Book@arts

Who is Jules Siegel?

Jules Siegel is a writer, photographer and graphic designer.

His works have appeared in Playboy, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, New American Review, Best American Short Stories, Best American Magazine Verse, Library of America's Writing Los Angeles, and many other publications.

He has served as a consultant for Playboy and Penthouse (where he created the concept for Dreams & Diversions, at one time the magazine's most popular non-photographic section) and was Arts Editor of Omni when it was still called Nova.

He writes in a clear, popular style suitable for reading levels from high school and up.

He is also active in the field of book art, and three of his works are in the Artists Book Collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Personal

He was born October 21, 1935, on the Island of Manhattan, he has been living in Cancun with his family since 1983, in Mexico, since 1981. Married to Anita Brown in 1981, he is father of Faera Siegel Jolly (1971, Greenbrae, Calif.), Eli Siegel Brown (1981, Newport, Wash.) and Jesse Siegel Brown (1984, Cancun, Q. Roo). All reside in Cancun. They are American citizens. Jesse is Mexican citizen as well.

Education

Educated in the schools of New York City, he was awarded a New York State Regents college scholarship in 1953. In 1953-54, he attended Cornell University. Entering the United States Army in 1954, he was trained as a Combat Photographer at the Signal Corps School, Ft. Monmouth, and served as a photographer with the Seventh Division, Eighth Army, Korea, and as a photographic analyst with the 4th Military Intelligence Detachment (API), U.S. Armed Forces, Korea. On completing his military service in 1956, he entered Hunter College of the University of the City of New York and was graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Philosophy in June of 1959.

Early career

In 1959, he was hired as an assistant account executive by Keil-Wachsman Asssociates, New York, and, in 1960, collaborated simultaneously in the presidential campaigns of John F. Kennedy (publicity, Citizens for JFK, Nassau County) and Richard Nixon (advertising design, Westchester Republican County Committee). In 1961, he was promoted to Director of Research. In 1963, he became editorial director of Koster-Dana Publishing Company, New York, then proprietors of United Feature Service. He began his career as a free-lance writer in 1964, as New York correspondent for North American Newspaper Alliance, and has been a free-lancer ever since, whether a writer, publicist or graphic designer, except for an occasional stint as a magazine editor.

Publications

He is the author of five published books: Record (Straight Arrow, 1972), Memoir (Mendocino Press, 1975), The Journal of the Absurd (Workman Publishing, 1980) with Bernard Garfinkel, and Cancun User's Guide (The Communication Company, 1995) with Anita Brown and Faera Siegel and Lineland: Mortality and Mercy on the Internet's Pynchon-L@Waste.Org. Discussion List (Intangible Assets Manufacturing, 1997). He translated Cancun, A Bankers' Fantasy (Ediciones Martí, 1993), from the Spanish of Fernando Martí. His poems, stories, essays and articles have been published in newspapers, magazines and anthologies such as The New York Times, Saturday Evening Post, Playboy, Esquire, New American Review, Best American Short Stories and Best American Magazine Verse, among others. In 1978, his calligraphic works were exhibited at Franklin Furnace, New York, the leading authority on book-like works by artists. Two of his works, Record and Memoir, are in the Franklin Furnace Archive Library at the Museum of Modern Art. He has served as a consultant for Playboy, Penthouse and Omni. In 1981, he moved with his family to Mexico, and began The Real Mexico, currently still in progress.

Special skills

He is bilingual in English and Spanish. An expert photographer whose work has been published in the United States and Mexico, he is also a professional graphic designer with ample experience in computer graphics on the Windows and Macintosh platforms. His acrylic, water color and pen-and-ink illustrations have appeared in advertisements, posters and point-of-sale displays. He is a competent translator of scientific and technical materials into popular language.

In Mexico

In 1983, he came to Cancun to work as a public relations consultant for Fonatur, the Mexican national tourism development fund. From 1984 to date, he has carried out various promotional and graphic design projects for clients in tourism, publishing and government in Cancun. In 1991, he was awarded First Prize, Computer Graphic Design, Casa de la Cultura de Cancun. During his stay in Mexico, his works have been published in English and Spanish by The Miami Herald, The Mexico City News, Cancun Tips Magazine, Diario de Quintana Roo and the Caribbean News.