suggests that many of the customs and ideas taken from the Bible can actually be traced to broadly held theories of the day. A critic for Publishers Weekly praised the book in general but noted that Marcus "fails to provide an adequate amount of political, historical or historiographical context," while Booklist reviewer Ilene Cooper called it a "readable mix of religion and popular science."

In Jerusalem 1913 Marcus sets out to determine the turning point in the Middle Eastern aggressions between the Arabs and the Israelis—settling on the year 1913 as the time when the situation became notably serious. At that point, the efforts to purchase Palestine and develop an Israeli nation began to solidify during the discussions held at the eleventh Zionist Congress in Vienna. In direct opposition, Ruhi Khalidi, a member of the Ottoman parliament, urged Arabs to fight this effort by maintaining control over their lands. Marcus addresses not only the particulars of the situation, but also the major players she deems to be responsible for this turn in Arab/Israeli relations. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly commented that "Marcus masterfully brings a Jerusalem of almost a century ago to pungent life." A contributor to Kirkus Reviews called the book "a thoughtful, well-written addition to the literature on a bitterly debated subject."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 2000, Ilene Cooper, review of The View from Nebo: How Archaeology Is Rewriting the Bible and Reshaping the Middle East, p. 1502.

Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2007, review of Jerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, p. 64.

Publishers Weekly, March 27, 2000, review of The View from Nebo, p. 65; January 8, 2007, review of Jerusalem 1913, p. 42.