Edward J. Renehan, Jr.

Edward John Renehan, Jr. (born c 1956)[1] is an American publisher, consultant, writer, and musician.

Early Life & 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.[2] 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.[1][2] In 1976, he and Seeger recorded "Fifty Sail on Newburgh Bay: Hudson Valley Songs Old & New Sung by Pete Seeger and Ed Renehan." [3]

Friends Edward Renehan and Steve Buscemi photographed in the Spring of 2015.

In the early twenties he performed with Happy Traum, Artie Traum and others at various venues and folk festivals in the North East.

From left: Happy Traum, Artie Traum, and Ed Renehan performing at a reunion concert, Albany, 2008

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. [2][4]

From 1994, he worked as an independent consultant and author, including writing books on the Kennedys, Jay Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt and John Burroughs,[2][5] 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.[2] The firm includes two subsidiaries: Dark Hall Press (which publishes original horror and science fiction titles), [6] and New Street Nautical Audio, which publishes sailing related audiobooks. [7] 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. [8] As of June 2015, the firm had 85 titles in print. [9]

Bipolar Disorder and Court Case

In 2006 and 2007, Renehan took letters by Presidents Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt to which he had no right, and sold them for about $97,000.[5] 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.[5] In September 2008, Renehan was sentenced to eighteen months in minimum security federal imprisonment (actually serving significantly less time before being released to probation), and was fined $86,000 in restitution. 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.[10][11][12]

Family and Affiliations

Renehan is married and lives in the village of Wickford, Rhode Island.[1][13] 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 [14] - and with Stewart Brand and others is a charter/founding member of The Long Now Foundation. [15] He is an avid sailor.[1]

Works (Partial List)

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 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.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Davis, Paul (May 29, 2008). "An author's life careens from scholarly pursuits to thefts". The Providence Journal. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
  3. ↑ "Fifty Sail on Newburgh Bay".
  4. ↑ Street Communications, New (2015). "New Street Communications - Who Are We". newstreetcommunications.com. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 "U.S. historian sentenced for stealing Lincoln letter". Reuters. September 20, 2008. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
  6. ↑ "Dark Hall Press".
  7. ↑ "New Street Nautical Audio".
  8. ↑ "Small Press Finds Help in the Cloud".
  9. ↑ "New Street Communications Marks 5 Year Anniversary".
  10. ↑ 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.
  11. ↑ Garner, Dwight (December 4, 2009). "The Reading Life: On Biography and Malpractice". artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
  12. ↑ Wolff, Carlos (April 27, 2009). "'First Tycoon' recalls the robust Cornelius Vanderbilt". Boston Globe. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
  13. ↑ 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.
  14. ↑ "New Street Editorial Advisory Board".
  15. ↑ "Long Now Foundation Charter Member Roster".

External links

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