Alan Furst
| Alan Furst | |
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| Born | Alan Furst February 20, 1941 New York City |
| Occupation | Novelist, poet, journalist |
| Citizenship | American |
| Notable works | The "Night Soldiers" Novels |
| Notable awards | Helmerich Award |
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Alan Furst (born February 20, 1941) is an American author of historical spy novels. Furst has been called "an heir to the tradition of Eric Ambler and Graham Greene," whom he cites along with Joseph Roth and Arthur Koestler as important influences. Most of his novels since 1988 have been set just prior to or during the Second World War and he is noted for his successful evocations of Eastern European peoples and places during the period from 1933 to 1944.
Born in New York City, and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where he attended the Horace Mann School, Furst received a B.A. from Oberlin College in 1962 and an M.A. from Penn State in 1967. He married, and later divorced, writer Thaisa Frank.
While attending general studies courses at Columbia University, he became acquainted with Margaret Mead, for whom he later worked. Before becoming a full-time novelist, Furst worked in advertising and wrote magazine articles, most notably for Esquire, and as a columnist for the International Herald Tribune.
Furst's papers were obtained by the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin. They include a 1963 letter from his grandfather, Max Stockman, which urged Furst to become a teacher and 'write as a sideline' in his spare time. The collection also includes early articles on a wide variety of topics, published in many magazines for which no common denominator can be found, including Architectural Digest, Elle, Esquire, 50 Plus, International Herald Tribune, Islands, New Choices, New York, The New York Times, Pursuits, Salon, and Seattle Weekly.
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