Biography

On the official biography site ( Exit Wounds ) Nick Tosches is described as follows:
'Nick Tosches was born (1949) in Newark, New Jersey, and raised by wolves from the other side. Through nepotism he became a barroom porter at the age of fourteen. Casting this career to the wind in his quest for creative fulfillment, he became a paste-up artist for the Lovable Underwear Company in New York City. On January 12, 1972, he went to lunch and never came back, drifting south to Florida, where, among other things, he worked as a snake-hunter for the Miami Serpentarium. After being bit on the shin one morning, he decided to forsake all further employment, and thus became a writer of poetry and prose.'

In other words Tosches grew up working in his father's New Jersey bars. He didn't go to college and later moved to lower Manhattan where, amongst other things, he began to write interviews and reviews for rock magazines like Creem and Fusion, selling his first article when he was 19.

The inspiration of his first two books on American music, "Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock 'n' Roll" and "Unsung Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll: The Birth of Rock in the Wild Years Before Elvis', along with a breakthrough biography of Dean Martin published in 1992, followed by a biography of boxer Sonny Liston, "The Devil and Sonny Liston", along with the novels 'Trinities' and 'Cut Numbers' has seen him moving along his own very distinctive creative path. His third novel, In The Hand of Dante, is clearly the result of a long-held preoccupation, that led to him taking advanced Latin lessons in order to be able to translate medieval source material, followed by intensive research in Italy.

Books by Nick Tosches

Country (1977) - Living Legends and Dying Metaphors in America's Biggest Music
Hellfire (1982) - biography of Jerry Lee Lewis
Unsung Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll (1984) - The Birth of Rock in the Wild Years Before Elvis
Power On Earth (1986) - biography of Mafia boss Michele Sindona
(amazon.com)
Cut Numbers (1988) - fiction
Dino (1992) - biography of Dean Martin
Trinities (1994) - fiction
The Devil and Sonny Liston (2000)- bigoraphy of Sonny Liston - also published as: Night Train
Where Dead Voices Gather (2001) - biography of Emmett Miller
The Last Opium Den (2002)

Nick Tosches published by No Exit Press In The Hand of Dante Royal format paperback edition due January 2003 In The Hand of Dante B format paperback edition due October 2003