David Alexander is an author of fiction and nonfiction. Known mainly as a bookauthor, he has written in virtually all literary and journalistic forms. Hisfledgling appearance in print dates to a sonnet published in a New York Citydaily newspaper when David was seven. Between then and today, he has written andpublished in virtually every literary category, including novels, novelettes,short fiction, poetry, essays and film scripts.
His investigative journalism, technical writing on defense-related subjects andshort fiction have been published internationally, in outlets ranging fromPenthouse Magazine to the journal Counterterrorism and Security. His books andshorter writings have been translated into seven languages, including Italian,German and Japanese. Alexander is an inveterate traveler and among the alumniof literary passengers on the Orient-Express, which he has frequently journeyedon and used as a basis for plot and reportage.
In nonfiction writing, Alexander has gained a reputation for tacklingchallenging projects. His recent book The Building: The Biography of the Pentagonserves as an example.In it Alexander sought to tell the story of the Pentagon and the US DefenseDepartment which it was built to house from a period spanning the end of WorldWar I to the War in Iraq. In Stealth Warfare, Alexanderwrote on a subject so esoteric that few members of the defense community are evenaware it exists. Colonel John Lackey, former Director of Intelligence at JSOCduring Desert Storm, called the book, "the most comprehensive reference to thevast stealth requirements for the U.S. military ever written."
Other writings by Alexander have gained him the reputation as an Americanhumorist, an example being his best-selling title Conspiracies and Cover-ups.Writing in Fate Magazine, reviewer John Zupansic stated, "Conspiracies andCover-ups is a well-written journey through conspiracy theories past and present.The book is set forth in a conversational, sometimes playful tone, making thisone of the least heavy-handed and therefore most enjoyable books on conspiracyI've ever encountered."
Alexander has also contributed investigative articles to popular magazines such as Penthouse, which published several articles under his byline including The Business of War, Surveillance Society and Undisclosed Locations.
Alexander is also a prolific author of short fiction and has contributed tointernet and print journals and anthologies. Some of Alexander's more commercialshort fiction, such as espionage and hardboiled detective stories thatoriginally appeared in such magazines as Gallery, are also available via hiswebsite. He also edited the anthology of short fiction and poetry, Death andVenice, published in trade paperback by Web Del Sol press in 1998.
His short story Conversations With the Doge of Venice, originally published inDeath and Venice, was picked up by Highbeam Research as a featured story. Alexander's shortfiction has appeared in numerous print and digital media venues. These includefiction journals such as Mississippi Review whose editor, author Frederick Barthelme has praised Alexander's short fiction. Barthelme wrote: "There are few young story writers working today more vibrant, innovative and exciting than David Alexander. His stories jump off the page in fits of sensory attack, spiritual complication, emotional trouble. I don't know where he came from, but I know where he's going -- to the front rank of Americanstorytellers."
Songwriter, translator and poet Robert Hunter has also written: "Alexander is a modern de Maupassant with a Kafkian sense of linearity, a Borgesque bent for the uncanny, and a unique pile of resources to draw on. His stories transcend interpersonal morality and ethics in a way calculated to elicit the pure subjectivity of the characters, without judgment. Unlike Dostoyevski's Raskolnikov, there is no redemption offered to readers demanding moral resolution. Poe's The Tell-tale Heart and much of Lovecraft's work come closest to what he does. Kafka gets the intellectual setup but doesn't develop the emotional intensity. [Alexander's] work is very unique."
Another endorsement of Alexander's short fiction was made by author Ken Kesey who wrote: "You have demonstrated that you've got what it takes to become an important new voice in American short fiction. Just don't let the bastards corrupt you."
Alexander has also given media interviews and appeared in a number of documentaries. His growing list of media associations includes C-SPAN and numerous radio shows, such as the thirty-minute interview he gave on the Geoff Metcalf Show on August 23, 2004 and his appearance in the Great Conspiracies documentary program that aired on BBC.
David Alexander's most recent thriller title is Threatcon Delta. His most recentnonfiction title is The Building: A Biography of the Pentagon. Alexander'sintention in researching and writing the Building was to put the history, roleand personalities that figured in the story of the Pentagon and the DefenseDepartment into perspective and to write it as both literature and journalism. Hetook his cue, conceptually, from Brooklyn neighbor Norman Mailer, who decadesearlier had called his narrative of the March on the Pentagon of 1967 "the novelas history, history as the novel." This, in a nutshell, provided the concept forAlexander's The Building. Toward accomplishing this goal, Alexander planned thebook according to a "subject-oriented" writing plan, one that did not proceedalong purely chronological lines but instead developed the narrative in a mannersimilar to the way a novel's plot is developed by an author of fiction. Thesubject-oriented plan allowed Alexander to give the story of the Pentagon a depthand breadth that made the book considerably different in approach from many otherjournalistic nonfiction books, including those about the Pentagon.
Alexander has been a returning passenger on the Orient-Express and is an expert on its history. Like other authors before him, such as Ian Fleming and Graham Greene, David Alexander has been inspired by his experiences on the train and at the destinations to which the Orient-Express has brought him. Consequently, he has based several fiction and nonfiction writings on these experiences.
