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Jed Rubenfeld Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Jed Rubenfeld

Jed Rubenfeld

Jed Rubenfeld Biography

Jed Rubenfeld is the author of the international bestseller The Interpretation of Murder. He is a professor at Yale University Law School and is one of the country's foremost experts on constitutional law. He wrote his undergraduate thesis at Princeton University on Sigmund Freud. He lives in Connecticut with his family.



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Interview

Jed Rubenfeld, author of The Interpretation of Murder, talks about the inspiration for his book, and the effort involved in writing a historical fiction novel.

What inspired you to write a book with Freud as a main character?
I'd say the biggest turning point for me was the phenomenal success of my last non-fiction book, Revolution by Judiciary, which was published last summer and which sold, I think, six copies -- four of them to members of my immediate family. When you've conquered a field that completely, there's really not much left for you to do, and you naturally start thinking about trying something new.

Seriously, it was all my wife's idea. She was the one who said I should write a novel, and she was even the one who suggested using my knowledge of Freud in it. Then I remembered something I had known about for years but hadn't focused on a for a long time: the real-life mystery surrounding Freud's one and only visit to America in 1909. Freud came to the United States to deliver lectures at Clark University. The trip was a tremendous success. His lectures were attended by famous figures such as William James. He was portrayed glowingly in newspapers. And psychoanalysis took off in the United States. But despite all this, Freud never returned to America and later spoke of his trip here as if it had scarred him. He called Americans "savages&...

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Books by this Author

Books by Jed Rubenfeld at BookBrowse
The Death Instinct jacket The Interpretation of Murder jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Jed Rubenfeld but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Julian Barnes

    Julian Barnes

    Julian Barnes was born in Leicester, England on January 19, 1946. He was educated at the City of London School from 1957 to 1964 and at Magdalen College, Oxford, from which he graduated in modern languages (with honors) in ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Interpretation of Murder

    Try:
    Arthur & George
    by Julian Barnes

  • Martin Davies

    Martin Davies

    Martin Davies is the author of mysteries featuring Sherlock Holmes's housekeeper: Mrs. Hudson and the Spirits' Curse (2004), Mrs. Hudson and the Malabar Rose (2005), and The Conjurer's Bird (2006). His most recent work ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Interpretation of Murder

    Try:
    The Conjurer's Bird
    by Martin Davies

We recommend 9 similar authors

View all 9 Read-Alikes

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