Background
Kunstler was born in New York City to Jewish parents, who divorced when he was eight. His family then moved to the suburbs in Long Island. His father was a middleman in the diamond trade. Kunstler spent most of his childhood with his mother and stepfather, a publicist for Broadway shows. While spending summers at a boys' camp in New Hampshire, he became acquainted with the small town ethos that would later permeate many of his works. In 1966 he graduated from New York City's High School of Music & Art, and attended the State University of New York at Brockport, where he majored in Theater. After college, Kunstler worked as a reporter and feature writer for a number of newspapers, and finally as a staff writer for Rolling Stone. In 1975, he began writing books and lecturing full-time.
He has lectured at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, MIT, RPI, the University of Virginia and many other colleges, and he has appeared before many professional organizations such as the AIA, the APA, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
He lives in Saratoga Springs, upstate New York and was formerly married to the children's author Jennifer Armstrong.
Read more about this topic: James Howard Kunstler
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