Jerry Stahl
| Jerry Stahl | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 28, 1953 |
| Pen name | Herbert W. Day |
| Nationality | United States |
| Period | 1986 - present |
| Genre | Transgressive fiction |
| Notable works | Permanent Midnight |
| Website | |
| www |
|
Jerry Stahl (born September 28, 1953) is an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for his memoir of addiction Permanent Midnight. A film adaptation followed with Ben Stiller in the lead role.
Stahl has worked extensively in film and television.
Stahl grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His family is Jewish. His father, David Henry Stahl, emigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union; he served a term as Attorney General of Pennsylvania and was later appointed as a federal judge. David had previously worked as a coal miner.
At the age of 16, Stahl was sent to a boarding prep school near Philadelphia. He attended Columbia University. Post-college he traveled, living in Greece – in caves outside of Matala, on Crete, the streets of Paris, then London, where he landed a job as a bartender at an Irish pub. He later returned to America to live in New York City, where he became a writer.
Stahl began publishing short fiction, won a Pushcart Prize in 1976, and made a living writing for magazines and doing porn stories for cash. One writing job as humor editor for Hustler meant moving to Columbus, Ohio and living at the YMCA until the magazine moved its headquarters to California. Stahl lost his job six months to the day after taking it and ended up on unemployment in California, alongside an escalating heroin dependency, which eventually led to his contracting hepatitis C.
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