David Sedaris
Author of Me Talk Pretty One Day
About the Author
David Sedaris was born in Binghamton, New York on December 26, 1956, but he grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. Much of Sedaris' humor is autobiographical and self-deprecating, and it often concerns his family life, his middle class upbringing in the suburbs of North Carolina. He graduated from the show more Art Institute of Chicago in 1987. He is a popular radio commentator, essayist, and short story writer. He held many part-time and odd jobs before getting a job reading excerpts from his diaries on National Public Radio in 1992. His first collection of essays and short stories, Barrel Fever, was published in 1994. His other works include Naked, Holidays on Ice, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary, Theft by Finding: Diaries (1977-2002), and Calypso. Me Talk Pretty One Day won the Thurber Prize for American Humor in 2001. He has also written several plays with his sister Amy Sedaris including Stump the Host, Stitches, and The Little Frieda Mysteries. In 2014 her title, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, made The New York Times Best Seller List. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Oliver DelaCruz, November 19, 2005
Series
Works by David Sedaris
David Sedaris Book Set: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim/Me Talk Pretty One Day (2005) 3 copies
Do I Sound Gay? 2 copies
Innocents Abroad 2 copies
Rooster at the Hitchin' Post 2 copies
Ãlbum de famÃlia 1 copy
©lbum de fam©Ưlia 1 copy
David Sedaris 4 Book Set: Me Talk Pretty One Day, Naked, Dress Your Family in Corduroy, When you are Engulfed in Flames (2003) 1 copy
Letting Go 1 copy
Sedaris David 1 copy
Farm 1 copy
Associated Works
The 50 Funniest American Writers: An Anthology of Humor from Mark Twain to The Onion (2011) — Contributor — 245 copies
Not So Funny When It Happened: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure (2000) — Contributor — 234 copies
Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: Work from 1970 to the Present (2007) — Contributor — 184 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Sedaris, David Raymond
- Birthdate
- 1956-12-26
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Johnson City, New York, USA
- Places of residence
- Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
New York, New York, USA
Paris, France
London, England, UK
Rackham, West Sussex, England, UK - Education
- Kent State University
School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BA|1987) - Occupations
- writer
- Relationships
- Sedaris, Amy (sister)
Hamrick, Hugh (partner) - Organizations
- New Yorker
NPR - Awards and honors
- Honorary Doctorate (Binghamton University, 2008)
American Academy of Arts and Letters (2019)
Terry Southern Prize for Humor (2018)
Thurber Prize for American Humor (2001)
Jonathan Swift Internationaler Literaturpreis für Satire und Humor (2019)
Time Humorist of the Year Award (2001) (show all 7)
American Academy of Arts and Letters Medal for Spoken Language (2018) - Agent
- Steven Barclay Agency
- Short biography
- David Raymond Sedaris (born December 26, 1956) is an American humorist, comedian, author, and radio contributor. He was publicly recognized in 1992 when National Public Radio broadcast his essay "Santaland Diaries". He published his first collection of essays and short stories, Barrel Fever, in 1994. He is the brother and writing collaborator of actor Amy Sedaris.
Much of Sedaris's humor is ostensibly autobiographical and self-deprecating and often concerns his family life, his middle-class upbringing in the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina, his Greek heritage, homosexuality, jobs, education, drug use, and obsessive behaviors, and his life in France, London, and the English South Downs
Members
Reviews
Dress Your Family In Corduroy And Denim by David Sedaris
For a week or two, the book group of which I am a long-distance member (me: southern France, they: northern England) had a bit of an e-mail chat about David Sedaris. He is, apparently, the funniest man alive. So I was almost ecstatic to discover one of his books, unread and indeed previously unnoticed, on our shelves. Well, I've read it. It went down easily enough, but I was in truth slightly underwhelmed after the big build-up he'd had. He snatches at incidents from throughout his childhood and adulthood: there's no sense of a narrative here. However, by the end, there's a vivid picture of a feisty and somewhat disfunctional family at work, providing him with endless material for the incidents he describes. It's fun, easy to pick up and enjoy, but for me, it wasn't a memorable read. One for the holiday suitcase?… (more)
Great fun read for Sedaris fans. Didn't laugh out loud quite as much as I have with his others but still enjoyed it. The last story - Smoking Section - loses its energy pretty quickly but overall a good read for the beach or a long weekend.
I think David Sedaris is hilarious for the most part. Sometimes I feel like he’s trying too hard which was the case in parts of this but overall I enjoyed the humor...until the last story.
I had heard so much about how hilarious David Sedaris was I bought this book. A good deal of this book was far from hilarious to me, and made me feel sad instead. I just can’t laugh at a child with undiagnosed OCD whose teacher ends up drinking with his mother in the kitchen while said mother does impressions of her sons various mannerisms. That having been said, some of the later chapters were amusing and there were a couple of laugh out loud lines. I am obviously no constituted to read these types of books, as all of Carrie Fisher’s “hilarious “ writing made me sad as well… (more)
Lists
Best Satire (6)
Phoebe Bridgers (1)
100 New Classics (1)
Five star books (1)
Best Beach Reads (1)
French Books (1)
Big tags (1)
Read (1)
2000s decade (1)
Christmas Books (1)
1990s (2)
Unread books (3)
To Read (3)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 66
- Also by
- 26
- Members
- 84,541
- Popularity
- #131
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 1,834
- ISBNs
- 458
- Languages
- 21
- Favorited
- 582
