James Carroll
Hero
- Peacemaker - Role Model
01-Jan-1943
UNITED STATES [map]
Chicago
Washington, DC
Catholic
James Carroll was born in Chicago in 1943, and raised in Washington, DC. Carroll attended Georgetown University before entering the seminary to train for the Catholic priesthood. He received BA and MA degrees from St. Pauls College, the Paulist Fathers seminary in Washington, and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 1969.
Male
Married, 2 children
Wife, novelist Alexandra Marshall
Carroll served as Catholic Chaplain at Boston University from 1969 to 1974 and then left the priesthood to become a writer.
In 1974 Carroll was Playwright-in-Residence at the Berkshire Theater Festival in Stockbridge, MA. In 1976 he published his first novel, Madonna Red, which was translated into seven languages. Since then he has published nine additional novels. Carrolls essays and articles have appeared in The New Yorker, Daedalus, and other publications. His op-ed page column has run weekly in the Boston Globe since 1992.
Carroll is a regular participant in on-going Jewish-Christian-Muslim encounters at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Carroll is a member of the Council of PEN-New England, which he chaired for four years. He has been a Shorenstein Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Fellow at the Center for the Study of Values in Public Life at the Harvard Divinity School.
Heroic
Characteristics of James Carroll
Strong character and belief system
Personal power thru example and deeds
Advocate of Human Rights
Promote nonviolence
/ Oppose violence
Support justice / Confront Injustice
Advocate Freedom & Democracy
/ Oppose Oppression
Lead others / Teach others / Become involved
Manage conflict by building relationships
Manage conflict by solving problems
First novel, Madonna Red, which was translated into seven languages. Nine additional novels, including the New York Times bestsellers Mortal Friends (1978), Family Trade (1982), and Prince of Peace (1984). His novels The City Below (1994) and Secret Father (2003) were named Notable Books of the Year by the New York Times. Carrolls essays and articles have appeared in The New Yorker, Daedalus, and other publications. His op-ed page column has run weekly in the Boston Globe since 1992.
Carrolls memoir, An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War that Came Between Us, received the 1996 National Book Award in nonfiction and other awards. His book Constantines Sword: The Church and the Jews: A History, published in 2001, was a New York Times bestseller and was honored as one of the Best Books of 2001 by the Los Angeles Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and others. It was named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times, and won the Melcher Book Award, the James Parks Morton Interfaith Award, and National Jewish Book Award in History. Constantines Sword is the basis of a 2007 documentary film directed by Oren Jacoby. Responding to the Catholic sex abuse crisis in 2002, Carroll published Toward A New Catholic Church: The Promise of Reform. In 2004 he published Crusade: Chronicles of an Unjust War, adapted from his Boston Globe columns since 9/11. In 2006, he published House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power, a history of the Pentagon, which the Chicago Tribune called the first great non-fiction book of the new millennium. Among its honors is the PEN-Galbraith award for distinguished non-fiction published in 2005 or 2006. An HBO dramatic series based on House of War is in preparation.
