Mark Arax’s Followers (96)

Mark Arax

Born

Fresno, California, The United States

Website

http://www.mark-arax.com/

Genre

Nonfiction, History

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In the world of journalism, Mark Arax stands out as a rarity. On one hand, he is a skilled investigative reporter who unearths secrets from the depths of shadow governments. On the other hand, he is a gifted writer whose feature stories and books are distinguished by the “poetry of his prose.”

His Los Angeles Times stories revealing state sanctioned murder and cover-up in California prisons were praised by The Nation magazine as “one of great journalistic achievements of the decade.” Fellow writers at PEN and Sigma Delta Chi have singled out the lyrical quality of his writing in award-winning stories on life and death in California’s heartland. In a review of his most recent book, “West of the West,” the Washington Post called Mark a “great In the world of journalism, Mark Arax stands out as a rarity. On one hand, he is a skilled investigative reporter who unearths secrets from the depths of shadow governments. On the other hand, he is a gifted writer whose feature stories and books are distinguished by the “poetry of his prose.”

His Los Angeles Times stories revealing state sanctioned murder and cover-up in California prisons were praised by The Nation magazine as “one of great journalistic achievements of the decade.” Fellow writers at PEN and Sigma Delta Chi have singled out the lyrical quality of his writing in award-winning stories on life and death in California’s heartland. In a review of his most recent book, “West of the West,” the Washington Post called Mark a “great reporter…. tenacious and unrelenting.”

Like the legendary Carey McWilliams, Mark digs deep in the dirt of the Golden State, finding tragedies hidden from most Californians. With equal passion, he chronicles the plight of both farm workers and farmers. His stories on the land are told from the close up of a native whose own family narrative is found in the same soil. His grandfather Aram's first job in America was picking the fruits and vegetables of the San Joaquin Valley; his father, Ara, was born on a raisin farm outside Fresno.

Mark’s first book, “In My Father’s Name,” is a stirring memoir that weaves together the history of his Armenian family and hometown of Fresno with his decades-long search to find the men who murdered his father in 1972. A full-page review in the New York Times Sunday Book Review saw Mark’s journey to wrest the truth from his haunted past as a kind of "Moby Dick" struggle.

His second book, the bestselling “The King of California,” co-authored with Rick Wartzman, tells the epic story of the Boswell farming family and the building of a secret American empire in the middle of California. Named one of the top ten books of the year by the L.A. Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, "The King of California" won a 2004 California Book Award and the 2005 William Saroyan International Writing Prize.

His third book, a 2009 collection of stories called “West of the West: Dreamers, Believers, Builders and Killers in the Golden State,” received critical acclaim in the Atlantic Monthly and Los Angeles Times and a starred review in Publishers Weekly, which compared Mark’s “sure and supple essays” to the great social portraits of Joan Didion and William Saroyan.

"It is Arax's personal connection to the land,” the review noted, “that pushes his collection past mere reportage to a high literary enterprise that beautifully integrates the private and idiosyncratic with the sweep of great historical forces."

A top graduate of Fresno State and Columbia University, Mark left the Los Angeles Times in 2007 after a public fight over censorship of his story on the Armenian Genocide. He has taught literary non fiction at Claremont McKenna College and Fresno State University and served as a senior policy director for the California Senate Majority Leader. The father of three children who lives on a suburban farm in Fresno, Mark still throws a mean batting practice to his Little League players. ...more

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Mark Arax’s books

Average rating: 4.2 · 2,927 ratings · 454 reviews · 12 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California 4.43 avg rating — 1,366 ratings — published 2019 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire by Mark Arax, Rick Wartzman 4.05 avg rating — 602 ratings — published 2003 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	West Of The West 4.04 avg rating — 353 ratings — published 2009 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	California by Mark Arax, Francisco Cantú, Francesco Costa 4.06 avg rating — 178 ratings — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	In My Father's Name 3.93 avg rating — 135 ratings — published 1996 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Risse in der Erde: Auf den Spuren von Wasser und Staub durch Kalifornien by Mark Arax, Eva Schestag (translator) 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	West of the West: Dreamers, Believers, Builders, and Killers in the Golden State - Library Edition really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	West of the West: Dreamers, Believers, Builders, and Killers in the Golden State 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	In My Father's Name a Family, a Town, a Murder 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Rest of the West (2009): Los Angeles Times Festival of Books by Mark Arax, Steven J. Ross (Goodreads Author) (Narrator), Scott Martelle (Goodreads Author) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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“He wants to think of himself as pious, honorable, churchgoing, civic-minded. The bent-down Mexican can drive the farmer to madness, to drink, to whoring, to collecting Ferraris, to the roulette table to gamble it all away. That’s why the labor contractor came into existence. It’s not as if the farmer can’t”
― Mark Arax, The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California

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“At the counter sat the biggest fruit grower in the valley, a soft-spoken Lebanese-American named Ray Gerawan who knew my family and pulled me closer. Let me explain what seems like a paradox to you, he said. It isn’t a paradox at all. The farmer and the Mexican are engaged in a centuries-long game. As rich as the farmer might be, his workers can still bring him to his knees if they realize their power. The farmer doesn’t like feeling vulnerable. He supported the ballot measure because he knew that even if it went”
― Mark Arax, The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California

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“We’d been shot out of Sutter’s cannon. Ever since the poor captain weighed the nuggets discovered by Marshall and found out they were twenty-three-carat gold, we’ve been stuck in the same gear. Because our beginning was supercharged, we never had a chance to catch our breath and correct our excess. The fever never left our System. It followed us down the mountain to the valley. It became our System. We built a state capitol where two rowdy rivers met. We spent a century trying to conquer the Sacramento River. When we finished conquering it (or not), we killed the San Joaquin. Of all the crimes of the System, this is the one that cannot be forgiven. The farms of Tulare and Kern Counties had rivers of their own to exploit well enough. That they aspired beyond those rivers should not have been a price the San Joaquin had to pay.”
― Mark Arax, The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California

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Mark Arax’s Followers (96)

Mark Arax

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