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]
![](../I/m/Ed_Renehan_and_Steve_Buscemi.jpg)
In his early twenties he performed with Happy Traum, Artie Traum and others at various venues and folk festivals in the North East.
![](../I/m/Happy_Traum_Artie_Traum_Ed_Renehan.jpg)
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)