'Like cracking a safe - when you're in, you're in'

 

“Writing a nonfiction story is like cracking a safe. It seems impossible at the beginning, but once you're in, you're in.” – Rich Cohen

  

Born in Lake Forest, IL, on this date in 1968 Cohen is a contributing editor at both Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone magazines, and co-creator with Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger and Terence Winter of the HBO series Vinyl.   His works have been New York Times bestsellers, New York Times Notable Books, and collected in the Best American Essays series.             

 

Sometimes called one of the greatest “cultural and social” historians of the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries, Cohen has won numerous awards – and some criticism – for his works.  But regardless of how his writings are received, they always generate a lot of commentary, whether about people portrayed or the times in which they are set.

 

His most recent book is 2023’s When the Game was War: the NBA's Greatest Season about the 1987 rivalry between NBA greats Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas and Michael Jordan.  Just 5 years later Johnson, Bird and Jordan would play as teammates on the Olympic “Dream Team.”

 

Sports figures and entertainment stars are often his subjects. “I have long believed that celebrity, the way we worship and package and sell our pop stars, is what filled the need for gods that was once filled by the pictures in stained glass.”