Background
Jon Katz was born on August 8, 1947, in the United States.
Jon Katz
2008
Jon Katz at the 2008 Texas Book Festival.
Jon Katz
Jon Katz
Jon Katz
Jon Katz
Jon Katz at TED talks.
Jon Katz
2008
Jon Katz at the 2008 Texas Book Festival.
Jon Katz at TED talks.
Jon Katz with his daughter Emma Span.
Jon Katz's ex-wife Paula Span.
Jon Katz with his wife Maria Heinrich Wulf.
(Once the most celebrated TV network, it is now the target...)
Once the most celebrated TV network, it is now the target of a hostile takeover, and sudden job security is as scarce as loyalty. As the takeover becomes a chilling reality, one ace producer decides to fight back.
https://www.amazon.com/Sign-Off-Jon-Katz-1996-09-01/dp/B01FJ0M83W/?tag=2022091-20
1991
(He's a disgraced ex-Wall Streeter, hired by some kids to ...)
He's a disgraced ex-Wall Streeter, hired by some kids to prove that a murder-suicide isn't what it seems. He's the Suburban Detective - and he's about to learn just how deadly the suburbs really are.
https://www.amazon.com/DEATH-STATION-Suburban-Detective-Mysteries/dp/0385421125/?tag=2022091-20
1993
(Certain that someone has targeted her family for destruct...)
Certain that someone has targeted her family for destruction, attorney Marianne Dow hires private detective Kit Deleeuw to follow the trail of a terrifying stalker, a woman who uses betrayal and twisted friendship to shatter happy families.
https://www.amazon.com/Family-Stalker-Jon-Katz/dp/0553569546
1994
(Defending a stay-at-home mother of three who is accused o...)
Defending a stay-at-home mother of three who is accused of murdering a feminist school principal, Kit Deleeuw finds the community, his wife, and the chief of police in an uproar about his participation in what becomes a controversial case.
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Housewife-Jon-Katz/dp/0385473893/?tag=2022091-20
1995
(Hired to investigate a once dutiful father turned deadbea...)
Hired to investigate a once dutiful father turned deadbeat dad, detective and family man Kit Deleeuw finds himself embroiled with mobsters, federal investigators, and the victim's personal life after the man turns up dead in his office.
https://www.amazon.com/Fathers-Club-Suburban-Detective/dp/0385479212/?tag=2022091-20
1996
(Kit DeLeeuw has just about come to terms with his not-qui...)
Kit DeLeeuw has just about come to terms with his not-quite-acceptable status in the town of Rochambeau, New Jersey when he is faced with contempt at home: his newly adolescent daughter suddenly decides he's just another uncool moron, like all the other adults in her life. And right when his domestic situation has reached unprecedented levels of turmoil, he is shattered by the news that his friend and mentor, Benchley Carrolton, has suffered a stroke. By the time Kit tries to see him, Benchley has been transferred to Elston Manor, the crown jewel in a chain of nursing homes run by a powerful local senator. Elston Manor prides itself on providing comfort, good food, excellent care, and airtight security - security so tight it makes Kit suspicious. Why won't the armed guards let him in? What makes Big Nurse so hostile? And what's the true story behind two recent "accidental" drug overdoses?
https://www.amazon.com/Death-Row-Jon-Katz/dp/0385479220/?tag=2022091-20
1998
(Jon Katz, a respected journalist, author, father, and hus...)
Jon Katz, a respected journalist, author, father, and husband, was turning fifty. His writing career was taking an uneasy turn, his wife had a demanding career of her own, his daughter was preparing to leave home for college, and he had become used to a sedentary lifestyle. In Running to the Mountain, Katz finds a way to redefine and lend new meaning to his life.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0084U4KV8/?tag=2022091-20
1999
(Jesse and Eric were geeks: suspicious of authority figure...)
Jesse and Eric were geeks: suspicious of authority figures, proud of their status as outsiders, fervent in their belief in the positive power of technology. High school had been an unbearable experience and their small-town Idaho families had been torn apart by hard times. On the fringe of society, they had almost no social lives and little to look forward to. They spent every spare cent on their computers and every spare moment online. Nobody ever spoke of them, much less for them. But then they met Jon Katz, a roving journalist who suggested that, in the age of geek impresario Bill Gates, Jesse and Eric had marketable skills that could get them out of Idaho and pave the way to a better life. So they bravely set out to conquer Chicago-geek style. Told with Katz’s trademark charm and sparkle, Geeks is a humorous, moving tale of triumph over adversity and self-acceptance that delivers two irresistible heroes for the digital age and reveals the very human face of technology.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0767906993/?tag=2022091-20
2000
(In his popular and widely praised Running to the Mountain...)
In his popular and widely praised Running to the Mountain, Jon Katz wrote of the strength and support he found in the massive forms of his two yellow Labrador retrievers, Julius and Stanley. When the Labs were six and seven, a breeder who’d read his book contacted Katz to say she had a dog that was meant for him - a two-year-old border collie named Devon, well-bred but high-strung and homeless. Katz already had a full canine complement, but instinct overruled reason, and soon thereafter he brought Devon home.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812966902/?tag=2022091-20
2003
(When Jon Katz adopted a border collie named Orson, his wh...)
When Jon Katz adopted a border collie named Orson, his whole world changed. Gone were the two yellow Labs he wrote about in A Dog Year, as was the mountaintop cabin they loved. Katz moved into an old farmhouse on forty-two acres of pasture and woods with a menagerie: a ram named Nesbitt, fifteen ewes, a lonely donkey named Carol, a baby donkey named Fanny, and three border collies. Training Orson was a demanding project. But a perceptive dog trainer and friend told Katz: “If you want to have a better dog, you will just have to be a better-goddamned human.” It was a lesson Katz took to heart. He now sees his dogs as a reflection of his willingness to improve, as well as a critical reminder of his shortcomings. Katz shows us that dogs are often what we make them: They may have their own traits and personalities, but in the end, they are mirrors of our own lives-living, breathing testaments to our strengths and frustrations, our families and our pasts.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812972503/?tag=2022091-20
2004
(In a nation where our love of dogs keeps growing and dog ...)
In a nation where our love of dogs keeps growing and dog ownership has reached an all-time high, confusion about dogs and their behavioral problems is skyrocketing. Many dogs are out of control, untrained, chewing up furniture, taking medication for anxiety, and biting millions of people a year. Now, in this groundbreaking new guide, Jon Katz, a leading authority on the human-canine bond, offers a powerful and practical philosophy for living with a dog, from the moment we decide to get one to the sad day when one dies.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XUBFKQ/?tag=2022091-20
2005
(In this book, Jon Katz tells the story of his lifetime do...)
In this book, Jon Katz tells the story of his lifetime dog, Orson: a beautiful border collie - intense, smart, crazy, and unforgettable. From the moment Katz and Orson meet, when the dog springs from his traveling crate at Newark airport and panics the baggage claim area, their relationship is deep, stormy, and loving. At two years old, Katz’s new companion is a great herder of school buses, a scholar of refrigerators, but a dud at herding sheep. Everything Katz attempts - obedience training, herding instruction, a new name, acupuncture, herb and alternative therapies - helps a little but not enough, and not for long.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000MAH7R2/?tag=2022091-20
2006
(Izzy & Lenore, Katz delves deeper into his connection wit...)
Izzy & Lenore, Katz delves deeper into his connection with the beautiful, once-abandoned dog, learning yet again about the unexpected places animals can take us. Affectionate and intuitive, Izzy is unlike any dog Katz has encountered, and the two undertake a journey Katz could not have imagined without the arrival of a new companion: a spirited, bright-eyed black Labrador puppy named Lenore.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0018QSNXG/?tag=2022091-20
2008
(Rose is determined and focused, keeping the sheep out of ...)
Rose is determined and focused, keeping the sheep out of danger and protecting the other creatures on the farm she calls home. But of all those she’s looked after since coming to the farm as a puppy, it is Sam, the farmer, whom she watches most carefully. Awoken one cold midwinter night during lambing season, Rose and Sam struggle into the snowy dark to do their work. The ever-observant Rose has seen a change in her master of late, ever since Sam’s wife disappeared one day. She senses something else in the air as well: A storm is coming, but not like any of the ones she’s seen over the years. And when an epic blizzard hits the region, it will take all of Rose’s resolve, resourcefulness, and courage to help Sam save the farm and the creatures who live there.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003F3PN7E/?tag=2022091-20
2010
(In this invaluable guide and touchstone, Jon Katz address...)
In this invaluable guide and touchstone, Jon Katz addresses the difficult but necessary topic of saying goodbye to a beloved pet. Drawing on personal experiences, stories from fellow pet owners, and philosophical reflections, Katz provides support for those in mourning. By allowing ourselves to grieve honestly and openly, he posits, we can in time celebrate the dogs, cats, and other creatures that have so enriched us. Katz compels us to consider if we gave our pets good lives if we were their advocates in times of need and if we used our best judgments in the end. In dealing with these issues, we can alleviate guilt, let go, and help others who are undergoing similar passages. By honoring the animals that have graced our lives, we reveal their truly timeless gifts: unwavering companionship and undying love.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345502701/?tag=2022091-20
2011
(Welcome to Bedlam Farm! Meet Rose, Izzy, Frieda, and Leno...)
Welcome to Bedlam Farm! Meet Rose, Izzy, Frieda, and Lenore, four dogs that work hard on the farm doing various jobs. They're good friends now, but it wasn't always this way. Just as each dog has a different role on the farm, each has a unique story.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D6KHRXY/?tag=2022091-20
2011
(Katz embarked on a quixotic quest, moving from the suburb...)
Katz embarked on a quixotic quest, moving from the suburbs of New Jersey to a sprawling farm in upstate New York to pursue his dream of becoming a writer. And by his side was Rose, his unswervingly loyal and unflappable new dog. Whether herding sheep on the rolling hillsides, rounding up the neighbors’ stray cows or rescuing lambs on a freezing winter night, Rose had a nimble mind and a great love for work. Never wanting to be coddled, she watched over Bedlam Farm with singular focus and efficiency, protecting Katz and his menagerie from wild coyotes and menacing storms. Yet Rose saved Katz in more ways than he ever imagined. As he struggled to manage the farm’s daily dramas - and continued to seek his true sense of purpose - Rose connected him to his deeper humanity and more authentic life.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008GP9KKM/?tag=2022091-20
2012
(In 2007, a few years after purchasing Bedlam Farm in upst...)
In 2007, a few years after purchasing Bedlam Farm in upstate New York, Jon Katz met Maria Wulf, a quiet, sensitive artist hoping to rekindle her creative spark. Jon, like her, was introspective yet restless, a writer struggling to find his purpose. He felt a connection with her immediately, but a formidable obstacle stood in the way: Maria’s dog, Frieda. A rottweiler-shepherd mix who had been abandoned by her previous owner in the Adirondacks, where she lived in the wild for several years, Frieda was ferociously protective and barely tamed. She roared and charged at almost anyone who came near. But to Maria, Frieda was sweet and loyal, her beloved guard dog and devoted friend. And so Jon quickly realized that to win over Maria, he’d have to gain Frieda’s affection as well.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345531183/?tag=2022091-20
2013
(In the spring of 2011, Jon Katz received a phone call tha...)
In the spring of 2011, Jon Katz received a phone call that would challenge every idea he ever had about mercy and compassion. An animal control officer had found a neglected donkey on a farm in upstate New York, and she hoped that Jon and his wife, Maria, would be willing to adopt him. Jon wasn’t planning to add another animal to his home on Bedlam Farm, certainly not a very sick donkey. But the moment he saw the wrenching sight of Simon, he felt a powerful connection. Simon touched something very deep inside of him. Jon and Maria decided to take him in.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345531205/?tag=2022091-20
2014
Jon Katz was born on August 8, 1947, in the United States.
Jon Katz began his career as a journalist. He wrote for a number of media institutions serving as a reporter and editor at the Boston Globe, The Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Dallas Times-Herald. In 1983 he became an executive producer of the CBS Morning News. While employed with CBS, he produced a documentary with Bill Moyers called "Big Gamble in Atlantic City." But he quit soon and began writing - in the following months, he wrote his first novel Sign Off. The book was published in 1991. While the book naturally exploits Katz’s insider knowledge of the news media, its message about the human cost of a profit-driven society has broader relevance.
Katz’s fiction since Sign Off has been in the mystery genre. Having moved from Manhattan to the middle-class, family-oriented community of Montclair, New Jersey, upon his “early retirement” from CBS, Katz found in his new environment the inspiration for a series of suburban-based detective mysteries. Katz’s detective is Kit Deleeuw, a former Wall Street trader transplanted with his family to Montclair-like Rochambeau, New Jersey. Death by Station Wagon (1993), the first in the series, centers around the deaths of two local high school students, Ken Dale and his girlfriend Carol Lombardi, in an apparent murder-suicide. Ken’s soccer-team comrades don’t accept the explanation and hire Kit to investigate.
In The Family Stalker (1994), Katz’s follow-up to Death by Station Wagon, Kit is called in when one woman suspects another of setting out to systematically destroy her family. The next installment in the series, The Last Housewife (1995), further explores the stay-at-home versus working-mom dynamic. Kit sets out to clear a woman accused of murdering the feminist middle-school principal poised to expel her bra-snapping son for sexual harassment. In the fourth Kit Deleeuw mystery, The Fathers’ Club (1996), the suburban detective is on the trail of delinquent alimony-payer Dale Lewis. Dale is murdered, and further probing reveals shady real-estate deals and an organized crime connection. The last book in the series Death Row was published in 1998.
Katz has also crafted a career as a media critic for several high-profile magazines, including Rolling Stone. Encouraged by an editor to familiarize himself with the Internet in order to remain up-to-date, Katz became fascinated with the new medium. He went to work for Wired magazine in 1996 and was soon recognized as a leading apologist for digital technology and Web culture. His first nonfiction book, Virtuous Reality: How America Surrendered Discussion of Moral Values to Opportunists, Nitwits, and Blockheads Like William Bennett, takes issue with public intellectuals, like former Education Secretary William Bennett, who associate cyberspace with the moral decay, apathy, and alienation prevalent among America’s youth.
Katz also wrote the column “Media Rants” for Wired's on-line counterpart HotWired. Work from the column has been collected in the 1997 volume Media Rants: Postpolitics in the Digital Nation. He was also a contributor to the technology website Slashdot and the online news magazine Slate. His more recent work explores his own relationship with his dogs and other animals on his farm in upstate New York and broader issues of animals' place - both physically and emotionally - in the modern world. He began writing about that after taking on a difficult Border Collie, whom Katz credited with changing his life by causing him to take up shepherding and move to a farm. His most famous books on dogs are A Dog Year, The New Work of Dogs, The Dogs of Bedlam Farm, Katz on Dogs, A Good Dog and Dog Days. He has written extensively about attachment theory - why compels us to love some species of animal and the explosion of companion animals in the lives of Americans.
(Kit DeLeeuw has just about come to terms with his not-qui...)
1998(Certain that someone has targeted her family for destruct...)
1994(Defending a stay-at-home mother of three who is accused o...)
1995(Hired to investigate a once dutiful father turned deadbea...)
1996(In his popular and widely praised Running to the Mountain...)
2003(In a nation where our love of dogs keeps growing and dog ...)
2005(Izzy & Lenore, Katz delves deeper into his connection wit...)
2008(In 2007, a few years after purchasing Bedlam Farm in upst...)
2013(Jesse and Eric were geeks: suspicious of authority figure...)
2000(Katz embarked on a quixotic quest, moving from the suburb...)
2012(In this book, Jon Katz tells the story of his lifetime do...)
2006(Once the most celebrated TV network, it is now the target...)
1991(In this invaluable guide and touchstone, Jon Katz address...)
2011(Rose is determined and focused, keeping the sheep out of ...)
2010(In the spring of 2011, Jon Katz received a phone call tha...)
2014(Welcome to Bedlam Farm! Meet Rose, Izzy, Frieda, and Leno...)
2011(He's a disgraced ex-Wall Streeter, hired by some kids to ...)
1993(Jon Katz, a respected journalist, author, father, and hus...)
1999(When Jon Katz adopted a border collie named Orson, his wh...)
2004A great schism exists between people with pets and people with animals, Katz said, and they don't understand each other.
Quotations:
"Dogs make me a better human. They make me more loving, less lonely, more patient, less angry. They get me out and moving around, which is healthy. I love their loyalty and integrity. I can’t imagine life without a dog."
"Dogs have their own identities and personalities, certainly, but they're also living and breathing testaments to our pasts, our families, our strengths and frustrations. They have their own traits and instincts, but to a considerable degree they are what we make them, what we teach them to be."
"I think if I've learned anything about friendship, it's to hang in, stay connected, fight for them, and let them fight for you. Don't walk away, don't be distracted, don't be too busy or tired, don't take them for granted. Friends are part of the glue that holds life and faith together. Powerful stuff."
"It is difficult to see ourselves as we are. Sometimes we are fortunate enough to have good friends, lovers or others who will do us the good service of telling us the truth about ourselves. When we don't, we can so easily delude ourselves, lose a sense of truth about ourselves, and our conscience loses power and purpose. Mostly, we tell ourselves what we would like to hear. We lose our way."
"We are human, and we suffer, and unlike the animals on the farm, we are self-aware, and we know that we suffer, and it doesn't hurt more or less if God caused it or could stop it, at least for me. I am definitely of the school that believes God has bigger stuff to worry about than me."
Jon Katz is a member of the American Pet Dog Trainers Association (APDT).
Jon Catz married Paula Span on October 1, 1972. The marriage produced one child. The couple divorced in 2008. In 2010 Katz married Maria Heinrich Wulf.
Emma Span is a sports writer and managing editor at The Athletic. She is the author of the book 90% of the Game Is Half Mental: And Other Tales from the Edge of Baseball Fandom.
Paula Span is a journalist who writes the New Old Age blog for The New York Times. She also teaches journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Maria Wulf is an artist, who specializes in fiber art. She works in the Studio Barn across the road from the farmhouse.
