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Toby Lester

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United States

Website

http://www.tobylester.com

Genre

History, Nonfiction

Member Since

March 2010

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I'm a journalist, an editor, and an independent scholar. Most recently, I'm the author of Da Vinci's Ghost (2012), about Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, and The Fourth Part of the World (2009), about the map that gave America its name. I'm also a longtime contributor to The Atlantic, for whom I've written extensively, on such topics as the reconstruction of ancient Greek music, the revisionist study of the Qur'an, and the attempt to change alphabets in Azerbaijan.

Between 1995 and 2005 I worked for The Atlantic in a number of different editorial capacities—as a staff editor, as the executive editor of the Web site, as a senior editor, and as a managing editor. During those years I also served briefly as the editor of Country Journal and I'm a journalist, an editor, and an independent scholar. Most recently, I'm the author of Da Vinci's Ghost (2012), about Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, and The Fourth Part of the World (2009), about the map that gave America its name. I'm also a longtime contributor to The Atlantic, for whom I've written extensively, on such topics as the reconstruction of ancient Greek music, the revisionist study of the Qur'an, and the attempt to change alphabets in Azerbaijan.

Between 1995 and 2005 I worked for The Atlantic in a number of different editorial capacities—as a staff editor, as the executive editor of the Web site, as a senior editor, and as a managing editor. During those years I also served briefly as the editor of Country Journal and the executive editor of DoubleTake. My writing has appeared in not only The Atlantic but also Smithsonian, The Boston Globe, The American Scholar, The Wilson Quarterly, BBC News Magazine, and the London Times, as well as a number of anthologies, including the lead chapter of the recent New Literary History of America.

Prior to 1995, I worked in international relief and development: monitoring intifada-related activity in the West Bank, as a refugee-affairs officer for the United Nations; helping establish programs in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, as a Peace Corps country desk officer; and teaching English in a mountain school, as a Peace Corps volunteer in Yemen. I graduated from the University of Virginia in 1987 with degrees in English and French, and now live in the Boston area with my wife and three daughters.

I come from a family of writers. My father, James Lester, was a member of the first successful American Everest expedition, and is the author of Too Marvelous for Words (1994), the only biography of the jazz pianist Art Tatum. My mother, Valerie Lester, is the author of, among other works, Fasten Your Seat Belts: History and Heroism in the Pan Am Cabin (1995), and Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens (2004)—a biography of her great-great grandfather, Hablot Knight Browne, who was Charles Dickens’s principal illustrator. And my sister, Alison Lester, is the author of Locked Out (2007), a collection of short stories about expatriate life. ...more

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Toby Lester's Blog

NY Times

Nice review of my book in this weekend's NY Times Book Review, available online now:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/boo...

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Published on February 03, 2012 08:41 • Tags: da-vinci-s-ghost, leonardo, lester, vitruvian-man

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Toby Lester’s books

Average rating: 3.86 · 2,405 ratings · 347 reviews · 7 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map That Gave America Its Name 4.06 avg rating — 1,297 ratings — published 2009 — 28 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
	Da Vinci's Ghost: Genius, Obsession, and How Leonardo Created the World in His Own Image 3.64 avg rating — 1,089 ratings — published 2011 — 17 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
	Da Vinci's Ghost: The untold story of Vitruvian Man 3.50 avg rating — 18 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
	Der vierte Kontinent liked it 3.00 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
	Het vierde werelddeel: het verhaal over de ontdekking van de wereld, de kaart die Amerika zijn naam gaf en het begin van de Nieuwe Tijd by Toby Lester (Goodreads Author), Han Visserman (Translator) 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
	Die Symmetrie der Welt: Leonardo da Vinci und das Geheimnis seiner berühmtesten Zeichnung by Toby Lester (Goodreads Author), Klaus Binder (Translator) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 3 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
	O Fantasma de da Vinci 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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Toby Lester rated a book it was amazing What's Gotten Into You: The Story Of Your Body's Atoms, From The Big Bang Through Last Night's Dinner by Dan Levitt (Goodreads Author)	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
I can't sing the praises of this book highly enough. It's brilliantly conceived, exhaustively researched, gracefully written, hugely informative, full of surprises, and ... just plain fun to read. Great stuff for anybody who's interested in science, ...more
Mar 03, 2023 12:38PM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of What's Gotten Into You by Dan Levitt. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — What's Gotten Into You by Dan Levitt <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

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Quotes by Toby Lester (?)

“Vitruvius didn’t conjure up Vitruvian Man only as an abstraction. He also wanted his readers to associate the figure directly with a specific person: the august ruler who had just begun to build a body of empire in his own perfect image, and whose ideal form was embodied in all temples. Vitruvian Man, in other words, was none other than the figure to whom Vitruvius dedicated his Ten Books: Caesar Augustus himself.”
― Toby Lester, Da Vinci's Ghost: Genius, Obsession, and How Leonardo Created the World in His Own Image

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“A good painter has two chief objects to paint: man and the intention of his soul. The former is easy, the latter hard. —Leonardo da Vinci (c. 1490)”
― Toby Lester, Da Vinci's Ghost: Genius, Obsession, and How Leonardo Created the World in His Own Image

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