Junod has a journalist’s eye for detail and a novelist’s mastery of the craft, bringing readers into a gin-soaked, Sinatra-soundtracked midcentury Long Island childhood dominated by a discommoding “man’s man” of a father.
— Library Journal
People often ask how long I’ve been working on In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man. The simple answer is ten years. The other answer is, “all my life.” That might sound glib, but it’s true.
I’ve been writing it since the title was just a lyric in a Led Zeppelin song. I’ve been writing it since I promised myself to write it, long before I began to write and long before I even knew what writing was. It’s the book I wanted to write, had to write — indeed, the book I became a writer in order to write.
Book Tour
ATLANTA, GA
March 10 at 7pm
The Carter Center with Melissa Fay Greene
Hosted by A Capella Books
NEW YORK, NY
March 11 at 7:30pm
92NY
with Taffy Brodesser-Akner & Loudon Wainwright III
NEW YORK, NY
March 12 at 7pm
McNally Jackson Seaport
with Susan Morrison & John Seabrook
OXFORD, MS
March 26 at 6pm
Oxford Conference for the Book
Thacker Mountain Radio
JACKSON, MS
March 27 at 5pm
Lemuria Books with Wright Thompson
ALBANY, NY
April 7 at 4:30pm
New York State Writers Institute
The best profile writer in the magazine business.
— Jennifer Senior, New York Times bestselling author of All Joy and No Fun, staff writer at The Atlantic, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing
Featured Writing
Check back regurlarly for curated highlights of feature writing from the magazine archives, as well as links to new pieces
My Father’s Fashion Tips
Nominated for a National Magazine Award: Tom Junod wrote not only of his dad’s impeccable style but also of the secrets—and underwear rules—of a lost generation
Tom Junod on His Origins as a Dog Man
One father’s secrets leave his son ambivalent—save for one tail-wagging legacy