Edward J. Renehan Jr.
Edward John Renehan Jr. (born c 1956)[1] is an American publisher, consultant, writer, and musician.
Early life and music
Renehan grew up in the Long Island village of Valley Stream, New York, where he attended school with future actor/director Steve Buscemi, and at age 13 began learning the guitar. He studied blues guitar with the Reverend Gary Davis in New York as a teenager. By 20, he was playing and recording with folksingers Pete Seeger and Don McLean, among others. In 1976, he and Seeger recorded "Fifty Sail on Newburgh Bay: Hudson Valley Songs Old & New Sung by Pete Seeger and Ed Renehan." [2]
In his early twenties he performed with Happy Traum, Artie Traum and others at various venues and folk festivals in the North East.
Publishing
Renehan graduated from State University of New York at New Paltz.[1] He thereafter worked for several New York publishing companies, focusing on the developing domain of digital publishing, including e-publishing and print-on-demand (POD) technologies. His tenure included 7 years as Director of Computer Publishing Programs for MBCI/Macmillan, now a part of Bookspan. [3]
From 1994, he worked as an independent consultant and author, including writing books on the Kennedys, Jay Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt and John Burroughs,[4] as well as best-selling books about computers and computing.[1] During this period he wrote books published by Doubleday, Crown, Oxford University Press, Basic Books, McGraw Hill, Simon & Schuster, Chelsea House, and other firms.
In 2010 Renehan founded New Street Communications, an enterprise focused on audio, digital, and POD editions of books in a range of fields. The firm includes two subsidiaries: Dark Hall Press (which publishes original horror and science fiction titles), [5] and New Street Nautical Audio, which publishes sailing related audiobooks. [6] According to a July 2013 report in the Providence Business News, the combined New Street firms had revenues of more than $200,000 in the 2012 fiscal year, which was the enterprise's second full year of operation. [7] As of June 2015, the firm had 85 titles in print. [8]
Bipolar disorder
In 2006 and 2007, Renehan took letters by Presidents Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt to which he had no right, and sold them at auction.[4] After receiving treatment for previously-undiagnosed severe bipolar disorder (subsequently verified by a court-appointed forensic psychiatrist), Renehan brought the thefts (heretofore unnoticed) to the attention of authorities, and facilitated the return of the items. In 2008 he pleaded guilty to a federal charge and a state charge related to the theft, and apologized for his actions.[4] In September 2008, Renehan was fined $85,000. Biographer T.J. Stiles cast doubts on the accuracy of certain claims in Renehan's book about Cornelius Vanderbilt, which was written during Renehan's manic period.[9]
Family and affiliations
Renehan is married and lives in the village of Wickford, Rhode Island.[1][10] He is the father of two grown children, and a grandfather. He has served on several nonprofit boards, including the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater.[1] He is active in the Electronic Frontier Foundation - the co-founder of which, John Perry Barlow, sits on the New Street Editorial Board [11] - and with Stewart Brand and others is a charter/founding member of The Long Now Foundation. [12] He is an avid sailor.[1]
Works (partial list)
- The Enkert Dossiers (ISBN 978-0692469019)
- Dylan at Newport, 1965: Music, Myth, and Un-Meaning (ISBN 978-0692464601)
- Pete Seeger vs. The Un-Americans: A Tale of the Blacklist (ISBN 978-0615998138)
- Understanding Kerouac's ON THE ROAD (ISBN 978-0615714677)
- Dark Genius of Wall Street: The Misunderstood Life of Jay Gould, King of the Robber Barons (ISBN 978-0465068869)
- The Kennedys at War
- The Secret Six: The True Tale of the Men Who Conspired with John Brown
- John Burroughs: An American Naturalist
- Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
- The Lion's Pride: Theodore Roosevelt and his Family in Peace and War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998)
- Great American Websites
- 1001 Really Cool Websites (book/disc)
- 1001 Programming Tools (book/disc)
- The Scientific American Guide to Science on the Internet
- Net Worth: Creating and Maximizing Wealth with the Internet (book/disc)
- Science on the Web
- The Clearwater Songbook (editor) (New York/London: G. Schirmer, 1980)
- Hackerproof (1st edition), with Lars Klander
- A RIVER VIEW and Other Hudson Valley Essays by John Burroughs (editor)
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Fleming, Arline A. (14 November 1997). "Past, present and future, Ed Renehan has it covered: Where once he toiled in the world of Manhattan publishing, he's now the author of histories and best-selling computer books". Providence Journal-Bulletin.
- ↑ "Fifty Sail on Newburgh Bay".
- ↑ Street Communications, New (2015). "New Street Communications - Who Are We". newstreetcommunications.com. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
- 1 2 3 "Author Pleads in Federal Case". Reuters. September 20, 2008. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
- ↑ "Dark Hall Press".
- ↑ "New Street Nautical Audio".
- ↑ "Small Press Finds Help in the Cloud".
- ↑ "New Street Communications Marks 5 Year Anniversary".
- ↑ T.J. Stiles (21 April 2009). The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 582–584. ISBN 978-0-375-41542-5. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
- ↑ Charlotte Zoë Walker (2000). Sharp eyes: John Burroughs and American nature writing. Syracuse University Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-8156-0637-6. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
- ↑ "New Street Editorial Advisory Board".
- ↑ "Long Now Foundation Charter Member Roster".
External links
- New Street Communications
- Ed Renehan on Twitter
- Ed Renehan on LinkedIn
- Ed Renehan Essays on medium.com
- Dark Hall Press (New Street Subsidiary)
- New Street Nautical Audio (New Street Subsidiary)