Hubbry Logo
Nicholson BakerNicholson BakerMain
Open search
Nicholson Baker
Community hub
Nicholson Baker
logo
8 pages, 0 posts
0 subscribers
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Nicholson Baker
Nicholson Baker
Nicholson Baker
View on Wikipedia
from Wikipedia

Nicholson Baker (born January 7, 1957) is an American novelist and essayist. His fiction generally de-emphasizes narrative in favor of careful description and characterization. His early novels such as The Mezzanine and Room Temperature were distinguished by their minute inspection of his characters' and narrators' stream of consciousness.[citation needed] Out of a total of ten novels, three are erotica: Vox, The Fermata and House of Holes.

Key Information

Baker also writes non-fiction books. U and I: A True Story, about his relationship with John Updike, was published in 1991. He then wrote about the American library system in his 2001 book Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper, for which he received a National Book Critics Circle Award and the Calw Hermann Hesse Prize for the German translation. A pacifist, he wrote Human Smoke (2008) about the buildup to World War II.

Baker has published articles in Harper's Magazine, the London Review of Books and The New Yorker, among other periodicals. Baker created the American Newspaper Repository in 1999. He has also written about and edited Wikipedia.

Life

[edit]

Nicholson Baker was born in 1957 in New York City.[2]

He studied briefly at the Eastman School of Music and received a B.A. in English from Haverford College.[1]

Baker describes himself as an atheist, although he occasionally visits Quaker meetings.[3] Baker says he has "always had pacifist leanings."[4]

Baker met his wife, Margaret Brentano, in college; they live in Maine and have two grown children.[5]

Career

[edit]

Baker established a name for himself with the novels The Mezzanine (1988) and Room Temperature (1990). Both novels have for the most part a very limited time span. The Mezzanine occurs over the course of an escalator journey and Room Temperature happens while a father feeds his baby daughter.[6]

U and I: A True Story (1991) is a non-fiction study of how a reader engages with an author's work. It is partly about Baker's appreciation for the work of John Updike and partly a self-exploration. Rather than giving a traditional literary analysis, Baker begins the book by stating that he will read no more Updike than he already has up to that point. All of the Updike quotations used are presented as coming from memory alone, and many are inaccurate, with correct versions and Baker's (later) commentary on the inaccuracies.[7]

Critics group together Vox, The Fermata and House of Holes since they are all erotic novels.[8][9] Vox (1992) consists of an episode of phone sex between two young single people on a pay-per-minute chat line. The book was Baker's first New York Times bestseller and Monica Lewinsky gave a copy to President Bill Clinton when they were having an affair.[10] In Vox, Baker coined the word femalia. The Fermata (1994) also addresses erotic life and fantasy. The protagonist Arno Strine likes to stop time and take off women's clothes. The work proved controversial with critics.[11] It was also a bestseller.[1] House of Holes (2011) is about a fantastical place where all sexual perversions and fetishes are permitted.[9] It is a collection of stories, more or less connected to each other. The novellas are erotic in the sense of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron. The titular House of Holes is a fantasy sex resort in which people can engage in absurd sexual practices, such as groin transference and sex with trees. Akin to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, people enter the House of Holes through such techniques as tumbling through a clothes dryer or through a drinking straw.[12]

Baker is a fervent critic of what he perceives as libraries' unnecessary destruction of paper-based media. He wrote several vehement articles in The New Yorker critical of the San Francisco Public Library for sending thousands of books to a landfill, eliminating card catalogs, and destroying old books and newspapers in favor of microfilm. In 1997, Baker received the San Francisco–based James Madison Freedom of Information Award in recognition of these efforts. In 1999, Baker established a non-profit corporation, the American Newspaper Repository, to rescue old newspapers from destruction by libraries.[13] In 2001, he published Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper about preservation, newspapers, and the American library system. An excerpt first appeared in the July 24, 2000, issue of The New Yorker, under the title "Deadline: The Author's Desperate Bid to Save America's Past."[14] The exhaustively researched work (there are 63 pages of endnotes and 18 pages of references in the paperback edition) details Baker's quest to uncover the fate of thousands of books and newspapers that were replaced and often destroyed during the microfilming boom of the 1980s and 1990s.

The 2004 novel Checkpoint is composed of dialogue between two old high school friends, Jay and Ben, who discuss Jay's plans to assassinate President George W. Bush.[15]

Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization (2008) is a history of World War II that questions the commonly held belief that the Allies wanted to avoid the war at all costs but were forced into action by Hitler's unforgiving actions. It consists largely of official government transcripts and other documents from the time. He suggests that the pacifists were correct in their views.[16]

In March 2008, Baker reviewed John Broughton's Wikipedia: The Missing Manual in the New York Review of Books. In the review, Baker described Wikipedia's beginnings, its culture, and his own editing activities under the username "Wageless".[17] His article "How I fell in love with Wikipedia" was published in The Guardian newspaper in the UK on April 10, 2008.[18]

The Anthologist (2009) is narrated by Paul Chowder, a poet, who is attempting to write an introduction to a poetry anthology. Distracted by problems in his life, he is unable to begin writing, and instead ruminates on poets and poetry throughout history.[19] Also in 2009, Baker reviewed Ken Auletta's Googled: The End of the World as We Know It in the New York Times.[20] Auletta responded by sending a letter to the editor bemoaning what he perceived as the inaccuracy of Baker's review.[21] Here is Baker's rebuttal:

Ken Auletta wrote a thought-provoking book, and I recorded several thoughts provoked. It's a book review, not a bouillon cube. I don't “imply” or “suggest” that the author agrees with the people he quotes. There is indeed an absence of warmth in this chronicle of Google as “dreaded disruptor,” but it's an impartial chilliness, extending in all directions.[22]

In 2014, Baker spent 28 days as a substitute teacher in some Maine public schools as research for his 2016 book Substitute: Going to School With a Thousand Kids.[23] Baker tried to find out "what life in the classroom is really like."[24] He also wrote about the experience for The New York Times Magazine.[23]

Baker wrote a cover story for New York Magazine in January 2021 investigating the COVID-19 lab leak theory and expressing his belief in the theory’s plausibility.[25][26]

Works

[edit]
Some books by Nicholson Baker

Fiction

[edit]
  • The Mezzanine (1988, Weidenfeld & Nicolson; ISBN 1-55584-258-5 / 1990, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-72576-8)
  • Room Temperature (1990, Grove Weidenfeld; ISBN 0-8021-1224-2 / 1990, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-73440-6 / 1990, Granta; ISBN 0-14-014212-6 / 1991, Granta; ISBN 0-14-014021-2)
  • Vox: A Novel (1992, Random House; ISBN 0-394-58995-5 / 1992, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-74211-5 / 1992, Granta; ISBN 0-14-014057-3)
  • The Fermata (1994, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-75933-6)
  • The Everlasting Story of Nory (1998, Random House; ISBN 0-679-43933-1 / 1998, Vintage; ISBN 0-679-73440-6)
  • A Box of Matches (2003, Random House; ISBN 0-375-50287-4 / 2003, Chatto & Windus; ISBN 0-7011-7402-1)
  • Vintage Baker (2004, Vintage; ISBN 9781400078608)
  • Checkpoint (2004, Random House; ISBN 1-4000-4400-6)
  • The Anthologist (2009, Simon & Schuster; ISBN 1-84737-635-5)
  • House of Holes: A Book of Raunch (2011, Simon & Schuster; ISBN 1-4391-8951-X)
  • Traveling Sprinkler (2013, Blue Rider Press; ISBN 978-0399160967)

Non-fiction

[edit]

Selected essays and reporting

[edit]

Music

[edit]
  • While working on Traveling Sprinkler, Nicholson Baker posted some songs made in the style of protagonist Paul Chowder on YouTube. The ballads combined dance music with protest songs and dealt with foreign policy agenda.[29] Twelve songs were available in a deluxe e-book version of the novel and later on Bandcamp.[3]

Awards

[edit]

Further reading

[edit]

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Nicholson Baker

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
Nicholson Baker (born January 7, 1957) is an American novelist and essayist distinguished by his prose that privileges granular depictions of ordinary experiences in and probing examinations of archival destruction and wartime decisions in . Baker's breakthrough novel, (1988), unfolds during an office worker's escalator ride, delving into digressions on shoelaces, straws, and consumer culture to capture the texture of daily life. His subsequent Vox (1992) centers on an extended erotic phone call, highlighting his interest in intimate verbal exchanges, while (1994) explores a man's ability to halt time for voyeuristic purposes, drawing scrutiny for its fantastical elements. In , Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper (2001) exposed the routine pulping of historical newspapers under the guise of space-saving microfilm preservation, securing the for its revelations on cultural loss. Baker's Human Smoke: The Beginnings of , the End of Civilization (2008), compiled from diaries, speeches, and news clippings, questions the inevitability and moral clarity of Allied entry into the war through a mosaic of pacifist voices and early aggressions, prompting accusations of revisionism for emphasizing anti-war sentiments while downplaying broader geopolitical threats. More recently, Baseless: My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information Act (2020) recounts Baker's FOIA-driven investigation into "Project Baseless," a U.S. program for biological weapons, amid Korean War-era accusations of their deployment, underscoring bureaucratic opacity in .

Early Life and Education

Family and Childhood

Nicholson Baker was born on January 7, 1957, and spent much of his early childhood in the New York area before his family relocated to , in 1960 when he was two and a half years old, following his father's job opportunity there. His parents, Douglas and Ann (née Nicholson) Baker, met as art students at in . Douglas Baker, after studying design, pursued a career in and in Rochester, specializing in trademarks and logotypes. Ann Baker, raised in a Quaker tradition that employed terms like "thee," contributed to a household where poetry readings occurred, including works by Shelley, though Baker later described the environment as not aggressively literary or arty. The family's background reflected a balance between artistic inclinations and commercial pursuits, with no evident pressure on Baker to engage deeply with reading during his youth. As a young child, he immersed himself in science fiction, an interest that developed independently. Baker's elementary school years included incidents of , after which he transferred to an experimental high school that provided bus tokens for self-directed pursuits; he often remained at home, watching sitcoms and practicing the . Early fascinations included everyday objects like pencil sharpeners at school and his mother's , which he began using in , alongside music listened to through in the dark. These experiences foreshadowed his later attentiveness to minutiae in writing, though his initial ambitions leaned toward music composition.

Academic Background

Nicholson Baker briefly attended the in , in 1975, where he studied bassoon performance. He subsequently transferred to in , graduating with a degree, with coursework centered on and . Baker did not pursue graduate studies, transitioning instead to writing and related pursuits in the early .

Literary Career

Early Publications

Nicholson Baker's debut novel, , was published in 1988 by . The narrative unfolds over a single ride in an office building, during which the engages in extended reflections on everyday objects and rituals, including milk cartons, shoelaces, and workplace dynamics. This structure highlights Baker's early stylistic approach of compressing vast digressions into brief temporal spans, employing footnotes and conversational prose to defamiliarize the mundane. His second novel, , appeared in 1990 from Grove Weidenfeld. Set during the twenty minutes a father spends feeding his a , the interweaves memories of childhood—such as jars and model airplanes—with observations of household items and musings on physics and parenting. Like , it exemplifies Baker's focus on intimate, propulsive details of domestic life, blending tenderness with intellectual playfulness. These early works established Baker's signature method of elevating ordinary experiences through meticulous, associative internal monologues, garnering attention for their inventive form and avoidance of conventional plot progression.

Established Works and Style

Nicholson Baker's established works, beginning with his debut novel published in 1988, exemplify a distinctive literary style centered on the intensive scrutiny of mundane activities and objects through stream-of-consciousness narration. In , the entire narrative unfolds during a brief escalator ride as the protagonist reflects on trivial elements of office life, such as shoelaces snapping and the mechanics of hand dryers, augmented by extensive footnotes that digress into cultural and historical trivia about everyday items. This technique, which de-emphasizes conventional plot progression in favor of associative thought patterns, was innovative for its time and rejected by multiple publishers before acceptance. Subsequent early novels reinforced this approach, as seen in Room Temperature (1990), where Baker compresses the action to twenty minutes of a father feeding his infant daughter, expanding into filigreed descriptions of household artifacts like peanut-butter jars and model airplanes. Similarly, Vox (1992) employs dialogue-driven exploration of erotic fantasies during a phone call, maintaining the author's hallmark focus on verbal minutiae and sensory precision through onomatopoeic phrasing such as "clonk" and "kashoonk" to evoke tactile experiences. Baker's prose is marked by meticulous phrasemaking, an intimate first-person tone, and a superhuman capacity for observation, often capturing reflexive internal monologues that prioritize the flux of consciousness over external action. Later established fiction like A Box of Matches (2003) sustains this style by chronicling a man's daily of fires, delving into nostalgic reflections on domestic routines and personal artifacts such as hole-ridden socks and belly-button lint. Across these works, constructs elaborate intellectual edifices atop minimal narrative pretexts, blending erudition with humor to illuminate the overlooked intricacies of ordinary moments. This method reflects a deliberate eschewal of linear , instead privileging the sequential changes of mind and detailed environmental interactions that define .

Major Works

Fiction

Nicholson Baker's fiction is characterized by meticulous attention to the minutiae of , extended internal monologues, and a stylistic emphasis on descriptive detail over conventional progression. His novels often unfold in constrained temporal or spatial frames, such as a single ride or a conversation, allowing for digressive explorations of ordinary objects, sensations, and thoughts. Three of his works—Vox (1992), (1994), and House of Holes (2011)—incorporate explicit erotic elements, which have drawn both acclaim for their literary inventiveness and criticism for perceived . His debut novel, (1988), centers on protagonist Howie, a mid-level office worker whose thoughts during a brief escalator ascent at the end of encompass snapping, the mechanics of staplers, and the cultural significance of fast-food packaging. Published by , the received praise for its humorous depiction of the human mind's propensity to amplify trivial observations into profound reflections, with one review describing it as "a very funny book about the human mind, in particular that part of the mind that processes the triviality of daily events." Critics noted its innovative stream-of-consciousness technique, likening it to a modernist exercise in perceptual acuity amid corporate drudgery. Room Temperature (1990) similarly confines its action to a father, Mike, rocking his daughter in a single room while contemplating childhood memories, the physics of burping, and domestic epiphanies. The novel, published by Grove Weidenfeld, extends Baker's interest in parental introspection and sensory immersion, earning recognition for its tender yet analytical that elevates routine to philosophical . In Vox (1992), Baker shifts to erotic territory with a novella-length between strangers Jim and Abby, who engage in a transcontinental conversation detailing fantasies inspired by and personal history. Released by , it became a New York Times bestseller, appreciated for its plausible intimacy and verbal dexterity despite its unconventional form devoid of physical action. Some reviewers highlighted its success in sustaining erotic tension through conversation alone, though others questioned its depth beyond titillation. The Fermata (1994), also from Random House, features Arno Strine, a man capable of halting time, whom he exploits to undress and manipulate unaware women in voyeuristic scenarios framed as creative writing sessions. The novel provoked backlash, with critics labeling its protagonist a "repulsive" embodiment of sexual harassment fantasies akin to real-world allegations against public figures. Baker countered interpretations of misogyny, insisting the work was not prescriptive but exploratory of male desire and narrative invention. Its reception underscored divisions over Baker's boundary-pushing erotica, with supporters valuing the metafictional layers involving Strine's "time manuscripts." Later fiction includes The Everlasting Story of Nory (1998), a publication narrated from the perspective of nine-year-old Eleanor "Nory" Winslow during her English schooling, blending childlike whimsy with observations on and playground dynamics. A Box of Matches (2003), from , follows middle-aged Emmett renewing daily routines like early-morning matches to light fires, reflecting on family and obsolescence. House of Holes (2011), published by , constructs a surreal pornographic fantasy realm where body parts detach for consensual pleasures, drawing mixed responses for its exuberant absurdity and explicitness, which one interviewer called "the most fun" Baker had writing. These works reinforce Baker's oeuvre's focus on perceptual novelty, though erotic novels faced disproportionate scrutiny compared to his observational ones.

Non-fiction

Baker's non-fiction oeuvre examines the intersections of technology, history, and , often challenging institutional practices and orthodox historical accounts through meticulous research and vignette-style assembly. His works privilege primary sources such as diaries, letters, and archival records over synthesized narratives, reflecting a commitment to granular detail over broad interpretive frameworks. U and I: A True Story (1991) chronicles Baker's self-described "fanatical" preoccupation with author , blending with to dissect the of literary admiration without direct quotations from Updike's works, as Baker admits to having read them imperfectly from memory. The book employs a confessional tone to explore influences on Baker's own writing, attributing stylistic affinities to Updike while acknowledging factual inaccuracies in his recollections, which he defends as integral to the subjective experience of reading. Blue Sky Dream: A True-Blue Grammar of Hope (1996) intertwines Baker's family history with the decline of the company, focusing on his father's career as an engineer amid the shift from to contracts in the post-Vietnam era. Drawing on interviews and corporate documents, Baker critiques the erosion of American manufacturing optimism, portraying Boeing's pivot to defense work as emblematic of broader economic disillusionment, with specific references to layoffs exceeding 20,000 employees by the mid-1990s. In Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper (2001), Baker investigates the widespread destruction of newspapers and books by libraries favoring microfilm preservation, estimating that millions of volumes were pulped between the 1950s and 1990s under the pretext of space savings and the "double fold" test, which deemed paper brittle after two folds under 3,000 grams of pressure. He documents visits to facilities like the , where he observed shredding machines processing tons of archives daily, and accuses librarians of collusion with microfilm vendors, citing internal memos from the 1980s revealing falsified durability claims for microfilm, which degrades via "silver mirroring" after 20-30 years. Baker personally purchased 20 tons of the archives for $25,000 to prevent their disposal, highlighting what he terms a "secret history" of lost driven by budgetary expediency rather than empirical necessity. The book prompted debates on preservation ethics, with critics acknowledging exposed waste but disputing Baker's dismissal of digital alternatives as equally impermanent. Human Smoke: The Beginnings of , the End of Civilization (2008) assembles over 500 short excerpts from diaries, speeches, and news reports spanning 1920 to late 1941, portraying the war's prelude through pacifist lenses, including Gandhi's advocacy and Quaker relief efforts, while questioning Allied escalations like Britain's area bombing policy, which Churchill endorsed on , 1942, targeting German civilians. Baker avoids explicit argumentation, letting vignettes—such as Roosevelt's rejection of Jewish refugee ships in 1939 or Lindbergh's isolationist speeches—imply contingencies in decision-making, challenging the postwar consensus that unconditional war was inevitable against Axis aggression. Reception divided along ideological lines: proponents praised its anti-militarist humanism, citing 300+ primary sources for evoking moral ambiguities in , while detractors, including historians like Richard Evans, faulted its selective pacifist emphasis for understating Nazi atrocities, such as the 1938 pogroms detailed in the text itself. Later works include Substitute: Going to School with a Thousand Kids (2016), a first-person account of Baker's experiences as a in Maine public schools over several months, cataloging classroom disruptions and administrative inefficiencies with observations of over 1,000 students across 20+ days, critiquing standardized testing's dominance without quantitative analysis. Baseless: A More or Less Secret History of the Origins of the War on Terror (2021) traces post-9/11 policies to precedents, using declassified documents to link drone surveillance to earlier reconnaissance tech and arguing that fear-driven expansions of executive power, such as the 1942 affecting 120,000 people, prefigured modern indefinite detentions.

Essays and Journalism

Nicholson Baker's essays, often published in magazines such as and , emphasize detailed observation of everyday phenomena and intellectual curiosities, blending personal reflection with broader cultural critique. His essayistic style prioritizes precise description over narrative propulsion, mirroring techniques in his fiction. Baker compiled his first major essay collection, The Size of Thoughts: Essays and Other , in 1996, drawing from pieces originally appearing in and other outlets. The book includes essays on topics ranging from library catalogs to the mechanics of , with standout works like "," a lengthy examination of history and tools that showcases his capacity for exhaustive research into mundane subjects. These essays transform ordinary objects into subjects of philosophical inquiry, often revealing overlooked efficiencies or absurdities in modern life. In 2012, Baker released The Way the World Works: Essays, his first collection since 1996, spanning writings from the prior 15 years across five thematic sections. Topics include Wikipedia's collaborative editing process, the environmental impact of paper mills, , and transportation systems, alongside more personal essays on intimacy and political controversies. Critics noted the collection's range, from technological optimism to skepticism toward institutional narratives, reflecting Baker's interest in how small-scale innovations intersect with larger societal forces. Baker's journalism extends his essay form into investigative territory, as seen in pieces like the 2013 Harper's article "Wrong Answer," which traces the history of through Renaissance gambler Girolamo Cardano's Ars Magna. His contributions to New York Magazine and other periodicals often probe historical or contemporary events with a pacifist lens, questioning official accounts of conflicts and technologies. These works maintain empirical rigor, favoring primary documents and eyewitness reports over secondary interpretations.

Intellectual Views

Pacifism and War Skepticism

Nicholson Baker's pacifist convictions emerged prominently through his research into the origins of , culminating in his 2008 book Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization. The work consists of chronological vignettes drawn from diaries, letters, and contemporary accounts spanning 1895 to December 31, 1941, highlighting efforts by figures such as , , and American pacifists to avert escalation through negotiation and , while portraying leaders like as eager provocateurs of . Baker explicitly endorses the afterword's conclusion that these resisters, though ultimately sidelined, "were right" in opposing industrialized slaughter, challenging the prevailing narrative of as an unequivocally "good war" justified by its outcomes. In a 2011 essay titled "Why I'm a Pacifist" published in Harper's Magazine, Baker elaborated on his stance, attributing personal influence to his maternal grandfather, a World War II veteran who returned disillusioned and embraced , emphasizing the moral hazard of dispatching young soldiers into mechanized killing. He critiqued the atomic bombings of and on and 9, 1945, as unnecessary escalations that set precedents for later conflicts, arguing that the "myth of the Good War" perpetuates a cycle where each new adversary is analogized to Hitler to garner support for intervention. Baker maintained that demands consistent objection to violence, regardless of context, positing that alternatives like armistices or evacuations could have mitigated civilian devastation without endorsing Axis aggression. Baker extended his war skepticism to contemporary U.S. involvements, opposing the 2003 Iraq invasion as an unjustifiable preemptive strike lacking evidence of weapons of mass destruction or imminent threat, akin to flawed rationales. In April 2011, he participated in a Lafayette Park demonstration against ongoing Afghan operations, decrying the prolongation of tactics that echoed historical escalations he documented. His views drew criticism for perceived naivety toward totalitarian regimes, with detractors arguing that Human Smoke underemphasizes Nazi atrocities by focusing on Allied flaws, though Baker countered that selective vignettes aimed to humanize anti-war impulses without excusing aggression.

Critiques of Institutions and Narratives

Nicholson Baker has directed pointed critiques at institutional practices and dominant historical narratives, often through investigative that challenges accepted orthodoxies. In Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper (2001), Baker accused libraries and preservation organizations of systematically destroying vast quantities of newspapers and books under the pretext of conserving space and combating a supposed "brittle book crisis." He argued that the widespread adoption of microfilming, promoted by institutions like the and the , resulted in the guillotining of original print materials, rendering irreplaceable cultural artifacts lost forever despite claims of digital equivalence. Baker contended that the crisis narrative was exaggerated through flawed testing methods, such as the double-fold endurance test, which he described as pseudoscientific justification for discarding originals in favor of inferior reproductions. Baker's examination extended to what he perceived as institutional propaganda and conflicts of interest, including funding ties between preservation advocates and microfilm vendors, which incentivized destruction over retention. He highlighted specific losses, such as the British Library's disposal of 19th-century newspapers after microfilming, estimating millions of pages irretrievably gone. Critics within librarianship dismissed his account as overstated, but Baker maintained that blind trust in expert consensus had enabled a "vandalism" driven by bureaucratic efficiency over empirical fidelity to source materials. In Human Smoke: The Beginnings of , the End of Civilization (2008), Baker dismantled prevailing narratives glorifying Allied entry into , compiling vignettes from diaries, letters, and contemporary reports to portray leaders like as escalatory warmongers rather than unequivocal heroes. Drawing on pacifist sources such as Gandhi's writings and Quaker testimonies, he questioned the causal chain from to , suggesting alternatives like might have averted atomic bombings and devastation. Baker's approach avoided grand synthesis, instead privileging primary voices to expose in wartime media and that retroactively sanctified bombing campaigns responsible for over 600,000 deaths by 1945. Historians critiqued the work as selective and ahistorical, yet Baker aimed to reveal how —shaped by victors' accounts—obscures moral complexities and the war's initiation by mutual aggressions. Baker's 2020 book Baseless: My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Act targeted government opacity, chronicling his FOIA requests into U.S. biological weapons programs during the era. He alleged that agencies like the CIA and military withheld documents on experiments potentially linking to accusations of U.S. germ warfare, including Operation Paperclip's recruitment of Nazi scientists for bioweapons research post-1945. documented over 500 FOIA filings yielding redacted or delayed responses, illustrating systemic subversion of transparency laws enacted in 1966 and strengthened in 1974. He connected this to broader narratives of exceptionalism, arguing that official denials—echoed in declassified partial releases—perpetuate unexamined state actions, such as Fort Detrick's and plague developments from 1943 onward. While unable to conclusively prove battlefield use, 's pursuit underscored institutional incentives for narrative control, where secrecy shields potential atrocities amid escalations.

Controversies and Criticisms

Double Fold Dispute

In 2001, Nicholson Baker published Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper, a polemical of archival practices in major libraries and institutions such as the and the . Baker argued that these entities had systematically destroyed vast collections of original newspapers and books—estimated in the millions of volumes—under the justification of preserving content via microfilm, which he contended was unreliable, prone to degradation from "" (chemical breakdown causing brittleness and odors), and inferior for scholarly use due to poor readability and loss of tactile details like paper texture or annotations. He traced this trend to post-World War II initiatives, including the Association of Research Libraries' cooperative microfilming projects starting in the , which prioritized space savings and cost over long-term fidelity, often discarding originals after filming without rigorous quality checks. Baker further challenged the "brittle book" narrative, asserting that claims of widespread acidic deterioration were overstated; tests showed many papers endured repeated folding (the "double fold test," requiring 400 folds for viability) far beyond institutional thresholds, which he viewed as arbitrary metrics favoring disposal. Baker's investigation uncovered specific instances of destruction, such as the British Newspaper Library's shredding of pre-1950 newspapers in the 1970s and 1980s, and the Library of Congress's de-accessioning of bound volumes despite internal doubts about microfilm's permanence. To demonstrate commitment, Baker liquidated part of his retirement savings to purchase and preserve approximately 20 tons of discarded newspapers from the British Library, storing them privately rather than allowing institutional pulping. He positioned the book as advocacy rather than neutral reporting, explicitly stating it aimed to provoke reevaluation of preservation policies amid emerging digital alternatives, which he warned suffered from format obsolescence and incomplete scanning (e.g., missing folds or stains that reveal printing history). The book elicited sharp backlash from the library and archival professions, who accused Baker of sensationalism, selective evidence, and ignorance of practical constraints like escalating storage costs—reaching millions annually for climate-controlled facilities—and fire risks from aging paper. Archivist Richard J. Cox's 2002 response, Vandals in the Stacks?, countered that while some errors occurred in early microfilming, modern standards (e.g., ISO-compliant film) and shared digital repositories mitigated losses, and total destruction was rare; Cox argued Baker conflated isolated abuses with systemic policy, potentially undermining legitimate reform efforts. The Association of Research Libraries issued guidance for members to rebut claims, emphasizing that retention decisions balanced user needs with fiscal realities, and that Baker overlooked successful preservation models like the Northeast Document Conservation Center's surveys showing only 10-20% of collections truly brittle by the 1990s. Despite criticism, Double Fold won the 2001 for criticism, highlighting its impact on public discourse. Retrospective assessments note partial vindication for Baker: microfilm degradation has proven widespread, with affecting up to 30% of stored reels in some collections, and digital surrogates often fail to capture nuances essential for historians, such as ink migration or binding artifacts. However, proponents of reform acknowledge that space pressures persist, though policies have shifted toward hybrid retention—keeping select originals in off-site facilities—partly due to the controversy, as evidenced by updated guidelines from the post-2001. Baker's work exposed tensions between technological optimism and empirical durability, with archival self-interest potentially biasing defenses of past practices, though empirical data on paper longevity (e.g., pH-neutral newsprint lasting centuries under controlled conditions) supports skepticism of blanket disposals.

Human Smoke Backlash

Human Smoke, published on March 18, 2008, by , elicited sharp backlash from historians and critics who accused Nicholson Baker of presenting a distorted, pacifist of World War II's origins through selective, decontextualized vignettes drawn from diaries, speeches, and reports spanning 1920 to 1941. Reviewers contended that the book's mosaic style—comprising over 800 short entries without authorial analysis until a concluding afterword advocating —created a between Allied leaders and Axis aggressors, downplaying Nazi atrocities while emphasizing British and American provocations, such as early civilian bombings and Churchill's alleged warmongering. This approach, critics argued, obscured the war's moral necessity against , portraying as a "devious, , embittered, racist warmonger" thrilled by , thereby caricaturing historical figures to support an anti-war thesis. Prominent UK historians, including and , denounced the book as "mendacious" and "fraudulent" in early May 2008, charging Baker with factual distortions and cherry-picking sources to imply Britain provoked Hitler, akin to revisionist arguments influenced by contemporary events like the . , in a Bloomberg review on April 17, 2008, labeled it "sickening twaddle" and a "huge mistake," criticizing its "phony objectivity" that strung context-free quotes to advance a simplistic mantra of "," ignoring the practical imperatives of confronting Axis . Such critiques highlighted the afterword's dedication to pacifists who opposed the war, viewing it as an endorsement of that risked misleading readers on the era's causal realities, where Hitler's invasions and genocidal policies rendered futile. Despite defenses praising its use of primary materials to amplify overlooked pacifist voices, the backlash underscored concerns over the book's potential to erode consensus on WWII's justness, with some likening its method to Michael Moore's polemics—effective in provocation but deficient in balanced historical rigor. Baker maintained the work aimed not as comprehensive history but as a inviting scrutiny of war's human costs, yet detractors, including those in The Telegraph on May 2, 2008, dismissed its moral outrage at civilian bombings as valid yet ultimately misguided in questioning the conflict's inevitability against totalitarian regimes. The controversy amplified debates on historical narrative construction, with critics attributing the book's appeal partly to post-9/11 skepticism toward military interventions.

Other Public Debates

Baker's Vox (1992), depicting an extended phone-sex conversation between two strangers, drew significant public scrutiny in 1998 when it was revealed that had purchased and gifted a copy to President amid their affair, leading to the book's purchase records being subpoenaed by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr as part of the ensuing investigation. The association amplified debates over the 's explicit erotic content, with critics like Charles McGrath of later describing it as a "phone-sex so steamy" that its cultural footprint extended beyond literary circles into . In (1994), explores a protagonist's ability to halt time, which he exploits for voyeuristic and masturbatory acts involving unwitting women, prompting accusations of and unchecked male fantasy from reviewers and readers who viewed it as an "offense against womankind" or a "revenge of the girl-worshiping nerd." defended the work against such charges, arguing in a 1994 that critics misconstrued it as a prescriptive rather than fictional exploration, though feminist critiques persisted, labeling its themes as indicative of deeper gender imbalances in literary . Checkpoint (2004), a dialogue between two anti-war acquaintances contemplating the assassination of President , ignited controversy for its provocative premise, with outlets like and framing it as a sensationalized critique of Bush-era policies that risked blurring fiction with incitement. Critics such as those in argued it slandered liberal opposition by associating it with murderous intent, while Baker maintained it satirized rage without endorsing violence; the book's timing amid debates fueled accusations of poor taste and rhetorical excess. Baker's non-fiction Baseless (2020) examines declassified documents on early 20th-century U.S. biological weapons research, positing potential deployment in and germ warfare accusations during the , but faced criticism for speculative conclusions amid FOIA request frustrations and insufficient evidence, as noted in reviews questioning its "escalating anger over lack of hard evidence." Historians debated its revival of long-disputed claims, with The Nation highlighting Baker's pacifist lens as driving an indictment of government secrecy over conclusive proof.

Personal Life

Family and Relationships

Nicholson Baker married Margaret Brentano in 1985, after meeting her during their college years; the couple first encountered each other in 1978 at . They have collaborated professionally, co-authoring The World as It Is: A Cartoon Atlas of Our Universe as Revealed by World War II's Most Acclaimed War Cartoonist, published in 2005, which celebrates the graphic art in Joseph Pulitzer's . Baker has described their marriage as enduring and happy, noting in 2020 that they had been together for more than thirty years while residing in . The couple has two children, Alice and Elias, born in 1987 and approximately 1994, respectively. By the early 2000s, the children were reported as ages 15 and 9, reflecting the family's settled life in , before later moving to a home on the . Baker and Brentano, who has worked as a reporter and in , raised their family in relative privacy, with Baker occasionally referencing domestic life in interviews but avoiding detailed public disclosure. Baker was born on January 7, 1957, in to Douglas Baker, an entomologist and marketing executive, and Ann Nicholson Baker, whose Quaker upbringing influenced early family readings of poetry, though the household lacked formal religious practice. No public records indicate siblings or other significant familial relationships beyond his immediate nuclear family. The Bakers' personal life has remained largely insulated from the controversies surrounding his provocative fiction, such as Vox (1992) and (1994), which explore erotic themes but draw no direct parallels to his own marital dynamics as described in biographical accounts.

Interests Outside Writing

Baker initially pursued music as a primary interest, training extensively on the during high school and aspiring to become a . In 1975, he attended the before transferring to . Decades later, in 2012, he composed and recorded original protest songs addressing U.S. foreign policy and military actions, including "Whistleblower Song" on Chelsea Manning's leaks to , "Jeju Island Song" opposing a U.S.- military base, "When You Intervene" critiquing intervention in , and "Nine Women Gathering Firewood" on civilian deaths in . These were self-produced using software tutorials, with recordings made in his barn or at his kitchen table, marking his first such compositions beyond incidental tunes for poetry. In 2019, following the completion of his book Baseless on biological weapons—which left him emotionally depleted—Baker turned to visual art as a therapeutic pursuit, dedicating two hours daily to drawing before sunrise. Influenced by his mother's art teaching and his father's career as a graphic designer, he began with still lifes of objects like leaves and glassware, progressed to landscapes of clouds and the Penobscot River (inspired by Maxfield Parrish), and advanced to portraits of family, public figures such as Tracy Chapman and John Lewis, and everyday subjects sourced from Reddit. Experimenting with tools including brushes, oil pastels, and sandpaper, Baker described himself as a hobbyist focused on incremental self-improvement rather than professional artistry.

Awards and Recognition

Nicholson Baker received the Freedom of Information Award in 1997 from the ' chapter, recognizing his advocacy for preserving library materials and public access to information. His 2001 book Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper earned the in the general nonfiction category. Baker was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018 for his work in general nonfiction. He has also received the Katherine Anne Porter Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, honoring excellence in prose.

Legacy and Influence

Nicholson Baker's literary legacy lies in his innovative use of meticulous detail, footnotes, and everyday minutiae to explore human experience, influencing writers who prioritize stylistic precision over plot-driven narratives. His debut novel (1988), with its extended footnotes dissecting mundane office life, earned acclaim for elevating the trivial to philosophical heights, as noted in a 2011 Paris Review interview where Baker reflected on his reputation for humor and stylistic enthusiasm after 25 years of writing. This approach, blending eroticism, technology, and introspection in works like Vox (1992), has been credited with revitalizing interest in erotocomedic fiction and close observational prose, though critics sometimes debate its depth versus surface novelty. Baker's Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper (2001) profoundly shaped debates on archival preservation, exposing libraries' widespread destruction of print materials in favor of microfilm and digital formats, which he argued degraded historical context and usability. The book prompted reevaluations of practices, with scholars later acknowledging its role in highlighting risks to print retention, as revisited in a 2021 analysis emphasizing Baker's warnings against stripping newspapers from their tactile, . In response, Baker founded the nonprofit American Newspaper Repository in 1999 (incorporated 2001), rescuing over 28,000 bound volumes of U.S. newspapers from disposal by 2003, thereby directly preserving physical artifacts that libraries had discarded. This activism influenced policy discussions, underscoring tensions between space constraints and cultural stewardship without halting trends. In , Baker's Human Smoke (2008), a documentary mosaic of pre-WWII events drawn from primary sources, challenged orthodox narratives of inevitable Allied victory, advocating negotiation over escalation and amplifying voices like Gandhi's. It spurred pacifist discourse by questioning 's moral inevitability, as Baker articulated in a 2011 tying his stance to avoiding escalatory , though it drew backlash for perceived revisionism. The work's influence persists in prompting skeptics to scrutinize institutional histories, aligning with Baker's broader critiques of unchecked . Overall, Baker's oeuvre fosters empirical scrutiny of narratives, from literary form to historical orthodoxy, prioritizing primary evidence over consensus views.

References

  1. https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/baker-nicholson-1957-0
  2. https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/nicholson-baker/
  3. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/1229/nicholson-baker/
  4. https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Nicholson-Baker/46091659
  5. https://www.amazon.com/Human-Smoke-Beginnings-World-Civilization/dp/1416567844
  6. https://usatoday.com/story/life/books/2013/06/28/smoke-obscures-the-rightfulness-of-wwii/2468689/
  7. https://www.deseret.com/2008/6/22/20259240/smoke-author-s-version-of-wwii-stirs-controversy/
  8. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/553978/baseless-by-nicholson-baker/
  9. https://www.npr.org/2020/07/22/893482523/exhausting-effect-of-foia-requests-evident-in-baseless
  10. http://opentranscripts.org/transcript/wrapping-sentences-around-things/
  11. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/jan/11/featuresreviews.guardianreview20
  12. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/sep/19/nicholson-baker-interview
  13. https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6097/the-art-of-fiction-no-212-nicholson-baker
  14. https://www.maine.gov/msl/maine/writdisplay.shtml?id=94671
  15. https://pact.egs.edu/biography/nicholson-baker/
  16. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/nicholson-baker
  17. https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/authors/Nicholson-Baker/46091659
  18. https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/MEZZANINE-BAKER-Nicholson-Weidenfeld-Nicolson-1988/5888027/bd
  19. https://groveatlantic.com/book/mezzanine/
  20. https://www.ebay.com/itm/167859366675
  21. https://groveatlantic.com/book/room-temperature/
  22. https://www.newyorker.com/books/book-club/reading-in-october-nicholson-baker
  23. https://themillions.com/2010/11/consciousness-on-the-page-a-primer-on-the-novels-of-nicholson-baker.html
  24. https://www.nytimes.com/books/01/04/15/specials/baker-mezzanine.html
  25. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jul/24/the-mezzanine-nicholson-baker-review
  26. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/nicholson-baker/vox/
  27. https://thecollidescope.com/2021/12/30/vox-by-nicholson-baker/
  28. https://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/08/books/books-of-the-times-up-to-no-good-in-no-elapsed-time.html
  29. https://davidlouisedelman.com/other-writing/author-interviews/nicholson-baker/
  30. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v33/n21/christopher-tayler/porndecahedron
  31. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/aug/14/nicholson-baker-house-holes-interview
  32. https://www.orderofbooks.com/authors/nicholson-baker/
  33. https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/nicholson-baker/212645/
  34. https://www.bookseries.org/authors/nicholson-baker/
  35. https://www.salon.com/2001/04/27/baker_4/
  36. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28228.Double_Fold
  37. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/34032/summary
  38. https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/books/review/Toibin-t.html
  39. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/01/history
  40. https://theasylum.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/nicholson-baker-human-smoke/
  41. https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/nicholson-baker
  42. https://harpers.org/archive/2013/09/wrong-answer/
  43. https://archive.clivejames.com/essays/nicbaker.htm
  44. https://www.amazon.com/Size-Thoughts-Essays-Other-Lumber/dp/0679776249
  45. https://pshares.org/blog/nicholson-bakers-deep-dives/
  46. https://books.google.com.jm/books?id=hfrrzI_Y9hAC&printsec=copyright&source=gbs_pub_info_r
  47. https://slate.com/culture/2012/08/nicholson-bakers-essay-collection-the-way-the-world-works-reviewed.html
  48. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/books/review/the-way-the-world-works-by-nicholson-baker.html
  49. https://www.amazon.com/Way-World-Works-Essays/dp/1416572481
  50. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/sep/09/way-world-works-nicholson-baker-review
  51. https://nymag.com/author/nicholson-baker/
  52. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Human-Smoke/Nicholson-Baker/9781416572466
  53. https://radioopensource.org/nicholson-bakers-human-smoke/
  54. http://www.newhumanityinstitute.org/pdf-articles/Nicholson-Baker-Why-I%27m-a-Pacifist-Myth-of-the-Good-War.pdf
  55. https://harpers.org/archive/2011/05/why-im-a-pacifist/
  56. https://wagingnonviolence.org/2011/05/why-nicholson-baker-is-a-pacifist/
  57. https://www.nybooks.com/online/2011/04/08/we-dont-know-language-we-dont-know/
  58. https://www.bookforum.com/print/1502/nicholson-baker-resurrects-the-pacifist-critique-of-wwii-2480
  59. https://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jun01/voice.htm
  60. https://www2.archivists.org/news/2001/dont-fold-up-responding-to-nicholson-bakers-double-fold-by-richard-j-cox
  61. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/books/review/baseless-nicholson-baker.html
  62. https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/nicholson-baker-baseless-review/
  63. https://www.amazon.com/Double-Fold-Libraries-Assault-Paper/dp/0375726217
  64. https://thefateofbooks.wordpress.com/2021/11/29/a-classic-turns-20-reviewing-double-fold-by-nicholson-baker/
  65. https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2021/02/02/revisiting-nicholson-baker-and-retention-of-print/
  66. https://cjc.utppublishing.com/doi/10.22230/cjc.2002v27n4a1326
  67. https://www.amazon.com/Vandals-Stacks-Contributions-Librarianship-Information/dp/B01K15LD7M
  68. https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=5224
  69. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2008-04-17/baker-spouts-sickening-twaddle-in-human-smoke-book-review
  70. https://nymag.com/arts/books/reviews/45308/
  71. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2008-05-09/u-k-historians-slam-human-smoke-as-mendacious-fraudulent
  72. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/non_fictionreviews/3673129/Snipping-up-the-Second-World-War.html
  73. https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/its-rubbish-to-claim-that-britain-provoked-hitler-into-a-fight/
  74. https://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/resources/lewinsky/timeline/
  75. https://time.com/archive/6920204/starr-to-get-lewinskys-reading-list/
  76. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/magazine/nicholson-bakers-dirty-mind.html
  77. https://www.nytimes.com/books/01/04/15/specials/baker-fermata.html?_r=1&oref=login
  78. https://www.npr.org/2004/08/18/3857919/assassination-dialogue-bakers-checkpoint-novel
  79. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/sep/11/featuresreviews.guardianreview18
  80. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/08/books/the-extremities-of-nicholson-baker.html
  81. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/searching-for-the-truth-about-us-biological-warfare-experiments/2020/08/27/0b545cc2-ba44-11ea-80b9-40ece9a701dc_story.html
  82. https://twitter.com/nicholsonbaker8/status/1790084312500502774
  83. https://www.fosters.com/story/lifestyle/2005/12/18/local-residents-publish-book-on/52673789007/
  84. https://twitter.com/nicholsonbaker8/status/1215050753083084806
  85. https://ew.com/article/1994/03/11/nicholson-bakers-new-book/?srsltid=AfmBOoqmT5I3wLbc8UIY_UlvYgev68zcwZOt4FzbkvxqdY_4bbHwLULA
  86. https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/margaret-brentano/
  87. https://www.popmatters.com/112316-the-anthologist-a-review-and-an-interview-with-nicholson-baker-2496091203.html
  88. https://slate.com/culture/2012/10/nicholson-baker-protest-songs-about-bradley-manning-arrest-and-deaths-in-afghanistan-and-libya-listen-video.html
  89. https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/local/207/bruised-by-the-world-this-maine-writer-turned-to-painting-nicholson-baker/97-c5589e6b-6a49-47aa-8b85-28d1653b1840
  90. https://www.bookforum.com/print/3004/nicholson-baker-learns-to-draw-25332
  91. https://news.utexas.edu/2012/09/25/noted-author-nicholson-baker-to-open-symposia-on-the-fate-of-the-book/
  92. https://townsendcenter.berkeley.edu/events/nicholson-baker-writer
  93. https://granta.com/contributor/nicholson-baker/
  94. https://www.haverford.edu/college-communications/news/two-haverford-alumni-named-guggenheim-fellows
  95. https://lithub.com/here-are-the-literary-guggenheim-fellows-of-2018/
  96. https://lithub.com/author/nicholsonbaker/
  97. https://www.mainepublic.org/show/maine-calling/2020-07-28/nicholson-bakers-new-book-baseless-describes-his-search-for-truth-about-government-misdeeds
  98. https://www.wusf.org/2003-01-15/nicholson-baker-a-life-in-detail
  99. https://litkicks.com/BakerOnPacifism/
Add your contribution
Related Hubs
User Avatar
No comments yet.