Paul Alexander is the editor of the essay collection Ariel Ascending: Writings About Sylvia Plath and the author of Rough Magic, a biography of Plath; Boulevard of Broken Dreams, the best-selling biography of James Dean; Death and Disaster, a book about the death and estate of Andy Warhol; Salinger, a biography of J.D. Salinger; The Candidate, a chronicle of John Kerry’s presidential campaign; and Man of the People, a biography of John McCain, soon to be re-released. Machiavelli’s Shadow, a book about Karl Rove, was just published by Rodale.

A former reporter for Time, Alexander has published nonfiction in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, New York, The Nation, The Village Voice, Worth, The New York Observer, George, Cosmopolitan, More, Interview, ARTnews, Mirabella, Premiere, Out, The Advocate, Travel & Leisure, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, Biography, Men’s Journal, Best Life, but mostly Rolling Stone. In Europe, his nonfiction has appeared in Paris Match, Gente, and The Guardian.

Alexander is the author of the plays Strangers in the Land of Canaan and Edge, which he directed. Developed at The Actors Studio, Edge, the critically-acclaimed one-woman show about Sylvia Plath, played Off-Broadway in New York, where Angelica Torn received an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination; Off-the-West-End in London; and venues in other cities, among them the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, where New Times named Torn Best Actress for the 2004-2005 season; the Circa Theatre in Wellington, New Zealand; and the Marfa Theatre in Marfa, Texas. Edge toured Australia in early 2006. In the fall of 2007, Edge had a second run in New York prior to playing The Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles the winter of 2008. Alexander is the director of the 2004 British revival of Ariel Dorfman’s play Death and the Maiden and Brothers in Arms, a documentary film about John Kerry and Vietnam (First Run Features). He has completed Good Morning Heartache, a play with music about Billie Holiday.

Alexander is a graduate of The Writers’ Workshop at The University of Iowa and a member of PEN American Center, The Authors Guild, and the Playwrights and Directors Unit of The Actors Studio. In the fall of 2002, he was a Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He lives in New York City.