Rubin, Gretchen (Craft) 1966(?)-

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RUBIN, Gretchen (Craft) 1966(?)-

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1966, in Kansas City, MO; daughter of Jack Craft (an attorney); married Jamie Rubin (an investment banker); children: Eliza. Education: Yale University, B.A. (English), J.D., 1994.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Ballantine, Random House, 201 East 50th St., New York, NY 10022. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Educator and writer. Clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor; chief advisor to Federal Communications Commissions chairman Reed Hundt; former summer associate at law firms Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Davis Polk & Wardwell. Yale University, New Haven, CT, instructor at Yale Law School and Yale School of Management.

WRITINGS:

Power, Money, Fame, Sex: A User's Guide, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 2000.

Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill: A Brief Account of a Long Life, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Gretchen Rubin is the author of two nonfiction titles that on first glance seem to have very little in common, either with each other or with their author, a Yale Law School graduate. Her first book, Power, Money, Fame, Sex: A User's Guide, serves as both a guide for social climbers—or as Booklist contributor David Rouse described, "people who use people"—and a self-help book wrapped into one. The guide seeks to offer ambitious individuals succinct strategic advice on how to make their way in the world. In contrast, Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill: A Brief Account of a Long Life is a serious examination of the life of the late British Prime Minister that was given praise by several critics.

Among Rubin's pointers in Power, Money, Fame, Sex are things like "Never give anonymously" and "Those who marry for money earn every penny," and the author finds a perfect medium, noted critics, between seriousness and tongue-in-cheek humor as she cites as examples such people as Bill Gates, Madonna, and Lyndon B. Johnson. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly called Power, Money, Fame, Sex a "delicious hybrid of two popular genres: self-help and lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-famous," that abounds with "wisdom and fun." "Mining sources that range from classical literature to People and Vanity Fair. … Rubin never comes up short in her effort to illustrate where her strategies can lead," Rouse added. While one might question an advice book that some critics noted puts a Machiavellian spin on modern social practices and might make readers question the author's own ethical code, as Rubin noted on her Web site, "It seemed to me that an examination of power, money, fame, and sex should include all the methods that people actually use—not just the methods that people ought to use. So I include techniques that I'd never endorse. The guide is supposed to help you understand all the methods that work—so that you understand what your boss or neighbor is doing, even if you'd never do it yourself. If you're determined to use sex to get money, a paternity suit against a basketball player is a successful approach."

In Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill, Rubin offers readers an examination of the character of a man noted for both his wisdom and his talent for self-promotion. While many historians have criticized Churchill for his actions following World War II, Rubin takes an alternative route and dissects this criticism. While a Kirkus Reviews contributor argued that Rubin is perhaps too "breezy" in her handling of such an important historical figure, Alan Prince wrote in an online review for Bookpage that her work serves general readers as "an accessible study of one of history's most fascinating figures." Explaining why she chose to write in such an unconventional format—Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill approaches its subject from a number of different perspectives, with contrasting and often conflicting results—Rubin noted: "Rather than detail the facts of Churchill's life, as most biographies do—which can make them so long and dense that a reader loses the big picture—Forty Ways answers essential questions.… What was Churchill's decisive moment? What was his greatest strength? Was he an alcoholic, did he suffer from depression, did he have a happy marriage?"

In addition to writing nonfiction, Rubin is an adjunct instructor at Yale University's Law School and the Yale School of Management. A Yale alumni herself, Rubin currently resides in New York City with her husband, Jamie Rubin, and daughter, Eliza. After obtaining her law degree from Yale, Rubin went on to clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and also worked as an adviser to Federal Communications Commissions chairman Reed Hundt.