Pete Hamill facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Pete Hamill
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Hamill in 2007
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| Born |
William Peter Hamill
June 24, 1935 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
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| Died | August 5, 2020 (aged 85) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
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| Occupation | Writer |
| Spouse(s) |
Ramona Negron
(m. 1962; div. 1970)Fukiko Aoki
(m. 1987) |
Pete Hamill (born William Peter Hamill; June 24, 1935 – August 5, 2020) was a well-known American writer. He was a journalist, wrote novels, and worked as an editor. Pete Hamill was famous for his newspaper columns in New York City. He wrote about the city's politics, sports, and everyday life. He worked for major newspapers like the New York Post and the New York Daily News.
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Early Life and Education
Pete Hamill grew up in the Park Slope area of Brooklyn, New York. He was the oldest of seven children. His parents were immigrants from Belfast, Northern Ireland. His father, Billy Hamill, worked in different jobs, including at a factory. His mother, Anne Hamill, also had many jobs, like working in a department store. Pete's younger brother, Denis, also became a newspaper writer.
Pete delivered the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper when he was 11. He went to Regis High School in Manhattan. However, he left school at 15 to work at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He was an apprentice, learning to work with sheet metal. Years later, in 2010, Regis High School gave him an honorary diploma.
Pete Hamill first wanted to be a comic book artist. He was inspired by artists like Milton Caniff. He took night classes at the School of Visual Arts to learn painting. He also studied at Pratt Institute, which later gave him an honorary degree. In 1952, he joined the U.S. Navy. After leaving the Navy, he studied at Mexico City College from 1956 to 1957.
Pete Hamill's Career
Becoming a Journalist
In 1958, Pete Hamill was working as an art director for a Greek newspaper called Atlantis. He managed to get his first writing job by writing about his friend, boxer José Torres. This led him to write letters to the editor for the New York Post. Two of his letters were published. Because of this, the New York Post hired him as a reporter in 1960.
A newspaper strike in New York City in 1962–63 led Hamill to start writing for magazines. By 1963, he was a correspondent for The Saturday Evening Post in Europe. He lived in Barcelona and Dublin. He traveled around Europe, interviewing actors, directors, and authors. In 1964, he returned to New York. He reported on the 1964 Democratic Convention and worked briefly for the New York Herald Tribune. He started writing a column for the New York Post in late 1965. By the end of that year, he was reporting from Vietnam.
For over 40 years, Pete Hamill worked for many newspapers. These included the New York Post, the New York Daily News, the Village Voice, and New York Newsday. He was even an editor for the Post and later the editor-in-chief of the Daily News. His articles also appeared in magazines like New York, The New Yorker, Esquire, and Rolling Stone. He wrote about wars in Vietnam, Nicaragua, and Lebanon. He also covered the urban riots in America during the 1960s.
Hamill often wrote about life in New York City. He wrote about boxing, baseball, art, and music. In 1975, he won a Grammy Award for the notes he wrote for Bob Dylan's album Blood on the Tracks. Two collections of his journalism were published: Irrational Ravings and Piecework. In 1998, he wrote a book about modern journalism called News is a Verb.
Writing Novels and Stories
Pete Hamill also wrote many fictional books. He wrote ten novels and two collections of short stories. His first novel, A Killing for Christ, was a thriller published in 1968. It was about a plan to assassinate the Pope in Rome. He also wrote a novel called The Gift, which was partly based on his own childhood in Brooklyn.
Most of his fiction books are set in New York City. Some of these include Snow in August (1997), Forever (2003), North River (2007), and Tabloid City (2011). He published over 100 short stories in newspapers. These stories often appeared in series like The Eight Million in the New York Post. He also published two books of short stories: The Invisible City: A New York Sketchbook (1980) and Tokyo Sketches (1992).
Nonfiction Books
Hamill wrote several nonfiction books. His memoir Downtown: My Manhattan includes his reporting on the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He was present during this event.
He wrote a book about the Mexican artist Diego Rivera. This book was inspired by his time in Mexico City in 1957. Hamill also wrote about photography. He wrote introductions for books featuring photos of New York City, Mexican history, and Jewish life. He also wrote about sports photography and Irish heritage.
Pete Hamill was also a collector of comic strips. He wrote introductions for books about famous comic artists like Milton Caniff and Al Hirschfeld.
Television and Film Work
Pete Hamill wrote some scripts for TV shows and movies. He even adapted some of his own novels for the screen. He had small acting roles, often playing a reporter or himself. He appeared as a commentator in documentaries like Ric Burns' New York: A Documentary Film and Ken Burns' Prohibition. He also appeared in the 2018 Netflix documentary Bobby Kennedy for President.
Personal Life
Pete Hamill married Ramona Negron in 1962. They had two daughters, Adrienne and Deirdre. They divorced in 1970. In 1987, he married Fukiko Aoki, who was also a journalist from Japan. Because of his work, he lived in many different places. These included Spain, Ireland, Saigon, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Rome, Los Angeles, and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Hamill was a friend of Robert F. Kennedy. He helped convince Kennedy to run for president of the United States. Hamill worked on Kennedy's campaign and also reported on it as a journalist. He was one of the people who helped disarm Sirhan Sirhan after Kennedy's assassination.
Pete Hamill passed away on August 5, 2020, at the age of 85. He died at NewYork–Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital due to heart and kidney failure, after fracturing his hip in a fall.
Awards and Recognition
Pete Hamill received many honors during his career.
- In 2005, he received the Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award. This award is given to newspaper columnists.
- In 2010, St. John's University gave him an Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree.
- Also in 2010, he received the Louis Auchincloss Prize from the Museum of the City of New York.
- In 2014, Hamill was given the George Polk Career Award for his journalism.
Hamill was a Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University.
In 2019, an HBO documentary called Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists was made. It was about the friendship and competition between Pete Hamill and Jimmy Breslin, who were two of New York City's most famous newspaper writers.
A street in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where Pete Hamill grew up, is named "Pete Hamill Way." It is a stretch of Seventh Avenue between 11th and 12th Streets.
