Julian E. Zelizer was elected a member of the distinguished Biographers International Organization, a nonprofit organization that provides educational opportunities to biographers and promotes charitable activities in the field of biography.

“It is a true honor to join this great organization and to become part of a community of writers who I admire so much. In a moment of crisis, it feels more urgent than ever to be writing about figures in the past who have shaped the world within which we live,” Zelizer said.

Zelizer, the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, is one of the pioneers in the revival of American political history.

He is the author and editor of 19 books on American political history, including his most recent book: “Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974,” which he co-authored with Kevin Kruse of Princeton University. His next book, “Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party,” will be published by Penguin Press in summer 2020.

Activities of the organization include:

• educating biographers on the art, craft, and business of biography.
• providing guidance on researching, writing, publishing, marketing, and creating biographical works.
• providing resources to help with subjects, technology, agents, editors, publishers, and the demands of creating a biographical work.
• publishing both a monthly and a quarterly newsletter for in-depth as well as general news, tips, and features pertaining to biography.
• encouraging public interest in and appreciation for biography.
• offering assistance and support to biographers via awards and prizes.
• conducting conferences and public events on biography.

Other members of the organization include journalist, author, and columnist Kai Bird; journalist Robert Caro; writer Ron Chernow; author Alexis Coe; biographer Nigel Hamilton; author and columnist Stacy Schiff; journalist and author Kitty Kelly; and others.